The best gingerbread biscuits you'll ever have!

Every Christmas I make these gorgeous, tasty Scandinavian gingerbread biscuits. They are so much better than shop-bought ones, and as an added bonus, baking them makes your whole house smell like Christmas. This is quite an easy recipe, but somewhat time-consuming, as you need to make the dough a day before baking.  The recipe is originally Finnish so a little bit different from the Swedish gingerbread biscuits.


traditional scandinavian finnish gingerbread biscuits


Ingredients:

250g butter
200ml sugar
150ml golden syrup
1.5tsp ground cinnamon
1.5tsp ground cardamom
1tsp ground cloves
1tsp ground ginger

2 eggs
1tsp salt
2tsp bicarbonate soda
900ml flour

Method:

Pop the butter, sugar, golden syrup, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves and ginger on a pan, and heat until butter and sugar is melted and mix all together. Mix frequently to avoid burning. Bring the mixture to boil and take off heat. 

Let the mixture cool, at least an hour. When the mixture is cool enough, whisk the eggs and mix in the spice mixture. Combine salt, bicarbonate soda and flour, and mix in the spice mixture. Wrap the dough in clingfilm and refrigerate 24 hours. You can also freeze the dough for up to a month. 

Take the dough out about half an hour before starting to make the biscuits to let it warm a bit. Roll it to a few millimeter thick - not too thin though as it becomes difficult to handle. Keep on popping the dough in the fridge or freezer when it gets too sticky and soft to use. I also like to use plenty of flour as it does get quite sticky.

Bake for 6-10 minutes in 200 °C (180 °C for fan ovens). I baked these large gingerbread men for 8 minutes, and that was just about right. 


traditional finnish scandinavian gingerbread biscuits


Ground cardamom can be a bit tricky to find from your average supermarkets - you can get it from well-stocked Indian supermarkets, possibly from health-food stores, most definitely online, but failing that, I have also ground my own from cardamom pods in the past.

And forget the sweet toppings, piping intricate icing sugar decorations to make these biscuits Pinterest perfect. Gingerbread biscuits are best with cheese - blue cheese is suberb on these. I love a slab of creamy blue cheese, something like Castello on these biscuits. A match made in heaven in my opinion. We quite often make a big batch of these biscuits for Christmas and gift them with a bit of port and stilton, for that adults-only Christmas Eve midnight snacking...  


traditional finnish scandinavian gingerbread biscuits with blue cheese


Are you making your own gingerbread for Christmas?

Delicious Finnish recipe for traditional Scandinavian gingerbread biscuits - soft and spiced, they go great with blue cheese!

Delicious Finnish recipe for traditional Scandinavian gingerbread biscuits - soft and spiced, they go great with blue cheese!

Delicious Finnish recipe for traditional Scandinavian gingerbread biscuits - soft and spiced, they go great with blue cheese!


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Comments

  1. Mmmmmm, I love the idea of having them with cheese! Can't believe I've never thought about that. Lovely recipe thanks for sharing. #CreateChristmas

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    1. These are gorgeous with cheese, so much better than with sweet toppings. Definitely try the blue cheese, the creamier the better!

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  2. Deeeelicious. Never tried them with cheese xx

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    1. In that case, there's no way around it, you'll have to make these and try them with cheese ;)

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  3. gorgeous little characters - love all these spices too - a real taste of Christmas. Saying hello via #festivefoodfriday

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    1. I know, I always get that giddy kiddy feeling when I chomp down on a gingerbread man head or foot :) I like the animal shapes too, will have to get more this Christmas.

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  4. I bet these smell so delicious! I'd never think of serving them with cheese, I must give it a go. Thanks so much for sharing with #festivefoodfriday and happy Christmas!

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    1. The smell really does remind me of Christmas, it is gorgeous. And you get it two days too, when making the dough and when baking it ;) Thanks for hosting and have a brilliant Christmas!

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  5. Love these! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays x

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    1. Thanks for hosting :) Still time to try making these! ;)

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  6. I love cheese with sweet biscuits! Thank you for sharing on #CreateChristmas x

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    Replies
    1. Thanks for hosting, there was some really interesting posts over there!

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