Swedish Gingerbread Cookies! eller Pepparkakor

Just four more days to Christmas! This year it's especially special since we are spending it with full Swedish Christmas works and I fulfilled a promise to myself from last year to make my own gingerbread dough from scratch, and I draw the recipe from Anne's foodblog who declared this to be the best recipe for gingerbread cookies. I think I will agree with her :) The key about baking this cookies is to roll them really thin, because they will rise and become a bit chewy rather than crunchy if you have them too thick. And this recipe really makes a lot, I even gave away some dough for my friends who came over for my Sugar-High Christmas baking session and here's some other goodies we conjured up last Sunday:

Gingerbread Milkshake by Rachel

Pecan, Peanuts and Sesame Brittle by Yaqian & Pan Wen

And there's a heavenly sticky toffee cake which Rachel made too that I forgot to take a picture of, but I will definitely try to make it again (soon!). On Thursday, I will try making the Swedish Knäck and Saffron buns again for the family who's coming over for Donald Duck fika at our place before the Christmas dinner.

Ingredients

300 ml cream (35-40% fat content)
300 ml golden syrup
700 g granulated sugar
2 teaspoons cinnamon, in powder form
1.5 teaspoons cloves, in powder form
1 teaspoon cardamom, in powder form
1/2 teaspoon bitter orange peel, in powder form
2 teaspoon ginger, in powder form
1.5 tablespoon baking soda
1 kg plain flour

Steps

1. In a large bowl, mix the cream, golden syrup and sugar together well, until it becomes this golden sugary mix.
   
   
   
   
   
2. Add the spices to the sugar mix and blend well.
   
   
3. Add the flour gradually until a nice supple dough is achieved, it shouldn't be too sticky but it should  hold together well on its own.
4. Divide up into portions and wrap in plastic wrap, keep it in the fridge (not freezer) for a week or two for the spices to intensify.
   
   
5. Roll out the dough thinly, cut with cookie cutters and bake at 160°C for 7-10 minutes until golden brown and crunchy.