Dry perfume is a spicy mixture of spices for gingerbread. Gingerbread spices or why pepper gingerbread? Industrial recipe for gingerbread perfume

I'm getting ready for Christmas I bake stollen, but they are immediately eaten! I haven’t gotten to the Tula and Staropolskaya gingerbreads yet, but I made a mixture of spices for German ones and baked whole grains! Once I had a chance to try the Nuremberg gingerbread Elisenlebkuchen, brought from Germany, and I remember them well: fragrant, spicy, with a lot of almonds, hazelnuts and candied citrus fruits, sweet, while not at all hard and similar in structure to oatmeal cookies, only more loose . Oh, and they also had a bottom made of rice paper, I had never seen this before and at first I thought it was parchment, I tried to pick it up somehow, but nothing happened. And then it turned out that this “parchment” is quite edible :) Recently leafing through the Facebook feed, and everything is already breathing New Year and Christmas, I stumbled upon familiar gingerbread cookies and wanted to bake them without fail, and, of course, with whole grain flour.

In general, I didn’t get quite lebkuchen and not quite elisenlebkuchen (which are Nuremberg), I combined the two options to get a loose structure with noticeable inclusions of nuts and candied fruit. As a result, I give you a recipe: it is not as simple as traditional lebkuchens, but not as expensive and refined as elizenlebkuchens, but no less interesting and tasty.

I'll start with the most interesting - with spices. For a couple of years now I have been making them according to a recipe from a book about traditional and festive pastries in Austria and Germany, and this is the most fragrant and delicious gingerbread mixture that I have ever tried!

It includes:

2 tbsp ground cinnamon;

1 tsp ground cardamom;

1 tsp ground nutmeg;

1 tsp ground star anise (star anise);

1 tsp ground cloves;

1 tsp ground ginger.

I have ginger and cinnamon in powder, but the rest is in general and large. I used to somehow grind everything in a coffee grinder, risking killing it with cloves or star anise, but now I have become smart and got solid helpers - a large and heavy mortar and grain crusher with steel rollers. I decided to first break up large spices in a mortar, and then pass through a grain crusher. I already crushed spices with it when I arranged a crash test, then I crushed everything that came to hand, you can read about it. The most problematic spices that are the hardest to grind are star anise and cloves. Here's what I did with them:

Carnation:

And here is the cardamom.

I crushed the flattened spices with my fingers and they crumbled. I mixed everything and I got a nice little jar of delicious smelling spices. You can present this one to someone as a New Year's gift :) A jar, by the way, from a personal blender Tribest .

And now the gingerbread. I used the basic recipe for German traditional Lebkuchen gingerbread, but I used less flour to make the dough sticky, and replaced half of the white flour with whole wheat flour. With whole grains, such gingerbread is tastier and their structure is more crumbly and interesting.

For 25-30 gingerbread:

100 gr. butter;

300-350 gr. flour mixtures (white, whole grain wheat and rye - to your taste);

1 tsp soda;

1 tsp baking powder;

1 tbsp gingerbread mixes;

100 gr. honey (half a cup);

100 gr. fine sugar (if you have regular sugar, grind it in a mortar or coffee grinder);

1 chicken egg (50-60 gr);

150-200 gr. hazelnuts or any other nuts or mixtures thereof;

100 gr. candied oranges, preferably domestic .

A pinch of salt;

25-30 rice paper circles.

The technology is simple:

• Sift flour, soda, baking powder, salt and spices together, mix butter, honey and sugar, put on fire (small) and, without boiling, wait until the sugar dissolves (so you need fine.)

• Pour spices, stir, add nuts and candied fruits.

• Make the heating minimal, pour the sifted mixture into the honey-oil mixture, mix until smooth. Remove from heat, let cool to lukewarm, stir in the chicken egg.

• Leave the dough for half an hour or an hour, start heating the oven to 180 degrees.

Bakery products. You can bake gingerbread cookies simply on parchment, or you can use a rice paper substrate, although in our case this is not at all necessary. Rice paper "wafers" are commonly used to bake elisenlebkuchen, which have virtually no flour, and the dough consists of a mixture of crushed nuts, candied fruits, nut flour, sugar and eggs, and they need rice paper so that they do not burn. I just happened to have a package of rice paper, so I, armed with a mug, pencil and scissors, cut circles of the right size :)

With a spoon, put a little gingerbread dough, which will become denser during the resting time, on a rice circle, but so that the dough has a little more than half a centimeter margin to the edge of the circle. Bake on parchment at 180 degrees for about 15-20 minutes, cool the cat cakes on a towel or wire rack.

Immediately after baking, they will be very soft, then they will become crumbly and crispy, and if they live a couple more days, they will turn into the most delicate spicy delicacy melting in your mouth. Honestly, I don’t know what they will be like in two weeks or a month, but I immediately put half of them in a tin box, and no one saw this, so the gingerbread has a real chance to ripen properly. And their aroma will really change, because, in principle, it does not stop changing: in hot ones, cloves are clearly audible, in cooled ones, it fades into the background and spicy notes become more balanced. The time will come, and I will appreciate these gingerbread cookies after resting, I'm sure they will open with a real bouquet!

let `s talk about gingerbread spices? After all, they have a solo part and how they play depends on taste, and fragrance and even color Your gingerbread.

What do spices give us and is it possible to cook gingerbread without them?

Technically, of course, it is possible. But it will no longer be gingerbread. Call it what you want! Even though “honey cookies”, even “sugar cookies”, they no longer have the right to be called gingerbread, simply because the words "Gingerbread" and "SPICES" one root.

And what do spices give to gingerbread?

Firstly, TASTE and FLAVOR. The most important. And in order for it to open up more fully, we add them to the hot base for the gingerbread dough. Let the test "ripen". Let him lie down in the cold for several days and absorb this magical aroma of spices.

Secondly, from spices gingerbread the dough gets darker, with such a rich dark color, characteristic of all gingerbread. Do you like this color too? Truth?)))

Thirdly, almost all spices are natural preservatives. Therefore, the shelf life of both gingerbread and the dough itself is so long. Gingerbread dough, depending on its type, can be stored in the refrigerator from one to three months. And ready-made gingerbread from six months to a year. Read more about how long gingerbread is stored and how to store them correctly.

For gingerbread, I use mine. own unique set of spices, which was born for a long time. I've tried various options. Added some spices, left out some. I experimented with their number and proportions until I found IDEAL!))))

This is ideal for me. I really like just such a set, proportions and amount of spices. I find it very balanced.

But we are all different. I often get questions like this:

• Everything is fine, but I want more spices. Can you double them up?

• My son doesn't like cloves! Can it be excluded?

• I went around all the shops, I can’t find star anise. Can I bake the first batch without him?

And I have only one answer to all these questions: OF COURSE, YOU CAN!)))

Spices are zone of your creativity. You can reduce or increase their quantity, exclude some spices and add others. I just advise everyone to first make gingerbread with my signature set of spices. After all, maybe this is your ideal too!)) Many students write to me that they fell in love with this unique taste and smell))).

But if suddenly you cannot find any particular spice, then this is not a reason to postpone the preparation of the gingerbread dough. Do first without her and when you find it, you will try together with her!)))

Now let's take a look at these spices which we have been talking about for so long.

What spices do I add to my gingerbread:

1. Ginger- Ginger roots are widely used in cooking and in Russian cuisine, in particular. Ginger has a rather pungent and pungent taste. To add to the gingerbread dough, you can use ginger powder, or you can add fresh ginger (for this, peel the ginger root and grate it on a fine grater).
2. Cinnamon is the dried bark of the young shoots of the cinnamon tree. A very popular spice with a delicate and sweet aroma. I prefer to use cinnamon sticks and grind them myself.
3. Carnation- These are dried unopened buds (flower buds) of a tropical clove tree. It has a very specific strong aroma and burning taste.
4. Cardamom- a very concentrated spice with a pronounced taste. So that cardamom does not interrupt the taste of other spices, I add quite a bit of it. I grind whole cardamom: that is, both the box and the seeds. By the way, cardamom has tonic properties and many people add it to drinks: coffee, tea, hot chocolate.
5. Nutmeg- has a pungent spicy taste and a peculiar aroma.
6. white pepper- Compared to black pepper, white pepper has less pungency and a more delicate fragrant aroma.
7. star anise or star anise - is the dried fruit of the evergreen tropical star anise tree present. I grind the stars completely.
8. orange peel I never use dried orange peel. Absolutely not the same scent. And in order not to rub the zest for each preparation of the dough, I prepare it: I simply mix the zest with sugar in a 1: 2 ratio (1 part zest, 2 parts sugar) and store it in a small jar with a tight-fitting lid in the refrigerator.

OK it's all over Now!)))

I hope this article has cleared up many of your spice questions!

But if they remain, write them to me in the comments, and I will definitely answer.

I love making gingerbread and gingerbread cookies. For this, I always need a gingerbread spice mixture or, as it is also called, dry perfume. Of course, the easiest way is to go and buy a ready-made dry perfume mix in a store. But, believe me, spices for gingerbread that you make yourself will be many times more aromatic and much cheaper, which is important. I described in great detail this simple method of making dry perfumes and showed in the photo how easy and simple it is to make them yourself.

Composition of spices for gingerbread:

• 1 teaspoon coriander seeds;
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon;
• 1/3 teaspoon ground nutmeg;
• 3-4 pieces of cloves;
• 1/3 teaspoon star anise seeds;
• 4-5 pieces of allspice;
• 1/3 teaspoon dry ginger.

How to make dry perfume for gingerbread with your own hands

Pour all the ingredients into a bowl and mix. If you have a very large carnation in size, take 3 pieces. If a small carnation, then you can take 4-5 pieces. The main thing is that there should not be too much cloves, otherwise it will take over all the flavor.

Pour the entire prepared mixture of spices into a coffee grinder or blender, grind into powder. The gingerbread mixture should have a homogeneous structure similar to powder.

We shift the dry perfume into a container with a tight-fitting lid so that the aroma does not evaporate during storage.

A mixture of spices for gingerbread prepared at home can be stored for a long period, but over time the aroma disappears. Therefore, it is better to make dry perfumes in small quantities and always have fresh ones.

We have already considered the general properties of spices that are used in baking in Part 2 (see).

Literally informative - about a few specific mixtures. In Soviet and modern culinary literature (including in special reference books), they are called "dry spirits" ("dry spirits"), "confectionery dry spirits", "bouquet of spices" or simply "bouquet".

The term "dry perfume" (fr. solid perfume) earlier it was also used to refer to aromatic sachets (pillows, bags filled with fragrant dry plants). Later, paraffin was taken as the basis for such "dry perfumes", which was melted, a composition of essential oils was added to it and poured into a certain form (an analogue of an aroma stone). Now such flavored products can be called "dry perfumes", but we are still interested in confectionery production.

"Confectionery dry perfumes (D. Gewürz; E. Dry Perfume). Spices used for flavoring products" (GOST 17481-72. Technological processes in the confectionery industry. Terms and definitions).

As for regional mixtures, it is possible to divide them "according to nationality" only conditionally (all the more so - mixtures of modern manufacturers). There are some combinations that have their own names, but they are few and they are all German. For example, a mixture "Neunerlei Gewürz / 9 spices"(English pepper, cinnamon, ginger, anise, coriander, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, fennel) or "Speculatiusgewürz"(speculacius cookie mix based on cloves and cinnamon, other spices may vary). These mixtures can be referred to by the common word "Lebkuchengewurz", and modern bags with this name can be used for any gingerbread baking.

The following tables will help you make your choice and practice making your own mixtures. Both are taken from the book. V. Pokhlyobkina "All about spices."

Mix I I like to use for gingerbread.

Another option. "Homemade cakes, pastries, cookies, gingerbread, pies" (authors Kengis R.P., Marhel P.S):"Gingerbread prepared with honey has a strong aroma of honey, so they need to be slightly flavored. Gingerbread without honey needs to be flavored much more. Finely ground dry spices are added as aromatic substances. For a mixture of spices, they take 35% coriander, 30% cinnamon, 10% cardamom, 10% nutmeg and 5% each of cloves, star anise and allspice. You can change the ratio of spices to taste. In addition, for aroma and taste, you can add another 1/2 cup of shelled roasted chopped nuts, peanuts or almonds, candied fruit, lemon or orange zest and 5-10 g of vanilla sugar.

And one more thing: "The mixture of spices added to the gingerbread dough is called" bouquet ", or" dry perfume ". It consists (%): cinnamon - 60, cloves - 12, allspice - 12, black pepper - 4, cardamom - 4 , ginger - 8." (O. Shamkut. "Profession confectioner. Textbook").

Of the modern author's mixtures for gingerbread baking, recently the composition by French Chef Ivan Gillardi, not once advertised on websites and in books by N. Belotserkovsky (the last time - in the next "masterpiece" called "Everything under the Christmas Tree!"). In fact, the "Christmas gingerbread" that uses these spices is a variant of traditional French pastries. Pain d "épices ("spicy bread").

This is my photo of a page from one of the books of the same author. In the book "Everything under the tree!" the text is exactly the same, letter for letter.

Here, in addition to well-known spices, pepper long, not a popular ingredient for Europe. In the mixture for gingerbread baking will fit and cubeb pepper, you just need to know in what proportions :)

Blends from British manufacturers have an interesting composition: the packaging clearly says about cassia, which must be distinguished from cinnamon.

"Mixed Spice" by "Schwartz": ground cinnamon (cassia) - 40%, ground coriander - 38%, cumin, nutmeg - 4%, ginger, cloves.

"Herbs Mixed Spice" by "Hambleden" (organic): cinnamon, coriander, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, fennel, cassia. This mixture contains both cinnamon and cassia, which indicates that both spices differ in some of their properties. Not much, but, for example, like nutmeg and nutmeg, which sometimes also occur in the same mixture. If you use cassia in a mono version, then the differences will be more noticeable: it is rough, has a low smell and a bitter aftertaste, unlike high-quality cinnamon.

Polish and Czech-made baking mixes can often contain different types of peppers, as well as bay leaves and mint.

When buying spice mixes, you need to carefully read the packaging: some manufacturers may add sugar, dyes (natural and non-natural), baking powder, etc. to the composition. In the title photo I have a mixture from Dr. Oetker (lower left), it is called that: not a mixture of spices, but a mixture for baking gingerbread.

Usually spice mixtures are already designed for a certain amount of flour (most often 500 g), and even recipes are printed on some bags.

Important! Star anise account for convenience, it is carried out with "asterisks", but only seeds are taken for baking. From cloves ideally, it is better to take only the upper part, but everyone has long forgotten about this :) True, if you want to be hot, you can take the cloves whole, but then do not add pepper to the mixture.

One more reminder. Sometimes, looking at and comparing different bags of spices, it seems to the buyer that since the composition is the same, the aroma, taste and effect of the spices will also be the same. So no :) What is written in the list-composition first, that is in the bag and most of all, i.e. The listing goes from the largest proportion to the smallest. This rule also applies, for example, to medicinal, cosmetic and hygiene products: whichever component is listed first on the package, that is the basis of the drug. Some components can be taken in equal proportions, but 99% of manufacturers do not write percentage composition on packages.

About the Hungarian spice mixture, you can also find information about the spices with which gingerbread was baked in the 18-19 centuries. Now I will write what is in some of the bags presented in the title photo.

Gingerbread Mix from Dr.Oetker: disodium diphosphate, sodium bicarbonate and 48% spices (ground cloves, cinnamon, allspice, ginger).

By the way, blends dominated by cloves exude a strong aroma through almost any package!

Mix for gingerbread from "Kotányi": cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, fennel, ginger, cloves, allspice, anise, star anise, black pepper, cardamom.

Mix for muffins from "Kotányi": sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, coriander, cloves, fennel, ginger, allspice, star anise, anise, black pepper, additional flavor (?), cardamom.

There are muffin mixes that, in addition to spices, also include citrus zest. By the way, zest is also included in some German gingerbread mixtures.

"Speculatiusgewürz" from "Ostmann": cinnamon, orange peel, lemon peel, cardamom, cloves, coriander, nutmeg.

"Lebkuchengewürz" from "Ostmann": cinnamon, orange peel, coriander, lemon peel, star anise, fennel, nutmeg, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom.

And that's all about gingerbread for now. See you next season! Although winter is still going on, and gingerbread aroma will soar in my kitchen until spring. Gingerbread is the most warming pastry! :)

35 gr cinnamon
9 gr cloves
2 g pepper (allspice or black)
2 gr coriander
2 gr ginger
1 g cardamom
1 gr muscat

There's something interesting here too: http://community.livejournal.com/pracooking/8207.html

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http://supercook.ru/decoration/pryan-dom-02.html - and here is a lot more important about gingerbread!

Any gingerbread is flavored with herbs or ground spices. This is an important part of the preparation.
DRY SPIRIT - Russian confectionery designation for a set of spices used in confectionery, especially in gingerbread.
Dry perfumes include (according to Pokhlebkin): cinnamon, black pepper, allspice, star anise, cloves, anise, ginger, coriander, lemon and orange peel, calamus, nutmeg, nutmeg, vanilla.
Typical of a good gingerbread dough is a whole mixture of spices: cloves, cinnamon, ginger, anise, coriander, cardamom, nutmeg, a little black pepper, paprika and salt, all crushed into a powder.
Also add crushed bitter almonds, lemon and orange zest.
Dry perfumes (flavoring additives) are laid at the dough kneading stage so that they properly soak the gingerbread dough with their smells.
You can use the compositions offered below or come up with your own branded one - the main thing is that the prepared spices in the finished and mixed form are pleasant to you.
If any component seems out of place or you just don't like its smell, change it at your discretion.
- 35% coriander,
- 30% cinnamon,
- 10% cardamom,
- 10% nutmeg,
- 5% cloves,
- 5% star anise,
- 5% allspice
Usually, 1-2 tsp are laid for 1 kg of gingerbread dough. mixture, necessarily pounded into the smallest dust.
(how much of this mixture to lay in the dough - this is decided according to your own taste, i.e. for the first time just add a little, sniff and try the dough, in the following preparations we lay according to our own experience)
- as additional elements in the gingerbread dough, you can add crushed lemon zest, orange, roasted and then grated nuts (for example, walnuts), a little vanilla.
All components must be thoroughly ground into dust and kneaded into the dough when it is still quite liquid.
Good results are obtained by an additional supplement of 1-2 tbsp. spoons of good cognac or rum per 1 kg of flour. Or part of the water can, according to taste, be replaced with good fortified wine (sherry, port, nutmeg, tokay, various dessert wines).
There are a lot of compositions of gingerbread dry perfumes - the masters of gingerbread have always kept them a big secret. For example, once in Tula, various private bakeries made wonderful gingerbread from many different types of gingerbread dough. After the hardships of the revolution and the Second World War, all gingerbread secrets were lost, and only thanks to a happy accident, it was possible to reliably restore a single recipe for Tula gingerbread, all other recipes were irretrievably lost. A lot had to be reinvented. Therefore, do not be afraid to experiment and create your own excellent gingerbread recipes.

SOME MORE OPTIONS OF gingerbread dry perfume
These and other variants of gingerbread mixtures are used mainly in the confectionery industry, where 1-2 teaspoons of powder are used per 1 kg of dough.

1st OPTION (in teaspoons):
- cinnamon - 4,
- star anise - 2,
- nutmeg - 1,
- ginger - 1,
- Jamaican pepper - 1,
- orange zest - 1,
- nutmeg color - 1/2,
- anise - 1/2,
- black pepper - 1/2.

2nd OPTION (in teaspoons):
- star anise - 3,
- anise - 2,
- cinnamon - 2,
- ginger - 1,
- lemon zest - 1,
- cloves - 1/2,
- nutmeg - 1/2,
- cardamom - 1/2.

3rd OPTION (in teaspoons):
- cinnamon - 4,
- star anise - 2,
- nutmeg - 1,
- ginger - 1,
- cardamom - 1/2,
- cloves - 1/2,
- lemon zest - 1/2,
- orange peel - 1/2,
- orange zest - 1/2,
- black pepper - 1/2,
- Jamaican pepper - 1/2.

NOTE.
Confectionery spice mixtures are used in many types of baking.
Usually they include in various versions such spices as anise (cookies, gingerbread, gingerbread); star anise (cakes, cookies, muffins, gingerbread); vanilla (all baked goods, cream, cakes, curd products); cloves (gingerbread); oregano (pizza); ginger (cookies, gingerbread, sweets, marmalade, jelly; an obligatory component of “dry spirits”); cardamom (cakes, cookies, honey cakes, gingerbread, yeast dough pies); coriander (bread, cookies, gingerbread, gingerbread); cinnamon (cookies, rolls, biscuit, gingerbread, gingerbread); lemon balm (cakes, pastries); nutmeg mixed with cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, star anise (gingerbread, gingerbread, cookies); black pepper (gingerbread); allspice or Jamaican pepper (gingerbread; included in the "dry spirits"); cumin (bread, cookies, gingerbread, buns, bagels, cheese sticks, cheese and cheese biscuits); saffron (as a flavoring and yellow dye for Easter cakes, muffins, rum babs).
Modern confectionery mixes in Russia, as well as in European countries, have many options, fairly stable recipes and usually consist of 7-10 spices.
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Something else that I thought was important! (all info from here)

Cooking gingerbread is a truly creative process that provides the master of gingerbread with the widest opportunities; It is not for nothing that gingerbread technologies at all times have been associated with many secrets and mysteries, which the masters carefully guarded from meticulous insidious competitors.