I am going to pretend I am extremely ahead of the game and already baked this year's gingerbread, instead of the fact that I made this last year and am only now getting around to this post. If I weren't so busy, I would claim I will never buy pre-made gingerbread again because of how superior this recipe is. If you can spare the time, however, I would highly recommend this one. The recipe to which I refer is the Gingerbread recipe in The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson.
The measurements in the recipe are intended to make enough gingerbread to make a gingerbread house and lots of cookies, as Nilsson states, "a traditional, Nordic family gingerbread free-for-all," so if you do not want to end up with over 50 gingerbread cookies then I would recommend halving the ingredients. It calls for resting the dough over two days and uses golden syrup, so would also benefit from advance preparation.
The first step is combining the sugar, golden syrup and milk together in a pot and bringing to boil after which you will add the butter and spices. I did not make the Danish version therefore skipped the nuts. After this concoction has cooled to room temperature, you will add the flour and baking soda before combining everything and letting this dough mixture rest in the fridge for 48 hours.
Once the dough has rested, you can roll it out and use cookie cutters or trace the gingerbread house pattern from the book onto parchment paper to make the proper shapes.
Bake in the oven no more than five minutes. It is very easy to overbake, as they will seem not done when they come out of the oven. They will harden as they are left out to cool, so it is important to lay them flat.
This recipe is extremely delicious and gets five out of five gingerbread houses from us. To try this recipe yourself, go to page 564 in The Nordic Cookbook by Magnus Nilsson. Happy Holidays.
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