17 December 2006
Finnish Gingerbread Biscuits
These are one half of the essential seasonal baking duality found all over Finland in December, the other half being plum tarts. Together these two sets of baked goods occupy the same place on the Finnish tables as mince pies do in Ireland, with the difference that more people like them. In Finland you can buy gingerbread dough in supermarkets’ freezer cabinets, but in my mind at least such things have never tasted the same as homemade ones.
I am writing this in a rather pleasant if sleepy post-party haze, but I will try to make it as clear as possible. 
As it is a Finnish recipe, taken from a cookery book which has lost its back, it may have some oddities to a foreign eye. The most obvious one would be that the Finnish people measure their flour and sugar rather than weigh them - don’t let this distress you at all, just take an ordinary measuring jug with millilitres marked on the side and pile flour or sugar into it until it reaches the desired level, or, as in the flour’s case here, just fill it up to the 500ml mark twice.
Another oddity is the ground bitter orange peel called for here. It’s a spice, made from, well, bitter orange peel, and it looks a bit like ground cloves. I import it from Finland, notwithstanding the fact that this is approximately the only recipe ever I use it for. I have not seen it in Ireland for love or money, but perhaps herbalists or exotic shops would have it. It’s by no means essential, you can make perfectly good gingerbreads without it, but I find that adding it gives a whole new warm depth to the ‘breads. It’s like a touch of sunlight, fitting to a solstice celebration. I made gingerbreads using this spice for the first time this year, and for the first time all biscuits had disappeared by the following morning. I would be happy to source it for people from Finland if desired.
Ground cardamom is not easy to find in Ireland either, but shops that stock Indian and Middle Eastern foods may have it. You could even buy pods, open them and grind the seeds yourself if you were inclined. In the worst case scenario you could leave off both cardamom and the bitter orange peel and still get nice biscuits out of it, but obviously, the more spices you use, the more full the end flavour will be.
The recipe claims that this will make c. 150 gingerbreads, but I made much less. Perhaps my cutters were larger than expected. Do note, and I find it useful to have this kind of things noted in advance of the actual recipe, that the dough will need to sit in the fridge overnight to deepen the flavours and to solidify.
sugar 300 ml
treacle 50 ml
water 100 ml
margarin or butter 200 g
ground bitter orange peel 1 tbsp
ground cinnamon 1-2 tbsp
ground ginger 1/2 tbsp
ground cloves 1/2 tbsp
ground cardamom 2 tsp
baking soda 2 tsp
plain flour c. 1 litre (=1000 ml)
Put the sugar, treacle and water in a saucepan and bring them to boil.
Measure the butter/margarin and the spices out into a bowl. Pour the hot sugar-water-treacle mixture in. Mix until the butter/margarin melts and let the mixture cool.
Mix the soda with the flour and add this into the mixture. Stir until smooth and let rest in the fridge or another cool space overnight.
Roll the dough out thinly and cut out shapes you desire. You want the dough to be firm but not too hard or soft; if it warms up under your hands too much it becomes flappy and you won’t be able to cut out shapes easily. Bake in 200-225 C for 5-8 minutes. Keep an eye on them, they burn very easily. They will be quite fragile and soft when they come out of the oven, but just leave them sit for a few minutes and they will harden quickly. They will be delicious on their own and with coffee, and they will make a wonderful addition to a cheese platter, for serving with cheddar.
I got ground cardamon from that health food store in Georges’ Street and I’ve seen it in places like that around town.