Ginger-vanilla Christmas Cookies (ingwer-vanille-spekulatius)

Total Time: 40 mins Preparation Time: 30 mins Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 ounces butter
• 4 1/2 ounces sugar
• 1 pinch salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 vanilla bean (about 4 inches long)
• 1 small egg (about 2 to 2.5 oz)
• 3 ounces candied ginger
• 10 1/2 ounces flour

Recipe

• 1 cut or chop candied ginger into very small pieces.
• 2 mix softened butter with sugar, salt and spices until creamy. scrap out the inside of the vanilla pod, add to mixture and mix.
• 3 add egg and mix until creamy and well mixed. add ginger and mix.
• 4 add flour gradually to the butter mixture and mix until dough is formed.
• 5 wrap dough into cling film and put into the fridge overnight.
• 6 line out baking tray(s) with parchment paper.
• 7 flour a workspace slightly and roll out the dough very thinly (thinner than 1/4 inch). cut out squares of about 2 inches (see note).
• 8 put cookies on baking tray and put in a cold place for about 1 hour (see note).
• 9 meanwhile preheat oven (390°f, 200°c).
• 10 bake cookies in lower third of the oven for 10-12 minutes or until cookies are lightly browned. watch carefully. if you make the cookies very thin watch closely after 8 minutes. do not overbake them.
• 11 remove from oven and let cool completely. store in an airtight container.
• 12 note on candied ginger: the quality and sharpness varies a lot. if the candied ginger is too mild for your taste, you might add some grounded ginger to the dough, but not more than 1/4 teaspoon.
• 13 note on spices: i use fresh grounded spices here. and would recommend to do so. cardamom, cloves and nutmeg have more flavour. especially cardamom has more fresh notes.
• 14 note on cookie shape: you can use any form from simple squares over different shapes to special cookie molds for spekulatius. you could also use a cookie stamp. important: the cookies have to be thin.
• 15 note on cooling the cut cookies: prior baking it is important to cool the cookies, so that the butter inside is getting hard again. so they will not rise much in the oven and this cooling will make them crisp. i put the cookies on the baking tray and keep them on the tray in the fridge for 1 hour.
• 16 note: time to make does not include time for cooling dough. cooking time is for one baking tray. yield is a guess, because it depends mainly on how thin you make the cookies.