Pepparkakor (Gingerbread biscuits) the most swedish and christmaslike of all cookies, is a challenge for me. I spent years of baking Baklava, Biscotti, Cupcakes, Ayurveda-style cookies and fabulous looking cakes, but never Pepparkakor. To be honest Im quite scared, since I know I can never live up to the pepparkakor of my mothers. But hey I will give it a try. My way.
First of all, I was very careful when choosing recipe. There are hundreds out there. The one I chose is from one of my mothers old cookbooks. Its from the eighties and sure to be the pepparkakor I grew up with. Second of all, be careful when choosing the spices. I went to the beautiful Essensfabriken at Wallingatan in Stockholm. The shop itself is a delight. It looks like something from the 19th century and all the spices TASTE for real.
There are many variations of which spices to include but I chose: cinnamon,
grinded ginger, grinded clove, and grinded peel from Seville orange. Mix the ingredients with water, sugar and syrup in a pan, stir it until boiling. Let boil for a minute or two, remove from heat add butter (always butter, never margarine, f*ck the calories)and let it melt in to the brown "sauce". Mix a bit of baking soda with flour and add it to the rest of the ingredients (the "sauce"). Make a proper dough and let it get really cold over night.
Tonight is freezing, my dough is chilling out on the balcony and I hope it will be allright tomorrow without accidents like the glassbowl the dough rests in has exploded or something.
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