Pierniczki

Pierniczki are a traditional Polish honey cookie, which can include ginger and become gingerbread cookies) As a young child I remember Pierniczki hanging on the Christmas tree, along with wrapped lollies, but nowadays we seem to have moved towards more formal Christmas decorations.

I have used this recipe a few times now and have modified it to suit myself (so no ginger for a start, and no chocolate). The idea is that these cookies can be decorated with white icing, and served as a desert, or eaten just as they are. They are crunchy when they first come out of the oven and will remain crunchy if kept in a sealed box (apparently up to 4 months, but I have never managed to keep them that long).

Feel free to play around with the ingredients, especially the spices according to your taste preferences. Also, we have discovered that Sakari and Cygan love pierniczki, so if you have dogs, perhaps keep them out of reach.

Ingredients

Dough

• 1kg plain flour

• 300 g unsalted butter

• 250 g sugar (white is fine, brown will make them harder)

• 250 g golden syrup (though the recipe says honey, I tend to use golden syrup for the more bitter taste and for the darker colour)

• 2 tsp cinnamon

• 2 tsp allspice

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp bicarb soda (I often leave this out)

• 3 egg yolks

• 5 tbs sweet cream

Icing

• 1 egg white.

• 1.5 cups of icing sugar

Method

Dough

1. In a pot, melt the sugar, golden syrup, all spice, cinnamon, stirring continuously until all of the ingredients have combined. Be careful to not allow this to burn, and be careful as melted sugar is very hot.

2. Set aside to cool. Once it is cool, add the bicarb soda (it will bubble and can burn if the mixture is too hot). Once cooler, add the egg yolks, one at a time, mixing thoroughly between each egg.

3. Sift the flour with the baking powder and add to the sweet mix. Mix the dough. At the end, add the sweet cream and knead until it becomes a combined dough. It needs to be sufficiently dry to roll out and cut cookies but if it is too dry, it will crumble when you are cutting the cookies.

4. Roll out the dough (you can store this in the fridge and roll it out later if you wish). Roll out to a thickness of approx. 5-7 mm.

5. Cut out the pierniczki with your preferred cutters. (If you are hanging these on the Christmas tree, remember to press holes into the tops before baking)

6. Bake each tray in the oven for a maximum of 10 mins (180 °C). If the cookies are baked for longer than 10 mins, they will become bitter and darker. Place aside to cool before packing them into storage tins. If you leave them outside, they will become softer.

Icing

1. Beat the egg whites until peaks form, slowly adding 1 cup icing sugar (you can use caster sugar instead if you wish). Continue to mix and add sugar until the mixture is solid and not runny.

2. If you wish to, you can divide the icing into smaller batches and add food colouring for a more exciting decoration. I use small piping bags when I decorate. If you decorate the pierniczki, you will need to leave them out to dry/set before putting them away.

Smacznego