Classic Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients

• 250 g sugar
• 250 g light syrup
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• ½ tbsp ground ginger
• ½ tsp ground cloves
• ½ tsp black pepper
• 1 tbsp baking soda
• 250 g butter
• 2 x eggs
• 700 g plain white flour
• 2 x egg white
• ½ x lemon
• 500 g powdered sugar

Method

1. Pour the sugar and syrup to saucepan and bring it to a gentle boil. Add the spices. Combine with baking soda. The mixture will now become light in color and slightly frothy.
2. Dice the butter and place it to a baking bowl. You can use a food processor with a k-spade, or stir by hand. Pour the hot syrup mixture into the middle of the cold butter. Stir until the butter is melted and combined.
3. Whisk together the eggs and stir them into the mixture. Then add the wheat flour, little by little, until you get a smooth or relatively firm dough. Refrigerate the dough for at least 2 hours. Preferably overnight.
4. Place the dough on a floured baking sheet. We rolled out 1/4 of the time. Roll out into a thin layer and cut out nice gingerbread cookies. Roast in the middle of the oven at 190 degrees celsius for 6-7 minutes. Keep an eye on the end of the baking time so the cakes don't burn. Cool the cakes on a wire rack.
5. Royal frosting: Mix egg whites, lemon juice and icing sugar in a food processor. Feel free to use a k-spade. Run the mixture for about 5 minutes. Scrape down the edges along the way. Now you have a stiff mass. To get the right consistency for the design in the picture, we took about 1/3 of the icing and added a couple of tablespoons of water.