Christmas Calendar 2012 Day 12 - Estonian ginger bread cookie

My very good colleague from Estonia has shared with her favourite recipe on ginger bread cookies with me, when I started to look for various recipes for this year´s Christmas Calendar, and now I am sharing it with you :-) The taste of ginger bread cookie as just PERFECT, as they a complex and balanced taste of the spices, which we connect with Christmas. These ginger bread cookies are 1000000 times better in taste, than the recipe Finnish ginger cookies, so if you only want to bake one version of ginger cookies, you should bake these ginger bread cookies !!!!

Estonian ginger bread cookies:

• 170 g dark syrup
• 100 g sugar
• ½ tablespoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 tablespoon cardamon
• ½ teaspoon ginger
• 125 g butter
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 300 g (cake) flour

1. Heat syrup, sugar and spices up to the boiling point in a cooking pot.
2. Take pot away from the heat and add the butter, piece by piece. Mix until the butter is totally melted.
3. Mix baking powder with the flour and sieve it.
4. Slowly add this flour mix into the butter-syrup mass.
5. Add the egg, mix well.
6. Pack the dough into cling film. Let the dough rest in the refrigerator for minimum 24 hours.
7. Roll the dough into a thin layer. I do this by first adding flour on a dough sheet, place the dough on top of the flour and when sprinkle more flour on top of the top. When I start rolling the dough with a rolling pin. Here I roll, move the dough around on the dough sheet, roll again, move the dough. I do this in order to ensure, that the dough is not sticking to the dough sheet/kitchen table surface. 
8. Cut the dough into desired shape.
9. Heat the (conventional) oven to 200'C. 
10. Place the cookie dough on the baking tray covered with baking paper.
11. Bake the cookies at 200'C for 9 minutes in the upper part of the oven. 
12. After baking let the cookies cool down, before placing them in cookie tins/jars.