Gingerbread

Instructions

Preparation day

1. Mix the honey with the sugar in a pan. Heat on a medium heat until the sugar has dissolved.
2. Pour the mixture into the food processor and leave to cool. It is best to stir a little. It is very important to work with a cooled mixture as potash and staghorn salt are heat-activated.
3. Dissolve the staghorn salt in the milk. Mix the flours and potash.
4. When the honey is cool, add the egg, gingerbread spice, flour mixture and milk mixture. Knead until homogeneous, no more.
5. Wrap in cling film and leave to mature at room temperature for at least 24 hours. This is mainly for flavor and rising potential. You can also leave the dough to mature at room temperature for a few months without any problems. This helps the development of acidity and therefore a stronger sprout and a looser dough.
   Don't worry, the dough will still smell a little unappetizing. This is because of the staghorn salt (also known as ammonium carbonate). After baking, however, this will have completely decomposed.

Baking day

1. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees top/bottom heat.
2. Roll out the dough with a little flour to approx. 8 mm. To stimulate the gluten a little more, roll out twice: Fold the dough at the top and bottom so that they just touch in the middle and fold again in the middle.
3. Now roll out to a thickness of 10 mm for cutting out. Make sure to loosen the dough a little so that the cut-out shapes do not warp.
4. Cut out the desired motifs with large cookie cutters and place on a baking tray. Leave plenty of space as the gingerbread will rise quite a bit.
5. Brush the pieces with a little milk. This gives a more pronounced browning.
6. Leave to bake for approx. 10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, dissolve 10 g of starch in a little water and bring to the boil with boiling water until thickened.
8. When the gingerbread is baked, take it out and place it on a cooling tray. While the cake is still hot, brush it with the starch water to achieve a nice shine.
9. It is best to knead the leftovers and, if possible, wait a little (1-2 hours) so that the gluten can relax again. Otherwise the gingerbread will remain somewhat small. If necessary, you can of course cut them out again straight away.

Glaze

1. When the starch icing is completely dry, you can decorate the gingerbread with sugar icing as desired.
2. Optional: You can of course also color the glaze. A natural colorant would be turmeric for yellow, for example.
3. To do this, whisk the egg whites in a cake mixer and add the powdered sugar.
4. Beat well for a few minutes.
5. Pour into a spout and decorate. Leave to dry out overnight.