Method:
1. Mix butter, syrup and sugar in a pot. Heat until the sugar melts. Add cloves, ginger, pepper, and cinnamon, blending together well.
2. Remove the pot from the stove and allow the mixture to cool for a while. Mix in the eggs.
3. Add baking soda, and add flour through a sieve. Mix everything together to make an even dough. The dough should be quite soft and sticky. It hardens up quite a bit when it's cold!
4. Place the dough inside a large bowl and sprinkle some flour on top. Cover with plastic wrap and leave the dough to cool for a few hours, or even overnight.
5. Slice off a section of the dough. Place the rest of the dough in the fridge to keep it cool. Gently knead the dough. Add a little more flour if it is too soft.
6. Use a rolling pin to flatten the dough to a thickness of approx. 3 mm. It's easiest when the dough is soft like plasticine. Cut out gingerbread shapes and move them over to a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Gather together any leftover dough and place in the fridge. Slice off a new piece of dough and repeat the process. It's difficult to work with the dough if it becomes too warm. If the dough becomes too warm, place it back in the fridge again.
7. Bake the cookies in the middle of the oven at 175 °C for approx. 10 minutes. Remove and cool the cookies down on a cooling rack.
8. Mix powdered sugar, egg white, and lemon juice into a thick icing, and decorate the cookies.
Store gingerbread cookies in a sealed biscuit tin or container.
Blue cheese topping
1. Slice the blue cheese into eight thin slices and place one slice on top of each of the eight cookies.
2. Top with fig jam or another jam. Garnish with fresh thyme (optional) and serve.
Feel free to substitute fig jam with a different jam if you like. Blackcurrant and apricot are both very good in combination with blue cheese and gingerbread cookies.
And voila! You have the perfect evening snack or as a simple Christmas tapas when you have guests over on a Christmas visit.