Gingerbread

Ingredients for 3 servings:

• 450 g honey or beet or maple syrup
• 500 g sugar
• 200 g butter
• 1,500 g flour, sifted
• 45 g gingerbread spice
• 40 g cocoa powder
• 2 pinches of salt
• 4 eggs
• 15 g potash
• 15 g ammonium bicarbonate
• 4 tbsp water
• possibly powdered sugar
• possibly cocoa powder, unsweetened
• little water

Instructions

Working time approx. 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 15 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 5 minutes

or gingerbread – perfect for the Christmas season

Heat the honey, butter, and sugar until hot and mix together. Meanwhile, dissolve the potash and ammonium hydroxide in 2 tablespoons each of lukewarm water. Let stand for 10 minutes and mix again. Once the honey mixture has heated up and blended into a thick paste, let it cool again. Dry mix the flour with the gingerbread spice, salt, and cocoa powder. Add the cooled honey mixture (still lukewarm) and mix. Then add the eggs, the ammonium hydroxide solution, and the dissolved potash. Knead into a dough that can be kneaded. Roll out the dough flat (it will rise considerably later) and cut out shapes as desired. Then bake in the oven at 150°C (fan oven) for about 15 minutes. Another option is to bake the dough first and then cut out any shapes you like, e.g., with a knife. You can then glaze the gingerbread. For white or transparent icing, mix powdered sugar with a few drops of water until spreadable. If desired, you can also color the icing: Yellow: Add saffron to the white icing. Red: Add beetroot juice, cherry juice, other coloring juices, or perhaps red wine to the white icing. Green: Add spinach juice to the white icing. Blue: Add food coloring to the white icing. For chocolate or brown icing, mix equal parts powdered sugar and cocoa with water. The rule for the icing: the less water, the less transparent it will be and the more pronounced the color.