Christmas Calendar Day 8 - Finnish ginger cookies

Finnish cookies in "Aalto vase" shape

Let´s continue with some more Christmas baking, moving from  the German-style butter cookies over French style Madelines with Christmas twist to Finland, where I have once brought a cookie cutter with the shape of an Aalto vase including cookie recipe. Actually I have two sizes of the cookie cutter from various visits to Finland.

It is not indicated in the recipe, if the syrup should be the light or the dark version, so I have decided to use the light syrup, but I think the taste would become more spice tasteful, if you decided to use dark syrup instead of.

It is not indicated, how long the dough should rest from making the dough and before you can bake the dough. As I receive a recipe from Estonia on a similar style of cookies, I decided to rest the dough for minimum 24 hours in the refrigerator. However, do what you want to do !!!!


Finnish ginger cookies:

• 115 g light syrup
• 100 g sugar
• 125 g butter
• 1½ teaspoon cinnamon
• 1½ teaspoon ginger
• 1½ teaspoon pomegranate peel
• 3/4 teaspoon cloves
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 240 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 - here I used the two different size Aalto vase cutter.
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.