Times fly fast and I am a little late with the second Christmas special tutorial. Today its soft gingerbread hearts. This is a favourite treat of mine at Christmas time.

All the bakeries make them and they are mostly decorated with a thin coat of dark chocolate and decorated with a scrap of Santa Claus. You can also be sure to find this kind of decorated hearts at every German Christmas market.

I decided to decorate it with red flowers and holly leaves. But you could also pipe beautiful patterns in royal icing or use fondant cut outs like snowflakes and other Christmas style decor.

Soft gingerbread hearts

7 oz. (200 grams) Honey
3 oz. (90 grams) sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp of ground cinnamon
1 tsp of ground cloves
1 tsp of ground ginger
13 oz. (360 grams) all purpose flour sifted

I got 2 x 7″ hearts  and around 12 x small 2″ hearts out of this portion.

For decoration:
Dark chocolate (you can leave this out and just decorate the heart as it is)
Royal icing
Scraps
Fondant sugar flowers/leaves or flowers/leaves made out of royal icing. Holly leaves and red berries would also look beautiful.

How to make the gingerbread dough:

Step 1:
In a saucepan warm up the honey on low heat until melted for about 15 mins. Dont let it boil. Remove form the heat.

Step 2:
In a bowl add the sugar and pour the warm honey on top. Stir and let it rest untill luke warm.

Step 3:
Stir in the egg, then the baking soda and the cinnamon, cloves & ginger. Mix untill combined.

Step 4:
Add the flour and knead the dough. It may feel sticky but try not to add too much extra flour. Wrap the dough in plastic and let it rest for 30 mins on the counter. Preheat the oven to 325F (170C)

Step 5:
Knead the dough and roll it out on baking paper dusted with flour. Roll into 5-10 mm thickness and cut out the hearts. Bake the hearts in the center of the oven for 10-15 min depending on size until golden and “puffy”. Transfer to cooling racks.

Decorate the gingerbread heart:

Step 1:
Melt the chocolate and use a angled spatular to spread out the chocolate. Let the chocolate dry.

Step 2:
Pipe a border with royal icing.

Step 3:
Decorate your heart with flowers, holly leaves, berries, fondant cut out snowflakes or just use royal icing.

Happy Caking!

Louise