Happy Merry Christmas to everybody! and thank you so much, Robyn (RobynNZ)!  She is the one of  TFL members who taught me the great Christmas tree recipe that she found, and more than that, she is  the one who encouraged me to join with TFL. I was very nervous to write about my bread in English. I can't thank her enough as I see that she has been helping everybody here beside me. 

You can see the detail from here.

I hope that everybody will have very nice Christmas and a Happy New Year,

Akiko

Here is my Finnish mother inlaw's recipe for Gingerbread Cookies! It is hard to duplicate them just like hers because their ingredients taste different and they have a lot of different flours and different syrup too. These are still really good with the crushed cardamom! Enjoy! Julie J

Finnish Gingerbread Cookies

1 ¼ cup sugar
1 ½ cup dark Karo syrup (not brown sugar Karo syrup)
4 tsp. crushed cardamom (not ground**)
1 large orange (grated peel only)
1 ½ tsp. cloves
3 ½ tsp. ginger
3 ½ tsp. cinnamon
2 sticks butter (1 cup)
½ cup whipping cream
8 cups flour
2 eggs
2 tsp. baking soda

Put the sugar and the next 6 ingredients in a pot on the stove and stir until it boils. Turn off heat and add butter and stir until melted. Cool for a while on the stove and stir in cream when it is still warm.

Add baking soda to flour and sift. Transfer contents of pot on stove to a pretty large bowl. Add flour and egg gradually with a mixer until a dough forms. Cut into 6 pieces and wrap in plastic wrap after shaping into a rectangle. Chill overnight. Roll out between 2 sheets of white parchment paper (approx. 16 inches long) that fit on a cookie sheet. Cut out gingerbread and bake at 375 degrees for about 6 or 7 minutes on the sheet you rolled them out on. Store in airtight tin can.

P.S. I put my dough in the freezer for about 2 months before Christmas for added flavor, and then I can bake one or two packs at a time, instead of trying to do the whole recipe right at Christmas!

Enjoy! These are much better rolled out really thin and baked crispy!

** I bring home crushed cardamom from Finland, and you can only buy whole pods of cardamom or ground cardamom in the U.S. You can make it with ground cardamom, but I don't think you will get the same bite of flavor with the ground that you do with the crushed cardamom. You bite into the seeds and get a nice burst of flavor with the crushed cardamom. You can order cardamom seeds online without the green pod, and crush them in a coffee grinder until they have a sand-like consistency. The crushed cardamom feels like sand. I've tried taking the green pod off the whole pod of cardamom and it was such a task, that I would order the seeds online! Enjoy!