Crafting festive gingerbread: Expert tips on perfect white icing
Gingerbread biscuits without decoration? That's impossible. Icing gives them an elegant, festive look. The classic choice is white icing, which is easy to make at home. It requires just a few ingredients and promises plenty of joy during the decorating process.
The magic of Christmas begins when the aroma of freshly baked gingerbread fills the house. Some may debate whether the joy comes more from preparing or decorating, but children definitely love the latter. It's a perfect excuse to spend time with children, friends, and family in a warm, festive atmosphere. Decorating requires concentration but also has a calming effect.
Traditional and elegant decoration
Icing is a sugar mixture that has been a staple in traditional baking for years. It works wonderfully on doughnuts, sweet buns, and especially gingerbread biscuits. For gingerbread, the icing should be both thick and pliable, with the added benefit of hardening quickly. During the festive season, shops offer a wide range of ready-made icings, often very easy to use. However, crafting your own icing is quite simple. It's not just about the ingredients, since it's mainly sugar, but homemade icing is free from preservatives. More importantly, making your own provides satisfaction. Christmas gingerbread biscuits become a homemade delicacy from start to finish.
Icing requires only a few ingredients
To make the perfect icing for gingerbread biscuits, you only need a few staple ingredients, likely already in your kitchen. Icing made from icing sugar, egg whites, and lemon juice hardens quickly, doesn’t drip, and maintains a pristine white colour along with a zesty lemon flavour. The lemon juice also helps prevent the icing from cracking.
Proportions according to my grandmother
The key to successful icing is getting the proportions right. My grandmother always followed a sugar to egg white ratio of 5:1. Practically, if the egg white weighs about 30 grams, you add 150 grams of icing sugar. Preparing it takes just a moment, and the icing consistently turns out well. You can add food colouring if you wish, but the most elegant version is, of course, the classic white.
Icing recipe
Ingredients:
- 2 medium egg whites, about 50 grams,
- 250 grams of icing sugar,
- a tablespoon of lemon juice.
Instructions:
- Add lemon juice and icing sugar to the egg whites.
- Mix all ingredients using a mixer on low speed with dough hook attachments.
- After a few minutes, the icing should be smooth and elastic. It's ready for decorating gingerbread biscuits immediately.
