Spicy Honey-Gingerbread

The rolled dough can be cut into plain squares or fancy cookie forms. Depending on the size, this recipe yields 25-50 cookies.

1 3/4 cups (437 mL) unpasteurized honey
3/4 cup (187 mL) organic demerara sugar
2 cups (500 mL) whole wheat pastry flour, fine ground
2 cups (500 mL) dark whole rye flour
1 tsp (5 mL) each of ground cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, coriander
1/4 tsp (1 mL) each of ground white pepper, mace, ginger and allspice
3/4 cups (187 mL) butter
1/2 cup (125 mL) organic blanched, skinned, halved almonds for decoration
Marsala or Port wine to glaze

Icing:
1 cup (250 mL) dried cane sugar (Sucanat)
lemon juice

Preheat oven to 340°F (175°C). Melt honey in double boiler, then mix with the other ingredients and knead to dough consistency. Let rest overnight.

Roll the dough to one-fifth inch (half cm) thickness, cut out into various forms and decorate with almond halves. Lightly brush the cookies with Marsala or Port wine. Bake for 15-20 minutes, brushing a few times with the wine during baking.

Icing:
Put sucanat through sieve, then mix well with just enough lemon juice to spread. Sucanat replaces regular icing sugar in this case so be sure you don't make it too thin. Test the mixture on one cookie first.

Source: alive Magazine (pre-2000)