Swedish Gingerbread | Pepparkakor
A cookie-style gingerbread made with golden syrup and a spice mixture containing cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and cardamom. These are often eaten alongside saffron buns on St. Lucy's Day, December 13th.
Ingredients
- 200 ml whole milk ¾ cup
- 350 g sugar 1¾ cup
- 280 g golden syrup ¾ cup
- 250 g unsalted butter 2¼ sticks
- 2 tsp salt
- 1 tbsp cloves
- 1 tbsp cardamom
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 kg all-purpose flour 8½ cups
- 1 tbsp baking soda
Instructions
- In a small pot on the stove, gently warm together the milk, sugar, and golden syrup. Remove it from the heat.
- In a large bowl, add the butter (cut into cubes) and spices, and whisk in the warm milk mixture a little at a time. Whisk continuously to melt the butter and emulsify the mixture.
- In a separate bowl, combine the flour and baking soda.
- Stir the flour and baking soda mixture into the liquid ingredients, a little at a time, until all of the ingredients are incorporated into a dough.
- Transfer the dough to a plastic wrap, and store in the refrigerator for at least an hour, but preferably 2 days for the flavors to develop.
- Once the dough has chilled and matured, take small sections at a time, and roll them out onto a floured surface to a thickness of your preference. For a crispier cookie, roll it thinner, and for a chewier cookie, roll it thicker.
- Cut out your cookies into shapes of your choosing. Traditional shapes include hearts, stars, trees, circles, pigs, people, and reindeer.
- Place the cookies on a parchment paper lined baking sheet, and bake at 400℉ (200℃) for 5-7 minutes, or until lightly golden around the edges.
- Allow the cookies to cool on a baking rack before enjoying.
Just got done making these this afternoon! My husband was in hog heaven. I have a cookie making party scheduled at the beginning of November with my prayer group, and we are doing a European theme on baking so I needed to try out several of your posted recipes to make sure they would be a hit. So far, every single recipe I have tried are keepers! I am on keto so I don’t get to try them, but my skinny husband gets to be my taster tester and he is loving it! 😍 I have a couple of friends that are my testers as well, and they love every cookie I have made so far. They are begging for the recipe, so I send them your link. It’s been over fifty years since we lived in Europe, mainly Germany, and your recipes are the best ones I have found recipes for that are authentic to my memories of genuine German baking! Thank you! ❤️❤️❤️