When it comes to christmas you are lucky if you live in Germany. There are such nice customs during the christmas season especially for kids like, for example, getting a candy filled boot in the morning of St. Nicholas’s day (kids have to clean their boots the evening before and put them outside the door) or the Advent calender (that is something what children and adults are thrilled about… hehe). One thing we really love to do in this season is spending our free time at the christmas market. Some Christmas markets here in Germany (like the “Christkindlesmarkt” in Nuremberg or “Striezelmarkt” in Dresden) a have a long tradition and are even known abroad, but here in Hamburg we don’t have that traditional or kind of central Christmas market. It is rather that we have a lot small christmas markets in different districts.
To be honest, we just spend time at our district’s small christmas market, because it’s so near to our home that we can walk and it is always nice to meet some people from the neighbourhood. And there is everything anyway, what is important for a German christmas market like a carousel for the kids, booths with Glühwein (mulled wine), Bratwurst (grilled sausage), Schmalzgebäck (donut bites with icing sugar) and other christmassy sweet treats like big and coloured gingerbread hearts and cinnamon roasted almonds (or other kind of nuts). But there is ONE sweet treat, what definetely belongs to the christmas season: soft gingerbread cookies. And I think (well, I confess I am not an expert) most popular and famous soft gingerbread cookies are for example “Aachener Printen” or “Nürnberger Lebkuchen”, whose manufacture has also a long tradition, which I can’t imitate, of course. Instead, my version is more modern, much more simple to bake and adjusted to my current nutrition. These soft gingerbread cookies are free from dairy products and gluten, less sugar and furthermore they are low fat and even vegan.
- 150 g apple sauce
- 160 g gluten free flour mix
- 50 g buckwheat flour
- 50 g ground almond
- 60 g coconut sugar sirup (or molasses)
- 60 g coconut or raw cane sugar
- 50 g canola oil
- 50 g walnuts, chopped
- 30 g dried cranberries, chopped
- 30 g dried apricots, chopped
- 60 ml plant milk of your choice
- 2 tsp. cacao
- 2 tsp. gingerbread spice mix
- 1 tsp. baking powder
- 1 tsp. baking soda
- 2-3 tbsp. icing sugar
- water
- Preheat oven to 180° C.
- Line a baking sheet with baking paper.
- In a bowl, whisk all dry ingredients (except walnuts and dried fruits) together and make a well in the middle.
- Add apple sauce, plant milk and syrup.
- Work all this into a smooth batter.
- Fold in walnuts an dried fruits.
- Fill the batter into a piping bag and pipe little heaps (approx. 5 cm) on the baking sheet. Take care the heaps mark a space of approx. 5 cm.
- Bake for about 10 minutes.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool down completely.
- In a small bowl, sift icing sugar and add water drop by drop (whilst stiring) until your icing is thin enough for brushing on the cookies.
- Glaze the cookies by using a pasty brush and let the sugar icing dry.
