"Gingerbread Tiles"

The Swiss adore their traditional must have Christmas cookies. Zimtsternli, brunsli and spitzbuebe (cinnamon stars, ‘brown ones’ and ‘little troublemakers’) are our answer to candy cane and sugar cookies. The festive season wouldn’t be the same without them. In our household baking a minimum of 5 different kinds of festive cookies every winter is non- negotiable.

This year, uncharacteristically, I have veered off the well treaded path of convention and made these beautiful and amazingly tasty, soft gingerbread tiles. I would call this cookie a happy cross-breed between a classic American gingerbread and a European lebkuchen. No doubt will they be part of our yearly must-bake lineup from here on out! The recipe has been created by favourite chef Yottam Ottolenghi and is featured (amongst many other delights) in his cook book Sweet . You can also get the recipe on the cooking site/app Epicurious here: Soft Ginger Bread Tiles with Rum Butter Glaze

The cookies are so pretty to look at, it feels wasteful to gobble them all up. They would make beautiful Christmas tree ornaments or a lovely handmade gift.

They do taste gorgeous though. My personal tips: Make sure you use blackstrap unsulphured molasses not the regular one, if you’d like to get the strong earthy, bitter flavors and added health benefits. I amended the recipe by adding the zest of a sanguinello orange, which worked a real treat. Also, for added tasty-ness don’t be shy with the rum glaze!

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The project had me research cookie stamps and tiles. I absolutely love those oversized antique Dutch spekuloos cookie molds and plan to get some to decorate my kitchen. A good quality brand to look out for is Springerle. Etsy is a good place to look too.