Recipe for honey hearts
The Sweet, Warm Christmas Season
Gingerbread cookies are an absolutely essential part of the Christmas season, many would argue. And I concur. It’s as simple as that.
For many, they are associated with countless childhood memories and traditions, and Christmas is indeed the epitome of a particularly tradition-rich time of year.
Since their origin, gingerbread has been something associated with festivities and love.
Before honey hearts became an almost fixed part of Christmas, gingerbread cookies were actually used to spread joy during the cold, dark winter months.
So yes, they are certainly a large and important part of the winter darkness.
However, they also suddenly become a very important part of autumn, at least if you want to make them yourself.
The starter dough for these honey hearts needs to be made at least a month in advance. At least if you want them to be the very best.
Christiansfeld and the Honey Hearts
Christiansfeld – or the Honey Cake Town, as it is also known – is famous for its gingerbread cookies. Here, gingerbread has been baked for more than 200 years.
The town was founded in 1773, and just 10 years later, the town’s “honey heart adventure” began, so it is understandable that these delightful cakes are such an entrenched part of the town’s history.
My husband actually grew up quite close to Christiansfeld, so you can understand my disappointment when I found out that he doesn’t eat honey hearts at all.
I do – and many I know – fortunately!
The Starter Dough and the Long Wait
Traditionally, the starter dough is actually begun up to 3 months in advance.
I’ve even seen examples of gingerbread cookies that are started a year in advance. Wow!
So you can see that one month can almost be considered a short time 😉
The reason the dough should preferably be made at least a month in advance is that it needs time to stand and mature.
It is actually a fermentation that occurs in the dough, and it is this fermentation that gives honey hearts (and gingerbread for that matter) their very characteristic texture and taste.
You can make the dough a few days in advance and still get a REASONABLE result, but you can definitely taste the difference.
Shelf Life After Baking
When the lovely gingerbread cookies are finally baked and ready to be enjoyed and shared with friends and family, they can keep for a few days on the counter if you cover them with a tea towel.
Otherwise, it’s a good idea to store them in an airtight container or cookie tin.
You can also store them in the refrigerator, where they will keep for up to a month.
I applied chocolate coating to all the honey hearts right away, but you can wait to coat them until the day they are either to be eaten or given away.
If you store the honey hearts without coating them immediately, it’s a good tip to place 1-2 slices of toast bread in the cookie tin. This way, the honey hearts can draw moisture from the toast and maintain their moist consistency a bit longer.
If the honey hearts become dry, you can try peeling a couple of potatoes and placing them in a plastic bag with the cookies to allow them to draw moisture from the potatoes for about a day.
Honey Hearts
Equipment
- Bowl
- Storage Container
- Stand Mixer
- Rolling Pin
- Heart cutter
- Oven
Ingredients
The Dough
- 500 gram Honey the classic yellow
- 500 gram Wheat Flour
The Gingerbread Dough
- 2 pcs. Egg Yolk
- 10 gram Hartshorn
- 30 gram Water
- 10 gram Potash
- 5 gram Cinnamon ground
- 5 gram Ginger ground
- 5 gram Cloves ground
Chocolate Coating
- 600 gram Chopped chocolate dark
- 20 Cake Decoration various glossy pictures - can be omitted
Instructions
The Pre-dough
- Start by adding flour and honey in a bowl and kneading it together with your hands.
- Next, transfer the dough to a container with a lid.
- Put the lid on the container.
- Let the dough sit in a warm place, for example, in a cupboard, for a month. You can also let the dough sit for even longer if you want. It will only get better.
- Take out a bowl and add the egg yolks.
- Add baker's ammonia and mix it with the yolks to a completely smooth consistency.
- Pour the water into a cup and mix in the potash. Don't be surprised if the cup gets quite warm, that's completely normal.
- Unwrap your pre-dough and place it in the mixing bowl of your mixer. Be prepared that the pre-dough has become hard - it can even be VERY hard.
- Add the egg yolk mixture and the water with potash. A chemical reaction occurs with the help of the potash, which helps to soften the dough. This may mean you have to wait a little while before proceeding - but don't worry, it will all end well.
- Let the machine mix the dough. First, set the machine to low speed and let it run for 3 minutes. Then, set the speed to high and let it run for another 3 minutes. You can also knead the dough by hand - it just takes a few minutes longer. If the machine starts to sound like it's struggling too much, stop the machine and continue kneading by hand. You can also knead it manually from the beginning; it just takes a few minutes longer. You can also add a little water, a bit at a time, if you find the dough too dry to work with.
- Take a rolling pin and roll out the dough on a floured surface. The dough should be just under half a centimeter thick.
- Next, use your cookie cutter to cut hearts out of the dough. If you don't have a heart-shaped cutter, you can also get creative and cut the dough into hearts with a sharp knife 🙂 Gather the leftover dough, roll it out again, and cut out more hearts.
- Preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius (355 degrees Fahrenheit) with fan.
- Take out your baking sheet and grease it with a little oil. Also, sprinkle some extra flour on it.
- Place the hearts on the baking sheet and put them in the preheated oven.
- Bake the honey hearts for about 10 minutes. The baking time depends on the oven, but you can tell if your honey hearts are ready by pressing lightly on top with your finger. If you see an imprint on the cakes, they are not quite done yet.
- Take the honey hearts out of the oven and let them cool by placing them on a rack. Don't be scared if the honey hearts are really hard - we'll fix that in a minute 🙂
- Moisten a dishcloth with a bit of water. It shouldn't be soaking wet, just damp.
- Now place the cooled honey hearts in a container (without a lid) and drape the dishcloth over the container.
- Put the container in the fridge and let it sit for about 4 days. During this time, the honey hearts will become wonderfully moist!
- Melt the chocolate chips over a water bath. You can also use a chocolate bar (coarsely chopped). In that case, you should use about 200 grams of chocolate. I use a good, strong dark chocolate with 85% cocoa.
- Lay the honey hearts out on the table and spread them with the chocolate using a brush.
- Press the glossy pictures into the wet chocolate. You could also have cut out various Christmas motifs from catalogs or similar.
- Let the chocolate coating harden.
- Now your honey hearts are ready to be enjoyed!
- Bon appétit and Merry Christmas!
