In Finland, we celebrate people’s name days. Today, the celebrations are up for Anna and several other common Finnish women. The name day tradition is actually very old; the names have been celebrated since the year 1700!
I personally have not ever thrown a party for the occasion, but I have congratulated and received congratulations on both. I love it when there are even small traditions to break the everyday routine a bit.
A little research on the internet teaches that the day of Anna has been the beginning of Christmas preparations for a long time. People have usually worked at night, starting the cooking and baking work by baking bread and brewing Christmas beer. During those days, it was common to retire early and get up early (because people had farm animals, I guess), but in the day of Anna (which was known to be super long because it is so dark here in the north), it was common to stay awake.
I am also starting the Christmas household tasks today. But since I do not like beer and my mom has already promised to bake all the breads we are going to have for the Christmas Eve feast, I am not doing either of the traditional things. I am preparing some gingerbread dough, so I can build a gingerbread cookie house later this month instead.
Because of some dietary restrictions in my local circle, I am going to do it gluten-free. This is going to be a challenge, since the gluten-free gingerbread is very fragile. I am trying to follow the recipe from Gluteenitonta leivontaa -blog, but sadly I am able to confirm the results later.
Gluten-free gingerbread house
- 2 tbsp cinnamon
- 1 tbsp ginger
- 0,5 tbsp carnation
- 1 tbsp bitter orange peel
- 0,25 tbsp ground pepper
- 0,25 tbbs salt
- 1 dl sugar
- 1 dl dark syrup
- 100 g butter
- 1 egg
- 5,5 dl Semper fine gluten-free flour
- 1 tbsp baking soda
- 1,5 tbsp psyllium powder
- 1 tbsp xantan
potato starch for baking
- Measure the spices, sugar, and suryp in a kettle and boil them on low heat while mixing at the same time.
- Let the mixture cool down a bit, then add the butter and the egg. Mix well.
- Add flour mixed with soda.
- Let it cool down in the fridge for at least 3 hours.
- Form into cookies
- Bake at 225°C for 6-7 minutes.
- Let it harden for a few days.
- Use melted sugar to set the house up. Decorate with candy and royal icing (powdered sugar-water mix).
The picture in the recipe looks so fancy. Now I have to add the realistic shots, and I regret it. But life is not a show; a moment can be good without looking like that in the photos. The pieces of the house themselves do not look perfect, but they felt pretty sturdy. This is a very good sign, considering they have to be built into a house. The building itself will probably happen on December 23, so I will add a picture of the finished house then.
I also added a surprise picture of my parents’ cat. She was not so enthusiastic about getting photographed today, so the picture is blurry. In any case, have a great day, everybody!
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