Once you arrive in Pulsnitz, you will be able to savour the uniquely appetising smell of gingerbreads across and throughout the small town. But how is Original Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen actually made?

Following an old tradition, specially prepared dough is made from sugar syrup, invert sugars, natural honey, and wheat and rye flour. We pour the liquid dough along with flour into the dough machine, and mix and knead them together, until the dough becomes a paste. It is then placed in wooden casks where it is stored for between three weeks and six months, or longer, depending on the type of gingerbread we want to make. In former times, when a son was born to a master gingerbread maker, the master would make a dough base, which would not be blended until the son’s wedding.

Once the period of storage is over the dough has become relatively solid. For this reason it is “broken up” in special dough machines ready for the next stages, and mixed with more ingredients, such as spices (cinnamon, aniseed, ginger, cardamom, coriander, mace, cloves, allspice, natural flavours, almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts) and salts of hartshorn as a baking agent, and then kneaded again till supple.

This dough mix can now be rolled out on the work table to a given thickness, so that various shapes can then be cut out of it, such as hearts, stars, circles, figures, tongues, rectangles etc. After the shaped gingerbreads are laid out on baking trays, they are baked for about 4 to 10 minutes at 260 - 290oC.

Once the gingerbread has cooled down, it can be made still further refined by being given a filling of jam or nougat, covered with white or brown sugar, chocolate glaze or chocolate, or garnished with almonds, hazelnuts and walnuts. In addition we decorate the gingerbreads with white and coloured icing.

Now the gingerbread is packed and it will reach you direct by mail, or be sold in our shop, or on the stalls of weekly and special markets.

Storing gingerbread

Original Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen should be kept at a temperature of 10 - 15oC and air humidity of approximately 70%. Opened packages should be resealed, so as to minimise moisture loss.

If gingerbread hardens, we know an old method to reverse this process: Put the gingerbread together with one or two apples in a container that can be sealed for three days. Over this time the gingerbread takes in moisture from the apples and becomes soft again.

Should you ever receive chocolate gingerbread where the chocolate has light brown patches, then this is due to your parcel having been stored (by the parcels post service) in excess heat. Only the appearance of the gingerbread will have altered as a result. Its quality will remain intact however, still keeping its good flavour and aroma.