Tomorrow’s the annual Gingerbread bonanza and here’s the secret recipe if you want to make some gingerbread men and reindeer yourself. The dough will be just big enough for making citizens for a small gingerbread village. If you want housing as well, you’ll need more dough.

• 3 dl (10 oz) brown sugar
• 3 dl (10 oz) light syrup
• 1 ts minced ginger
• 5 ts minced cinnamon
• 3 ts minced cloves
• 2 ts minced cardamom
• 2 ts baking soda
• 300 g (10,5 ounces) margarine
• 2 eggs
• 1 kg (2,2 pounds) flour

And here’s what you do with all those ingredients.

1. Heat the sugar and syrup until the sugar has melted, but make sure it doesn’t boil.
2. Mix the spices and the baking soda in the sugar & syrup mix.
3. Melt the margarine and add it to the same mix.
4. Whip the eggs and add them to the mix as well.
5. Now add flour in portions - not everything at once!
6. When all the flour is mixed well with the rest, leave the dough over night in the fridge, covered with a moist cloth.
7. When you eventually roll the dough, make sure you make it quite thin, but you probably will have to adapt it a little to your oven.
8. Poke the dough the tiny men a little with a fork before you put them in the oven.
9. The oven should be at 200 degrees Celsius (392 degrees Fahrenheit) and after about 12 minutes, your gingerbread men should be just right. Make sure to keep an eye on the first batch to make sure they don’t get burned.