Jam gingerbread (perníčky)

recipe

This dough is really very easy to work with and is very close to old traditional methods. In many recipes, you may also encounter less common ingredients that give the final taste or color of the dough a special touch. Most often these are classic plum butter or more flavorful jams (currant or apricot), of course not in too large quantities.

One such recipe is this one, which also has another special feature - it uses granulated sugar, which needs to be caramelized.

I have this recipe written in a rather generous form, because when I prepare dough, I always make it in large quantities, but since not everyone would want to bake gingerbread from several kilograms of dough, I have adjusted it for you to more modest proportions.

The procedure is a bit more complex and requires at least some experience with baking gingerbread. However, you can look forward to an extraordinary taste experience.

Benefits

  • the gingerbread (perníček) taste excellent
  • they hold their shape well and don't deform during baking
  • also suitable for baking on 3D molds

Ingredients 

  • 550g plain wheat flour
  • 250g granulated sugar
  • 125g honey
  • 200ml water
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 25g jam  
  • 15g gingerbread spice
  • 10g ammonium
  • oil for greasing the baking sheet 
  • egg for brushing (if you want shiny gingerbread cookies) 

Preparation procedure

  • First, pour 100g of sugar into a deep pan and allow it to caramelize over low heat, stirring constantly. Then pour hot water over it, add the remaining sugar, jam, and honey, heat to boiling point, remove from heat, and let it cool completely. Only then add the egg yolks and mix thoroughly.
  • In a bowl, mix the flour, gingerbread spice, and ammonium, gradually pour in the cold honey mixture, and work into a dough. It must be thick enough that a formed loaf "spreads" very slowly.
  • Wrap the dough in a plastic bag and let it rest for at least one week. And I don't recommend shortening this time even for the very impatient.
  • Roll out the matured dough in portions to a sheet about 5mm thick, efficiently cut out any shapes, place on a baking sheet lightly greased with oil, and bake in an oven heated to 200°C for approximately 6-8 minutes. (See how to set the oven correctly)
  • The original recipe, which I searched for in old archives, doesn't mention any surface treatment for the gingerbread cookies, but I have years of experience that if we want shiny gingerbread cookies, we can use an egg beaten with a little hot water and brush the cookies immediately after taking them out of the oven.

Tips from my experience

  • Divide your work with this dough into two days. On the first day, prepare the caramel mixture. It will take you about 20 minutes, and the following day you can process the dough.

  • The actual processing of the dough is easy and you can manage it in 15 minutes. The dough is moist and you can work it in a bowl with a wooden spoon almost until the end. Finishing it on a board is then a matter of moments. The advantage is that the dough hardly sticks to your hands.

  • Given that you need to let the dough rest for a week, plan your baking so that the day of your baking is the following week. The dough is easiest to work with immediately after removing it from the refrigerator. When cold, it rolls out easily and the cut pieces hold their shape well.

My Recommendations

Jam dough rolls out easily and the cut pieces hold their shape well. Therefore, you can use it for flat assembled motifs such as four-leaf clovers, simple pictures, and it's also well-suited for baking on both smaller and larger 3D molds. Before baking, it's really very important to let it rest thoroughly, otherwise we risk that the surface of the gingerbread cookies won't be even and smooth. The advantage of this recipe is the absence of fat and simultaneously excellent taste, so it's also perfectly suitable for three-dimensional objects (such as houses or boxes), which we can consume without worry even after a longer period. However, given the labor-intensive preparation, I don't particularly recommend it for larger and purely decorative arrangements (baskets, candleholders, or advent wreaths).

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