I’ve wanted to post this recipe since New Year’s Eve. It was inspired by a delicious carrot and ginger soup served in Kenya. Marcel prepared it, to give me something vegetarian to eat at the passing between the years.

He used:

150g butternut squash

salt

10g ginger

a clove of garlic

100ml water

Is it easy to make? Very easy! Clean the butternut squash, cut it into slices, and let it sit in the oven for one hour in a baking pan lined with baking parchment at 180-200⁰C.

Then, while they’re still hot, blend them with the salt, ginger, garlic, and water. Serve it after 1-2 minutes.

Mmm... This is how I entered 2024. J

P.S. If you let the butternut squash cool, pour hot water into the blender.

4 baking pans

75g sugar

125ml water

125g brown sugar

1 egg

100g butter (at room temperature)

400g flour (+50g extra flour for kneading)

½ sachet baking powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

+flour for rolling out the dough

(options:

1 tbsp nutmeg powder

1 tbsp ginger powder/1 tbsp grated fresh ginger)

I have repeatedly said that I’d search for my Mom’s gingerbread recipe and my dear friend Corina came up with the idea to test it before St. Nicholas. Which we did, with the help of 3 cute boys and some 36-year-old handwritten instructions.

Leave the sugar caramelise on medium heat and pour water over it [you may reheat the mixture until the sugar melts if you get lumps].

Mix the brown sugar and the egg; add the butter, the syrup mentioned above, the flour, the baking powder, and the cinnamon. [By dividing the dough into 4 pieces, we added cinnamon to only 2 pieces and sprinkled cinnamon on top of the gingerbread baked out of one of the two pieces.] You may add nutmeg and ginger if you wish.

Wrap the dough into a plastic film and let it sit in the fridge for half an hour.

When the time is up, divide the dough into the 4 pieces mentioned above, add only a little bit of flour and roll one piece out (you should get a thickness of approx. 1-1.5 cm) and then cut out the gingerbread cookies and place them into a baking pan lined with baking parchment.

Bake the gingerbread in the preheated oven, at 160°C, for 10-12 minutes.

We didn’t want to decorate our gingerbread cookies, but they turned out great – much like our baking collaboration! ♥

They were even tastier the next day!