The failure gingerbread recipe, that didn't turn out as a failure after all. 

So first of advent, you've hung up the advent star in the window (Norwegian tradition) but you still don't feel like it's enough. Something is missing, the smell of Christmas and traditions are missing.

I decided to go ahead and make some gingerbread and found two recipes, two completely different recipes but mixed together, a big failure you might think, but surprise surprise (!) It's actually one of the best gingerbreads I've ever had!

The recipe asks for baking soda, which I thought I had, but I didn't so I substituted with baking powder. The result? The same.

Start with 3 cups of flour in one bowl, add 1tsp salt, 2tsp baking powder, 2tsp cinnamon, 1 1/2tsp ground ginger and 1tsp ground cloves, mix it all up and set aside.

In the next bowl, you want to cut up about 250g of cold butter and again, set aside.

Take out your saucepan, heat up 250g of white sugar and 250g (roughly 2,5dl) of syrup (dark, light, you pick). Bring it up to a boil and add 1tsp cinnamon, 1/2tsp ground ginger and 1tsp of ground cloves, stir and let it simmer for 30 seconds. Add the baking powder (1tsp) and stir well. The mixture will now be a bit lighter.

Once mixed, pour the mixture over the cold butter. Bring out your elbow grease and stir until the mixture is cold. Once cold, you want to add two eggs which are lightly beaten. Mix well.

Now you can start adding the flour mixture, a bit at the time. Stir, add, stir again and repeat until all the flour is mixed. If you feel like you need more flour, add whatever you need.

Once mixed, place the dough covered in plastic, in the fridge. Set for overnight. The next day you'll want to knead the dough for a bit before you star rolling it out. Set the oven to 200C and cook the gingerbreads for about 10 minutes.

They are so good, crispy and tastes exactly like Christmas!

So what's better on a cold and wet autumn night than pumpkin soup? The whole pumpkin soup or pumpkin pie for that matter has never been something Norwegians put on top of their list, but it's definitely being more recognized for the amazing plant it is.

My Australian partner told me how much he loves it when they have pumpkin soup at his office, I figured I should try making it for him (for both of us of course) and this delicious soup is what I ended up with.

Pumpkin soup in 3,3L Le Creuset

1 tsp oil (I use a mix between canola oil and olive oil)
1 yellow onion
1 clove of garlic

2 glasses of water (about 1L)
1/2 pumpkin (I used the regular one, but you can use whatever you have on hand)
3 small potatoes
3 medium sized carrots

1 dice of vegetable broth

Cut all the vegetables into dices, or small cubes.

Heat up the pot with a teaspoon of oil and cook the onion and garlic. Once the garlic and onion have turned somewhat transparent, add the pumpkin, potatoes, and carrots. Add the broth to the mixture and then the water. Let this cook and simmer on medium for about 40 minutes, or until the pumpkin has turned into a bright orange color. It should be easy to "smash" it.

Now, you can either use a hand blender or a big blender. I have a Kenwood machine where I can attach a blender to it and this is method is definitely my favorite method. Make sure you take some of the broth out of the pot, if not the soup might be more runnier than creamy. Once blended, add salt, pepper and cayenne to taste.

Serve with fresh bread with butter.