Baking and cooking recipe

The following recipe is a very simple, original recipe from the Ore Mountains, my father’s homeland. It is a memory of wonderful childhood years and the person who taught me contentment and respecting family ties. My father has lovingly revived this traditional recipe. He restored the beautiful old moulds and added many new ones to the gingerbread mould collection. For the Latrace gingerbread, a special wire was bent.

The “Bright Joy”, was so named by my father because really every person who received his painted gingerbread was so happy that their faces were filled with laughter and people were beaming from the inside out.

Baking-Cooking Recipe / Recipe “White Gingerbread” = “HELLE FREUDE” (Bright Joy)

Ingredients: 500 g sugar
1/8 l milk + 1/8 l water
20 g deer horn salt
1 packet vanilla sugar
1 kg flour, type 405
1 small egg

PREPARATION:

Dissolve the sugar in the milk and water mixture and bring to a boil while stirring.
Pour this hot mix into a larger (baking) bowl, stir in the staghorn salt, add the vanilla sugar a little later,
Leave to cool, stirring occasionally.

Stir flour and a small egg into the cooled mix, knead everything by hand into a smooth dough,
Leave the dough to rest (covered) for approx. 1 hour.

In the meantime, line baking trays with baking paper, preheat oven to 200°C.

Roll out the dough (in portions) on a floured cake board to a thickness of 3-5mm and cut out shapes.

Place the cut-out shapes spaced apart on the prepared tray and brush lightly with water just before baking.

Bake everything on the middle of the oven at 200°C with top and bottom heat for about 10 minutes – until the surface is slightly firm and the edges start to brown. The pieces should come away easily from the baking paper and be slightly browned on the underside as well.

Allow all pieces to cool and then POWDER them:
Stir food colouring powder into white liquor or STILL water and paint on the designs with a brush. Food-safe felt-tip pens or fineliners are also suitable for painting.

Good luck, enjoy baking and painting!

Gerhard Klemm, Christmas 2017,

Room recipe Radiant children’s hearts in the playroom

Latrace project: Dorint Hotel Messe Basel, 2021

The playroom on the fifth floor of the Dorint Messe Basel Hotel captivates all children. It shines in beautiful colours and new light. Although the former technical room measures just 8.4 square metres, it gives the children great pleasure and evokes pure joy and a real new feel-good atmosphere. The aroma walls made of natural pine wood and hay issue a beautiful fragrance and harmonise all the more the longer the children play. Even the “grown-ups” become envious and would love to exchange their window-workspace in normal rooms for the relaxed atmosphere in the windowless room…