2017-11-04

So that's 7kg of gingerbread, today's work.


So that's 7kg of gingerbread, today's work. (I keep 1kg dough for my students to play with.) Of course I can't leave it this way, not only can I not close the box, there is now too much pressure on the pieces at the bottom. The pieces are hard now, but will become soft within a month, so I need to spread them.

In the foreground I've already mixed all "powders" for the next batch. And now I need to give my QA assistant some more work...

13 comments:

Ilona Fichtner said...

Habe soeben eine Doku über Lambertz,Oetker und Stollwerck gesehen.... den Teig etwas dünner ausrollen und dann mit deinen Musterrollen, mal eine Idee?!

Olaf Fichtner said...

Ilona Fichtner wenn ich die Zeit habe, ja. Bei acht Kilo allein backen habe ich sie leider nicht...

Ilona Fichtner said...

Olaf Fichtner Deine Studenten helfen Dir sicher

Olaf Fichtner said...

Ilona Fichtner nicht hier...

Heidi Adick said...

Hi Olaf Fichtner​, is that the secret to lebkuchen? Leave them for 1 month? They look perfect.

JAnnabelle said...

Very nice! Could I perhaps get your recipe?

Olaf Fichtner said...

Heidi Adick the ones I make are probably a little more "traditional" (other word for "old style") than those you find at supermarkets. Those will dry out and get hard when left in the open. Mine are exactly the opposite.

Not sure why, but they are hard after they cooled down and then start to suck in humidity from the air around them. I have kept some for two years in a hermetically sealed jar. Where I live now, humidity is rather high (even relative in Taiwan), so I really need to keep them boxed. The few pieces that I kept from last year are in the fridge - low humidity...

Heidi Adick said...

I think this is a good insight. I will try it. I'm not sure if my recipe is traditional or not. Time for experimenting!

Olaf Fichtner said...

JAnnabelle​ Sure. This is a recipe that scales very nicely in metric countries. For 2kg you need
500g honey
250g butter (unsalted)
250g sugar
(Heat these three, mix them, make the sugar dissolve, then let it cool down to 50C or so)

1kg flour
50g cocoa (can be less, simply makes them brown)
1 tb gingerbread spice mix
1 tb cinnamon
1 tb cloves (all powder)
2 eggs
10g potassium carbonate

Mix all the powders, add eggs, then add the honey mix and knead it into a dough.

So for 8kg I only need to measure the honey, then I throw in two blocks of butter, one bag of sugar, empty two big bags of flour into a big bowl and simply add the other powders by liking.

JAnnabelle said...

Olaf Fichtner thanks so much Olaf! I have scale & prefer metric measures

Olaf Fichtner said...

JAnnabelle one more thing: probably because of the spices I have never seen ants or cockroaches go for either dough or cookies, usually big problems around here. But beware of dogs...

JAnnabelle said...

Olaf Fichtner haha! Like this one:
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/fmK-5g74zEONzFVy6NUFvfMnbD6Rxz-X_9E9YQ7dHoYffRtLYYfqaXvWtBNQSzUAelE4qLsWIik

Olaf Fichtner said...

JAnnabelle yeah, very much. Nimrod has been clinging to my legs these two days, always expecting that for whatever reason I would hand him either dough or cookies. Luckily the tigers aren't interested...