Gingerbread

We are gingerbread fans. Year after year at our house at Christmas, it smells like gingerbread, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. As early as the beginning of December these aromas begin to perfume the whole house. Every year we bake two portions, because we give most of them to our friends as Christmas presents. We have "only" two bags of shapes from very small to very large and we are still looking for new shapes. Gingerbread has been part of our family's "traditions" since the 1980s, when at the service Every year I bought a gingerbread figurine and put it in my daughter's boots in Saint Nicholas day.

However, the recipe I have is from an old friend who used to make this gingerbread at Christmas. Soft, flavorful, a goodness! It was the best of any I had tasted before and I had to make it too. Basically it's to make a batter and nothing more, but with attention to quantity and quality of honey. From the quantities specified comes out to about 6-7 trays of gingerbread. I use to cook them in two pans, one 36x27 cm and one 30x22 cm. While one is in the oven I prepare the other. Here's the gingerbread recipe and how I make it.

Instructions

1. Mix the flour with the spices and butter in a bowl until you have a mixture like breadcrumbs. Put sodium bicarbonate quenched in a teaspoon of lemon juice.
2. Separately mix the eggs with the sugar and honey. The honey should be runny and as thin as possible, not thick or sugary. And do not exceed 8 tablespoons because it will make a hard gingerbread. After mixing them all, add the flour, spices and butter to the mixture.
3. Knead well by hand until it becomes a homogeneous dough.
4. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
5. The next day, take the dough out of the fridge ahead of time to soften and roll out easily.
6. Divide the dough into smaller pieces and roll out each piece into a 1 cm thick sheet.
7. Cut out the shapes, place them in the pan spaced apart and brush them with beaten egg. During baking, the moulds will rise and should be left about 5 cm apart so that they do not stick together.
8. Bake at 180°C for about 10-12 minutes. Do not leave any longer as they dry out too much.
9. I leave some plain and the rest I decorate with marshmallow mixture.
10. The ornate ones I put to dry in trays which I cover with plastic wrap or put in clean plastic bags.

For the meringue glaze I use 1 egg white, 65 g powdered sugar and 2 drops of lemon juice. I mix the egg white a little with the mixer on low speed and gradually increase the speed. When the egg white starts to foam a little I add the powdered sugar, lemon juice and mix until it becomes a stiff, glossy foam. The resulting amount is not enough to cover all the figurines I make. But I prefer to make several servings of meringue from one egg white at a time rather than making a larger quantity. As it's consumed, depending on my decorating inspiration, I make another serving. Carefully place the decorated gingerbread in the trays as they stick to each other. Store in a dry place for several days.

One detail to keep in mind is the drying time of the meringue. The meringue doesn't dry quickly, it will take a few days, even 4 days to dry completely, so keep this time in mind to be ready by Christmas.