Gingerbread Trifecta- Croatian Medenjaci, German Lebkuchen and American Gingerbread

Medenjaci(top) and Lebkuchen (bottom) with royal icing.

My family has never made gingerbread cookies for Christmas traditionally, so I took it upon myself to try some recipes out and evade having to buy them for relatively high prices from local bakeries (or in the case of honey-based gingerbread, not being able to buy them at all). These cookies are great because they last ages without losing their flavour or texture, are easy to roll out and cut (provided you use enough flour and some baking parchment) and are great fun to decorate. We used two types of frosting, the regular decorative royal icing and also the more "American" icing made with shortening. Both work well for gluing sprinkles, candies, and other tidbits.

American gingerbread with the thicker, soft frosting.

Each kind has its distinct advantages. The medenjaci had a milder gingerbread flavour while still being well-spiced, and could easily be made any time of year (then again, there's no law against off-season Christmas baking...). Its ingredients are also more accessible than many other honey-gingerbreads for Canada. 

While the lebkuchen requires natron (hard to come by in Canada), lebkuchen spices (which one can make themselves using an online recipe- I used some from my grandmother) and white rye flour (available in Eastern European stores and some health foods stores), it's well worth the effort to gather the ingredients if you can- it's got a unique flavour and makes great ornamental cookies- and it's eggless, and can even be made vegan if shortening is used. 

The American gingerbread is also as good as any I've ever bought, and is different from the other two due to both the higher fat content and use of molasses. I would say that every one of the recipes was a keeper.

Medenjaci- Croatian Gingerbread
Adapted from Tara's Multicultural Table

3 C. All-purpose flour
1/4 Tsp. Salt
1/8 Tsp. Baking soda
2 Tsp. Cinnamon
1 Tsp. Ginger
1/4 Tsp. Cloves
1/4 Tsp. Nutmeg
1/8 Tsp. Mace
Pinch each of coriander, white pepper and cardamom
1/2 C. Butter
1/2 C. Sugar
2/3 C. Honey, preferably wildflower
1 Tsp. Vanilla extract
1 Egg

Sift together the flour, spices, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

Beat butter and sugar until smooth. Add honey, vanilla and egg. Incorporate the dry ingredients in spoonfuls until all is added. Once smooth, wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 180℃. Roll out between sheets of baking parchment or plastic clingfilm until thin and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Bake for 10 minutes on parchment. Let cool for 15 minutes.

Lebkuchen
From Chefkoch.de

400 g. Honey, preferably wildflower
100 g. Water
100 g. Light brown sugar
60 g. Clarified butter, or shortening
300 g. All purpose or type 550 flour
300 g. White rye flour
6 g. Baking powder
1 Packet Lebkuchen spices
16 g. Natron

In a small saucepan or microwave-safe bowl, heat together the honey, water and brown sugar until homogenous. Add butter/shortening and allow to dissolve. Let cool to room temperature.

Sift together dry ingredients and add the wet ones. Knead until a homogenous mass forms and refrigerate 6 hours, or overnight.

On a well-floured surface, roll out dough and cut into shapes. Bake at 180℃ about 15 minutes, or until just beginning to brown at the edges.

American Molasses Gingerbread
Adapted from Moje Wypieki

750 g. All purpose flour
15 g. Baking powder
5 g. Ginger
3 g. Nutmeg
2 g. Cloves
2 g. Cinnamon
2 g. Allspice
1 g. White pepper
113 g. Butter
113 g. Shortening
235 ml. Molasses
180 g. Brown sugar
120 ml. Water
1 Egg
2 Tsp. Vanilla
1/2 Tsp. Salt

Mix dry ingredients. Heat together the sugar, water, and molasses until dissolved in a small saucepan or microwave-safe bowl. Add the butter and shortening and allow to dissolve. Let cool.

Add to dry ingredients along with egg and vanilla, and mix until homogenous. Refrigerate 6 hours, or overnight.

Roll out on a well-floured surface and cut into shapes. Bake at 180℃ for 10-12 minutes. Allow to cool and harden on sheets before removal.

Royal Icing:
1 Egg white
2/3 C. Powder sugar
Pinch of salt
1 Tsp. Lemon juice

Beat all at high speed until smooth. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Soft Piped Icing:
1 1/3 C. Powdered sugar
3 TBSP Shortening
1 Tsp. Vanilla
About 1 TBSP milk

Beat all at high speed until smooth, adding just enough milk to achieve a pipable consistency.

Soft Sugar Cookies with Icing

 Happy halloween, everyone! To those who a) are young enough to go trick-or-treating or b) don't have midterms to study for, have a blast. I'll be here facing the spookiest thing of all, which is my GPA. I even made this cookie dough in advance since I had so little spare time today- but hey, my siblings will probably share the candies they glean tonight with me. I love those miniature adorable chocolate bars.

A cookie-decorating station!

 My little sister is having a halloween party, and I wanted to make a homemade version of the classic soft sugar cookie one finds pre-iced in myriad colours at the grocery store, perhaps a little suspicious in their extended lifespan but still delicious and sweet. I've made some modifications to half the dough to try making it vegan, with the consequence of it being denser and chewier, but still tasty. I think it's the shortening that really makes them feel like the supermarket ones.

To the left are the non-vegan ones- they're more soft and pillowy. The vegan ones (right) are chewy and almost fudge-like in the chocolate version.

Cocoa variant, non-vegan

I added sprinkles to some of the vegan batters to give it a cool effect (and so I wouldn't forget which was which) and I like it! The dough wasn't really cuttable, except for the vegan chocolate cookie dough, which was firmer than the rest. I also made some icing to complete the experience, and got some candies with which to give a halloweeney decorating job.

I used licorice allsorts to make eyes, candy corns, jelly beans, jujubes and sprinkles- but any cool looking candies will do. The idea's that my sister and her guests can do some cookie decorating as an activity, which always makes them taste better. As for the flavour of the cookies, they're pillowy, sugar and soft- pretty much exactly what I wanted, the appeal of the nostalgic soft supermarket sugar cookie but without additives or an indefinite shelf life. They can be made for just about any holiday you want and customized, too. The icing also works really well- it's spreadable and sticky enough to hold on all the large toppings.

Soft Sugar Cookies with Icing
From Allrecipes.com

For the Cookies:
3 C. AP flour
1 Tsp. Baking soda
1 Tsp. Salt
1 C. Shortening
1 C. Sugar
2 Tsp. Vanilla (or vanillin, for that store-bought taste)
2 Eggs, or equivalent replacer (see notes)
1/4 C. Milk (or milk replacer- not a low-calorie, watery one!)

(Note: To make cocoa variation, I used 1/3 C.+ 1 TBSP  dark cocoa powder in the place of an equal volume of the flour, and half the vanilla. For a more exciting or seasonal look, you can also add sprinkles or food colouring to the dough. The recipe is easy to make successfully vegan, because there's no butter in the recipe to be missed, and the eggs are only really for structure- I tried batches of chocolate and vanilla both vegan and not. Just make sure that the sugar, et cetera, is also vegan in that case!)

Sift together the flour, baking soda, and salt (and cocoa, if using). Set aside.

Cream the shortening and sugar. Add the vanilla and eggs, one by one. Beat in the dry ingredients one third at a time, adding the milk in between additions in two halves. 

Refrigerate 30 minutes. Towards the end of that time, preheat the oven to 180℃.

Shape the dough into uniform balls and press down with your palm or a glass to make circles. You can try cutting the dough with cookie cutters, but this can be tricky as it's very soft.

Bake for about 10 minutes, and allow to set on the sheets. Let cool before frosting.

For the Icing:
3 C. Powder sugar
1/4 C. Butter, or shortening (grocery store cookies would use the latter, and make the recipe easier to veganize)
1 1/2 Tsp. Vanilla, or vanillin
Approx. 2 TBSP Milk, or milk replacer
Food colouring, if desired

Beat the ingredients together, adding just enough milk to give a spreadable consistency, until fluffy. Spread only only cool cookies.