Welcome to the Christmas bakery! Today I have a real classic for you, but in a vegan sourdough version: gingerbread with sourdough discard. The gingerbread is soft, long-lasting and less sweet than classic recipes. After baking, you can coat the gingerbread cookies with icing or chocolate as you wish and decorate with whole almonds or nuts. Happy baking!
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Gingerbread not only has a long shelf life, but also improves with time. If stored correctly, you can still enjoy your gingerbread cookies after a few weeks or even months. The first thing you will notice if your gingerbread has gone bad is the smell. If the gingerbread cookies smell mouldy and like rancid nuts, they unfortunately have to go in the garbage can. If they still smell fresh but have become hard and dry, you can easily revive them with this tip: Put a few pieces of apple in the tin with your gingerbread. After a few days, your gingerbread should be soft again. Just make sure to replace the apple pieces regularly so that they don’t go moldy.
As already mentioned, gingerbread gets better and better with time. To keep them sweet and fresh for a long time, it is best not to seal them airtight. Classic tin cans are ideal. They are also pretty and perfect if you want to give your gingerbread as a gift.
- Dates for sweetness. Of course, this recipe is not sugar-free because the marzipan paste, candied orange peel and candied lemon peel contain sugar. Nevertheless, the recipe is less sweet than many other gingerbread recipes.
- Ground hazelnuts and almonds, together with the dried fruit, are the main ingredients of gingerbread. You can use any kind of nuts you like. For even more flavor, you can briefly roast the ground nuts in a pan.
- Candied orange peel or candied lemon peel: I know, I know…. Opinions differ on candied lemon peel and candied orange peel. But trust me! Even if you’re not the biggest fan of candied citrus fruits, you MUST include them in this recipe. Chop them as finely as possible with a knife and you’ll hardly notice them. You won’t regret it!
- The marzipan paste makes the gingerbread sweet and extra Christmassy.
- Gingerbread spice is a must!
- Baking powder makes the gingerbread cookies soft and fluffy.
- Sourdough starter replaces the eggs and provides a very special flavor.
- Wafers: If you use wafers with a diameter of 70 mm, the recipe makes about 18 gingerbread cookies.
- Chocolate coating, icing and whole nuts for the decoration.
- Soak the dates in hot water, drain and puree. Roast the ground nuts.
- Mix all the ingredients to form a dough and leave the dough to rest in the fridge for an hour.
- Shape the gingerbread cookies, bake at 180 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes, leave to cool and decorate.
- soft
- less sweet
- shelf stable
- vegan
- no egg
- christmassy and spicy
- easy to make
- super delicious
Helpful tools – My recommendations
✨ The links with an star* are affiliate links. If you click on one of these links and buy something, I get a small commission and you support my work (thanks for that 🧡). This does not change the price for you. You can find more information on privacy policy here.✨
- A grain mill* for freshly ground wholemeal flour.
- A Danish Whisk* – especially if you don’t use a kitchen machine. This allows you to mix your ingredients without the whole dough sticking to the spoon.
- A kitchen scale*.
- A wooden rolling pin*.
- A steam tray consisting of a stainless steel oven mould* and lava stones*. The tray is filled with the stones and placed on the bottom of the oven during preheating. When you put your bread in the oven, pour hot water onto the stones. This creates steam, which ensures that your bread rises well.
- A cooling rack* for bread, rolls and waffles.
- A stainless steel kettle* with different temperature settings for soaking ingredients.
You can find more product recommendations here.
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Recipe: Homemade Sourdough Gingerbread Cookies – German Lebkuchen
Ingredients
- 100 g dates
- 300 g ground nuts ground
- 50 g candied orange peel or candied lemon peel
- 125 g marzipan paste
- 2 tsp. gingerbread spice
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 120 g sourdough starter
- 18 wafers 70 mm diameter
- chocolate coating, icing and whole nuts optional
Instructions
- Pit the dates and soak in boiling water. Drain the water and puree the dates.
- Carefully toast the ground nuts in a pan.
- Chop the candied orange peel or candied lemon peel as finely as possible with a knife.
- Mix all the ingredients into a dough and leave to rest for about an hour so that all the flavors combine.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.
- Spread the gingerbread mixture onto the wafers and smooth the surface with wet hands. If you would like to decorate your gingerbread with whole nuts, you can press them into the dough now and bake or attach them later with the icing.
- Bake the gingerbread cookies for between 15 and 20 minutes at 180 degrees and leave to cool on a cooling rack.
- Now you can glaze your gingerbread cookies with icing or melted chocolate and decorate with nuts. Bon appétit!
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