Pfeffernusse

Beat 115 g of room-temperature butter with 165 g of raw sugar until fluffy.

Once the butter and sugar are well combined with the Whisk, add 2 tsp of Ginger powder.

Add 1 tsp of cinnamon and 1 tsp of baking soda.

Add 1 tsp of vanilla aroma and 1/2 tsp of salt, then stir through again.

Using a steel Grater, grate the zest of one mandarin and half a Tonka bean over the top. Then switch to the paddle attachment and stir everything through once more.

Finally, add 170 g of molasses, 1 egg and 390 g of flour, then mix everything again with the paddle attachment.

Do not knead the dough too much. If it still looks crumbly, finish shaping it by hand. Mixing for too long gives you cookies that rise too much in the oven and lose their shape. Place the finished dough on a sheet of baking paper and cover it with cling film: that makes it far easier to roll out than under a second sheet of baking paper.

Roll the dough out evenly with a large rolling pin and the 5 mm rolling guides, then put it in the freezer for 15 minutes. This makes it much easier to cut out shapes, especially with children. To move it, slide it onto a flat tray or a cutting board.

Preheat the oven to 180 °C fan. Take the dough out of the freezer and cut out the cookies. I used two sets: house and gingerbread man as well as reindeer and Santa.

Transfer the cookies with a small angled spatula onto a perforated baking tray with a perforated mat and bake them for 8 minutes.

Put 225 g of royal icing powder into a clean, grease-free mixing bowl and add 30 g of cold water.

Stir with the whisk on a low setting, which is crucial. If you beat it too fast, you get a meringue mass that can no longer be piped. If the icing is too thick, add water drop by drop, ideally with a dosing bottle. If you want to color it, add the gel color first and only afterwards, if needed at all, the water. The consistency is right when the icing flows in a thread from the spoon lifted 10 cm, without being watery.

Insert the large part of the adapter into the 30-cm piping bag, cut off the tip with scissors, place the 1-mm nozzle on top and screw the ring over it tightly. Then fill in the royal icing.

Now you can do whatever you like, this is all about the fun. Children especially enjoy this part the most.