19 Dec My mum’s recipe for Polish, Christmas gingerbread
An old Polish recipe for old Polish gingerbread
Gingerbread is something that my mum makes every single Christmas. Actually, the whole process starts in November, because this is “piernik staropolski dojrzewajacy”, which means “maturing, old-Polish gingerbread”. However, if you would like to make it this Christmas, then just leave it for a s long as you can. If you made the dough today and let it mature until Boxing Day, I think you could achieve lovely gingerbread too, which you could eat in the holidays. It’s a fun activity to do with the kids. They love cutting out the shapes and then decorating them.
Polish gingerbread history
Germany would probably dispute that gingerbread was born in Poland, but I think we can safely say that Poland has a very strong history of it at the very least. This is based around the town of ToruĊ. We visited last summer and learnt all about the old Polish gingerbread at one of it’s museums. We even made some decorative gingerbread according to the ancient recipe. The decorative ones, it turns out, are not for eating, even though I did used to nibble on them as a child. They were given as gifts to Kings and Queens in the olden days, made in their likeness and often gilded in gold leaf.
Ingredients for gingerbread
In terms of honey, I would advise going to the Polish shop to get a lovely, dark variety, such as Buckwheat honey. It’s not particularly runny, but you can just heat it up. In terms of spices, my mum also gets mixed spices for gingerbread from the Polish shop in 20g packets. However, I prefer to make the mix myself, like a gingerbread garam masala. Below, you will fine the recipe for the spice mix from my first cookbook, Polska, which I have tripled to fit in with this recipe. You can use either a pestle and mortar or a coffee grinder to grind them together. Throw the cardamon shells away once the seeds have popped out.
A recipe for Polish gingerbread
This is the edible gingerbread recipe, which can also be very decorative and beautiful. You could even make Christmas decorations with it, if you add a little hole to pull a ribbon through.
My mum’s recipe for Polish, Christmas gingerbread
An old Polish recipe for old Polish gingerbread, makes enough dough for a large tiered gingerbread cake, and many cut out gingerbreads or various shapes and sizes. Do halve it if you cannot commit to hours of decorating.
Ingredients
500g good quality honey
250g golden caster sugar (or equivalent)
250g butter
3 eggs
3 teaspoons baking soda
125ml milk
1/2 teaspoon salt
40g spice mix
1kg plain flour
- Gingerbread spice mix
6 teaspoons ground ginger
1.5 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1.5 teaspoon allspice
1.5 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon (flat) salt
1 teaspoon (flat) black pepper
15 cardamom pods
9 cloves
3 star anise
Directions
- In a pan, heat the honey, sugar and butter until the sugar has dissolved. Cool.
- Place the flour in a large bowl, add the spices and baking soda. Whisk together.
- Pour the the cooled honey mixture into the flour mixture and mix together. Kneed with your hands until everything in thoroughly combined.
- Place the dough in a stone or glass container, cover with a tea towel and leave in a cool place to rest for 5-6 weeks.
- Add a bit of flour before using. You can roll it out and cut it about or roll into thin snake shapes and cut into chunks (my preferred method), baking then rolling in icing or melted chocolate and using rose petals for topping. You can also bake thinly in baking trays, then layer with plum or rose jam.