Note: This Aachener Printen recipe was originally part of my Biscuit Advent Calendar, a one-recipe-a-day email series in December. I’m gradually turning those recipes into proper blog posts so they’re easier to find. You can find the other recipes and sign up for the next round if you want here.

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Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without gingerbread. There are a few traditional types in Germany and seemingly endless variations. By far the two most famous cities associated with gingerbread are Aachen and Nürnberg, each with their own style and I’ll give you recipes for both this month. Today we start with Aachener Printen.

Their origin goes back to the 15th century, although the history is murky: a mix of pilgrims, immigrants, and eventually a bakery founded in 1688 that is now one of Germany’s biggest commercial producers of gingerbread: Lambertz. The peculiar thing about Printen is that they contain no eggs and no fat. No butter, no oil, not even nuts. Just flour, sugar, spices, and a special kind of leavening.

Printen —like most spice-heavy foods— benefit from the dough being made well in advance.

Leavening: a brief chemistry detour

The two traditional German Christmas leavening agents are:

• Hirschhornsalz (salt of hartshorn: ammonium carbonate. Yes, it makes your kitchen smell like a dungheap. I find that disconcerting so I generally don’t bake with it.)
• Pottasche (potash: potassium carbonate, a water-soluble alkaline salt)

Fun fact: the word potassium comes from potash, because it was originally made by evaporating lye from wood ash boiled in pots. Potash is very alkaline. That means:

• It speeds up the Maillard reaction (brown & delicious)
• It relaxes gluten (less toughness)
• It helps the spices develop their full flavour.

You can buy potash in Germany and Luxembourg in the supermarket at Christmas time. Otherwise, you can order it from German shops on the internet. Wherever you are, it seems to always be this one:

Sweetness

Originally, Printen were sweetened with honey, but later sugar beet syrup became the ingredient of choice. It’s definitely possible that the industrial production of sugar was what made Printen truly popular. By the 19th century, sugar had become much more affordable. In any case, the syrup’s deep brown colour and distinctive malty flavour are an essential part of a traditional Printe now.

I suspect the earliest Printen don’t have that much to do with the version we know and love and were closer to the biscuits still made today in Dinant, Belgium: beautiful honey cakes that are so hard that you’re supposed to let them slowly dissolve on your tongue rather than try to bite into them (you can try, but mind your jaw).

Because of potash’s alkalinity, you need some acidity to avoid a soapy, bitter taste. Sugar beet syrup has that built in. If you’re using honey or regular sugar syrups, add a few drops of lemon juice to balance it.
If you can’t (be bothered to) get sugar beet syrup, you can substitute:

• UK: golden syrup + molasses (2:1)
• US: light corn syrup + molasses (2:1), or if using blackstrap molasses then make it 3:1
• DE/LU: honey + molasses (2:1)
• Rest of the world: I don’t know what’s available but you get the idea

Spices

Printen, unlike other gingerbreads, are heavily flavored with star anise (and they are not the only traditional biscuit like that). I use my own mix: star anise, cinnamon, allspice, cardamom, nutmeg, coriander. And yes, I enjoy the crunch of a not-perfectly-ground star anise piece. Call me weird.
You can also use regular gingerbread spice/pumpkin spice or if you have nothing else: cinnamon.

Final Words

Good news for the handsy ones: this is a dough that wants you to knead it. Go wild.

Optionally you can add candied peel, crystallized ginger, coarse sugar (kneaded into the dough for extra crunch) and decorate with slivered/halved almonds. You can also dip the Printen in chocolate if you’re so inclined. (Aachen bakers are also not overly purist about this).

This dough goes a long way, so you can make half the recipe and still get around 50–60 biscuits.