Gingerbread Advent Calendar
Ingredients
- Ingredients
- 75 grams Candied lemon
- 50 grams candied orange
- 250 grams Pastry flour
- 4 eggs
- 200 grams sugar
- 1 Tbsp Vanilla sugar
- 200 grams ground almonds
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 generous pinch cloves
- 1 pinch allspice
- 1 generous pinch Cardamom
- 1 tsp Lemon peel
- 1 tsp Baking powder
- For decoration
- 200 grams powdered sugar
- 2 Tbsps lemon juice
- 100 grams Marzipan
- 100 grams Candied cherry
- green, red and yelllow Food coloring
Preparation steps
Grind together lemon peel, orange peel and a bit of flour in a food processor. Beat eggs, sugar and vanilla sugar until frothy.
Mix remaining flour with baking powder, sift over egg mixture and fold together. Mix almonds, cinnamon, cloves, allspice, cardamom and peel mixture and knead into flour mixture to a smooth dough.
Preheat oven to 200°C (approximately 400°F).
On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, form dough into a rectangle about 20 x 30 cm (approximately 8 x 12 inches) and about 2 cm thick (approximately 3/4 inch thick). Bake about 20 minutes and let cool on a wire rack.
For the icing, stir together powdered sugar, lemon juice and 1-2 tablespoons water and mix well. Spoon icing into a zip-top plastic bag and cut off a tiny corner. Pipe a frame of small squares along outside rim of gingerbread rectangle measuring 5 squares across and 7 squares tall. Pipe a row of 3 small squares under squares at top of frame, finishing with a total of 23 small squares and a large opening in the center. Use icing to write the numbers 1 through 23 in the small squares.
Knead marzipan, place between two sheets of platic wrap and roll out flat. Cut a Christmas tree shape from the marzipan sheet and place in middle box on gingerbread. Divide remaining icing into 4 portions. Use food coloring to dye portions green, red and yellow, leaving one portion white. Outline Christmas tree with green icing. Decorate numbered squares with yellow icing. Use icing or marzipan to make a star at the top of the Christmas tree. Decorate tree with wavy lines of icing and attach candied cherries to tree with icing for ornaments. In a corner of the large square with the Christmas tree, write the number 24 with red icing and outline numbers with white icing. Let finished gingerbread Advent calander dry completely, then store in an airtight container until serving.
