Toruń, Poland, home of Nicholas Copernicus, is one of many European cities that claims to have invented pierniczki, Polish gingerbread cookies. One story goes that woman had consumed a little too much mead and made the happy mistake of adding honey and spices to bread she was making.
The city, which is one of the few in Poland not damaged during World War II, even hosts a Gingerbread Museum. When we spent the night in Toruń on a Thanksgiving road trip, the hotel left individually wrapped gingerbread cookies on our pillows.
After seeing the beautiful gingerbread figures available at most festivals in the Stary Rynek (Old Market Square) in Poznan, I wanted to buy some wooden gingerbread molds to bring home with me. They’re not easy to find. I found my first at a gingerbread shop in Gdansk (they only had two and my friend bought the other for her daughter), subsequent wooden molds were purchased at a wonderful souvenir shop in Toruń (I wish I had the address), and finally. . .
I bought a large reversible mold (a man on one side, a woman on the other) in an antique store in Amsterdam, so I guess technically this one would be a speculaas mold. I think the large size be striking to use in holiday decorating.
Gingerbread houses – an annual tradition
A few years later
I’ve made gingerbread in the past. I used to make three gingerbread houses every Christmas for our daughters to decorate. My American recipe uses molasses. The Polish recipe I used for inspiration, from Moje Wypieki, uses honey and is a little softer than what I’ve worked with in the past.
The finished texture is light and lovely. One change that I will make next time is to reduce the baking soda. I hope with less leavening, the details from the mold will be more distinct after baking.
This is the first time I’ve used the gingerbread molds, which I have seasoned previously with mineral oil. It was fun to try them out. After rolling the dough, I patted and pressed it into the molds, which I lightly dusted with powdered sugar to be sure the gingerbread would release. It worked like a charm.
I trimmed the pattern before baking, using a combination of a pizza cutter, a little pasta cutter, and the corner of my metal spatula. My royal icing piping isn’t precise enough to accent the lines in the molds, so Ed had the good idea of spreading icing on the relief and then wiping it off, almost as if I were antiquing furniture. It highlights the pattern better. I may also leave them plain in the future.
In addition to my wooden molds, I tried out two large Christmas cookie cutters and made a bunch of little hearts. I piped a little royal icing on the larger cookies and the molded gingerbread, but I left my little hearts plain, but you could certainly sprinkle them with coarse sugar or sprinkles before baking, or coat with a thin glaze after baking. Traditional pierniczki should look rustic, not too perfect. It would be a great baking project for kids.
This is one of the 54 recipes in my Polish cookbook. Available on my website and on Amazon!
Pierniczki for Valentine’s Day too!
While Pierniczki is a traditional cookie for Christmas, it appears at other times of the year too. It’s a favorite treat for decorating and adding piped sentiments for all kinds of occasions, Valentine’s Day or Walentynki, Dzien Kobiet,
I’ve just done some with Kocham Cię (I love you) for Valentine’s Day. It’s a simple royal icing tinted with Wilton gel colors.
Smacznego!
Lois
PS – There have been some comments that people have found this dough too dry and crumbly. Check the recipe note and trust your instincts. If it seems like the dough is becoming too dry, stop adding flour, and spoon or two of water until your dough is soft and pliable.
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Pierniczki Polish Gingerbread Cookies
- Prep Time: 15 mins
- Cook Time: 30 mins
- Total Time: 45 mins
- Yield: 50 little cookies 1x
- Category: Dessert
- Cuisine: Polish
Description
A light, crisp, spice cookie
Ingredients
- 1/4 cup honey (spray the measuring cup with oil and the honey will pour out easily)
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/2 cup brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 1/4 cups flour (you might like to try rye flour)
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cocoa
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350
- In a saucepan, heat the honey, butter, and brown sugar over medium heat until the butter melts and sugar dissolves
- Remove from heat, cool if the mixture is too warm. You don’t want to scramble the egg you’re adding in the next step
- Stir in egg
- Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cocoa, and salt
- Roll out dough on a lightly floured surface, about 1/4 inch thick
- Cut into sharpes or press into prepared molds
- Bake on a parchment lined cookie sheet, about 8 minutes
Notes
A couple of readers have had trouble with the dough being too crumbly, a sign of too much flour or too little liquid. Measure carefully, and you may want to add the flour gradually, stopping before it becomes difficult to work in the flour. The dough should be soft and pliable.
Sherri Merlo
I can’t wait to try these! !
polishhousewife
Smacznego, Sherri!
Elizabeth Beaudoin
Lois, thank you again. I love the stories that come with the recipes. Having only been in Poland once, they serve as mini tour guides and history lessons at the same time. Keep up the wonderful work. We just had our first snow here in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada so the Christmas lights look festive against a white background.
Can’t wait to try the recipe. I have never made it with the addition of cocoa but it makes sense as you don’t have the molasses to lend the colour to the batter.
polishhousewife
Elizabeth, you are too kind; thanks for sharing this culinary journey with me! Ottawa sounds lovely. They’re predicting 88 F (31 C) here in Tucson for American Thanksgiving on Thursday.
You’re exactly right about the cocoa. It’s there to add a bit of color. I loved this recipe; I’m sure I’ll make it again before Christmas.
David
Wonderful- and a good use for my speculaas molds! Happy Thanksgiving!
polishhousewife
Thanks, David; happy Thanksgiving to you and Markipedia too!
Eva Uczynski
Lois – Thank you for sharing your recipe for the traditional Pierniczki gingerbread cookie. I made them for my husband and daughters and they loved them. I was wondering if you knew where I could purchase the traditional shape cookie/cake cutter? I am not one of those fortunate bakers who has a mold so I just used a heart cookie cutter and glazed them. I have looked everywhere for the traditional cutter. Thank you again for sharing the delicious treats.
★★★★★
polishhousewife
Eva, most of my Polish friends who made these with their families did just what you’ve done, they made little hearts or stars with cookie cutters. If you’d like to find a wooden mold, try googling “wooden gingerbread mold” I think you’ll find people who have them for sale.
Andrea
My dough would not clump. Crumbled and fell apart. We tried twice. This was for a school project about our hertigae. Very disappointed.
★
polishhousewife
Oh, Andrea, I’m so sorry this didn’t work out for you, especially given the reason you were making them. If you run into a crumbly dough again, it just needs a little more liquid or fat. Maybe add a little more honey, melted butter, beaten egg, or even a spoon or two of water.
But take care to add small amounts at a time, you don’t want to go too far the other way, that will present problems too.
Susan
I found the dough to be far too sticky and had to add over a cup of flour extra. Also, I only baked them for 8 minutes as 10 would have been too long
Andrea W.
My son has been learning about his ancestors and we found this recipe. I love that it’s made with honey instead of molasses. This recipe is so simple and quick and it rolled out perfectly. We let the dough rest for about 10 minutes to give me time to clean up the dishes and make room to roll it out. The dough did crack a little bit, but still rolled out pretty nice. We rolled them thinner than 1/4 inch and 8 minutes was perfect timing. They are a soft but a little dry, so I’m excited to twerk the recipe to see how I can make them a little more moist. Do you have any suggestions for this? Thanks for sharing this recipe!
★★★★
polishhousewife
I’m glad you enjoyed the recipe. I think it’s a great one for kids. For a more moist dough, perhaps reduce the flour a bit? The ironic thing is, Poles usually make this cookie on the dry side. I think the thought is that the dry cookie will keep longer. I’ve read of people putting them in a sealed container with an apple for a day or two to soften them.
Elizabeth Nowak
These were amazing! It was a challenge not to devour them in a day. Such a simple recipe but totally captured the Polish gingerbread my husband grew up with. Thank so you much for sharing this recipe! It will be added to our family traditions for sure!
Aleks
Hi Lois
Thank you for sharing the recipe which I made. The finished product was enjoyed by my girls but I did encounter two problems. The first was adding the egg into the melted honey. You don’t specify whether the honey mixture should be left to cool. Needless to say, my egg scrambled when I added. Is this correct in the recipe?
The second was the crumbling. I did add some water to make it stick but it was still problematic rolling it out. It was breaking apart when rolling.
polishhousewife
Hi Aleks,
I’ll edit to add cooling off to the honey before the egg is added. You’re the second person the find the dough crumbly, but many others have found it worked well. I’ll try making this again, and add some descrition about the texture as your adding flour. In some cases, it might be good, not to add the full amount. Thanks so much for your important feedback.