Grannies Traditional German Gingerbread Cookies

This traditional gingerbread recipe has been treasured in our family for generations. This recipe makes the gingerbread really soft and moist. A chocolate glaze prevents the cookies from drying out. The icing decoration makes for particularly pretty gingerbread with a nostalgic "look".

The preparation is a little more work than other cookie recipes and you need potash and staghorn salt from the pharmacy as leavening agents, but the effort is well worth it, I promise! The gingerbread cookies are soft and moist right from the start and almost melt in the mouth!

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• Video
• Staghorn salt and potash for gingerbread
• Ingredients
• Instructions
• Granny's German Gingerbread Cookies

Video

Staghorn salt and potash for gingerbread

The gingerbread recipe requires a few special ingredients: potash and staghorn salt. These two leavening agents help the heavy gingerbread dough to rise during baking and last longer.

In Austria, you can usually buy potash and staghorn salt at the pharmacy, but you often have to pre-order it.

You can also order the ingredients online.

Ingredients

You need the following ingredients for the traditional gingerbread recipe. The quantity makes a huge amount of cookies, almost 12 trays! So you can easily make half the amount if you don't need that many.

For the dough

• 500 g rye flour no wholemeal
• 500 g all purpose flour
• 2 eggs
• 100 g Butter or margarine
• 250 g sugar
• 750 g honey
• 250 g walnuts grated
• 100 g candied orange peels
• 100 g candied lemon peels
• 30 g gingerbread spice mix
• 20 g potash
• 10 g staghorn salt (hartshorn salt)
• 6 tbsp. milk to dissolve potash and hartshorn salt
• flour for rolling out the dough

Chocolate glaze

• 200 g dark chocolate
• 200 g milk chocolate
• 50 g margarine
• 50 g butter unsalted

Royal icing

• 500 g icing sugar (powdered sugar)
• 1 egg white
• 1 pinch lemon juice

Instructions

Weigh sugar, butter and honey and put in a big pot. (Should be big enough for the other ingredients later)Heat up on the stovetop until sugar and butter are dissolved. Stir constantly. (Don't bring to a boil.) Remove the honey-butter mix from the heat and let cool.

Dissolve potash and staghorn salt (hartshorn salt) in a few tbsp. of milk. Do that in separate bowls. (One for potash and one for the hartshorn salt).

Cut the candied orange and lemon peels very finely. The best way to do this is to use a kitchen aid with a grater. Alternatively, use a knife.

In a bowl, mix rye flour, all purpose flour, ground walnuts and gingerbread spice mix. Add the candied orange and lemon peels, the egg and the sugar-honey-butter-mix and mix well with a kitchen aid or hand mixer. At the end, add potash and hartshorn salt and mix well.

Let rest in the fridge over night.

Prepare the board and rolling pin. Always dust with flour. The dough should always be cool and dusted with sufficient flour so that it does not stick. Roll out to appr. 5mm.

Preheat oven to 175 ° C (347°F). Bake for about 10 minutes. When finished baking, the cookies should be medium brown, not too hard and not too dark.

When the cookies are cool, glaze with chocolate. Chocolate glaze: Cut small and heat chocolate and butter/margarine in a water bath, stir well.

When the chocolate glaze is dried, prepare the icing: mix sieved powdered sugar with egg white and lemon until it is stiff. Use an icing bag with a very thin top to decorate the gingerbread.