Aachener Printen Recipe
Aachener Printen Recipe
The Aachener Printen Recipe is one of the classic German Recipes for Christmas cookies. This kind of Lebkuchen uses syrup instead of honey.
Ingredients for the Aachener Printen Recipe:
- 500 g (1.1 lb) of Rübensyrup (Grafschafter) OR Dark Corn Syrup
- 3 tablespoons of water
- 150 g (5.29 oz) of Turbinado Cane Sugar OR Kandiszucker
- 10 g (2 teaspoons) of Pottasche OR baking soda
- 1 tablespoon Rum OR water OR Rosewater, to dissolve the Pottasche/baking soda
- 100 g brown sugar OR dark brown sugar
- 600 g (1.32 lb) flour, all-purpose
- 80 g (2.28 oz) of orange peel, chopped
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of anis
- 1 teaspoon of coriander
- 1 pinch of cloves
- 1 tablespoon of cocoa
- 3 tablespoons of milk OR homemade sugar syrup, for brushing
Preparation of the Printen:
If you use Kandiszucker, place it in a plastic back and use a meat tenderizer to crush it into small pieces.
Dissolve the baking soda in the liquid you choose. Add the syrup, water, and dark brown sugar to a saucepan and heat it up until the sugar dissolves. Let it cool down. Chop the orange peel in a food chopper and place aside.
Mix the flour with the cocoa and sift it into a mixing bowl. Add the spices, dissolved baking soda/Pottasche, chopped orange peel, and turbinado sugar/Kandiszucker. Mix the ingredients using a whisk. Add the syrup mixture and knead the ingredients to a dough using a handheld mixer with kneading hooks. Continue kneading with your hands. Cover the dough in cellophane wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator overnight.
Finishing of the cookies:
Knead the dough again using your hands. If it is too sticky, add some flour, if it is too dry, add 1-2 tablespoons of warm water. Place the dough on a flour-covered working surface and cover with cellophane wrap. Roll the dough to 3-5 mm (¼ of an inch). Remove the cellophane wrap to cut the printen into rectangles 3 x 5 cm (1.2 x 2 inches). You can cut the printen using a rectangular cookie cutter or a pizza wheel.
Place the cookies on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Leave about 2.5 cm (1 inch) space between the cookies. Brush the cookies with the milk or use homemade sugar syrup. To prepare the syrup, mix 3 tablespoons of sugar with 3 tablespoons of water and heat it while continually stirring until the sugar dissolves. Let it cool down.
Preheat the oven to 180°C -360°F and place the printen on the middle rack and bake them for 12-15 minutes. Let the cookies cool down on a cooling rack.
To make the Original German Gingerbread Recipe click here, and the German Gingerbread Elisenlebkuchen click here.