Pierniczki

Piernik is Polish honey spice cake – pierniczki are little honey spice cakes

My Polish friend in Leeds was in Poland in November and bought some new bombki *(Christmas Tree ornaments).  These have wycinanki – Polish paper-cut designs(folk art popular since the mid 1800s) as their inspiration.

*Bombki – Glass baubles – in the past these were often blown eggs decorated with glitter. There are also many straw decorations – angels or stars.

Glass baubles originated in Germany in the 19th century  but they were soon being made in Poland with their large glass blowing industry.  Many are made in small family run workshops, some now specialise in individual and unusual designs.

She has included these and some angels in decorating a window in a chapel in Lancashire.

 

 

She also sent me a recipe for pierniczki – made with wheat and rye flour.

I tried them out – yummy – easy to make & cut out!

Ingredients

• 100g butter
• 100g runny honey
• 300g plain flour
• 100g rye flour
• 130g icing sugar
• 1 tablespoon of mixed spice (or 1 teaspoon each of ground cinnamon, cloves & cardamon)
• 1 tablespoon of cocoa
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda
• 2 large eggs – beaten
• Icing made with water or lemon juice to decorate

Method

• Put the butter and honey into a small saucepan and heat gently to melt.
• Leave to cool.
• Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
• Add the beaten eggs and the butter & honey mixture.
• Mix together to make a soft dough.
• The dough will be slightly sticky – do not add extra flour.
•  Pre-heat the oven to GM 4 – 180°C.
• Line baking sheets with greaseproof paper.
• Divide the dough into four.
• Use rye flour to flour the pastry board.
• Roll out the dough to around 4mm thickness (no less).
• Use cutters to cut out shapes.
• Place them on the baking sheets with a little room between.
• Bake for 9 -11 minutes.
• Leave to cool on a baking rack.
• *
• These piernicki should be soft.
• They are only semi-sweet.
• You can have decorating them with icing – I just did a bit of drizzling.