Polish Pierniki
The countdown to Christmas starts now! Pierniki are little Polish cakes (called Prianiki in Russia) - which are flavoured with cinnamon and cloves, and generally eaten in the festive run up.
I first tried Pierniki after buying some Katarzynki in Inowrocław in Poland. I loved them, and just had to write a recipe for them. You can shape them however you like - if you’ve got shaped cutters, feel free to use them. I’ve also included a quick chocolate icing recipe at the bottom for reference, but please - coat them in whatever takes your fancy!
Polish Pierniki Recipe - Ingredients
- 450g Plain Flour
- 200g Caster Sugar
- 1/2 tsp Ground Cloves
- 1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
- Pinch of Ground Black Pepper
- Pinch of Ground Nutmeg (Mace)
- 250ml Runny Honey
- 4 Free Range Eggs
- 1 tsp Baking Soda
- 1/4 tsp Cream of Tartar
Polish Pierniki Recipe - Method
- Heat honey in a saucepan until it begins to boil, then turn off.
- Combine eggs and sugar in a bowl and whisk together until thickened.
- Mix all dry ingredients together in a separate bowl.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the egg and sugar while mixing to prevent any lumps.
- Pour in the honey and mix everything until smooth.
- Turn out the mixture onto a floured surface, and roll out to around 1 cm thick.
- Cut into shapes as desired - I prefer to cut rounds with a biscuit cutter, then “rough them up a bit” with my hands for a rustic shape.
- Place Pierniki onto a greased baking tray, then into the oven at 180c for 12 minutes or until lightly coloured.
- Allow to cool before dipping into your chocolate icing for coating.
And for the Chocolate Icing…
You’ll need just 50g Chocolate, 3 tablespoons of Icing Sugar and 10g of unsalted Butter for this.
First, put your icing sugar into a bowl. Next, turn on the heat on a pan of water, and place your chopped up chocolate with the butter in a bowl on top. Let it heat up like this until it melts (feel free to “encourage” it with stirring, poking etc), then pour out and into the icing sugar. Mix it all together; add a touch of water if it’s to thick, then top your Pierniki.
Enjoy!
December 5th, 2006 at 6:43 am
Aaaah, pranikud
I’ve never been a great fan of these, but then I’ve never had them with chocolate icing either..
I enjoy reading about your discoveries of Polish and other EEC foods!
December 5th, 2006 at 10:14 am
Wow! These look like something that you would find in a pastry shop! Not something that you could easily produce at home.
I’m noting the extra use of cinnamon and cloves during the holiday season. Great spices!!!
December 5th, 2006 at 2:55 pm
I definitely thought those were storebought when I first saw them, very impressive. I’ve never had pierniki before, but I’ve copied down the recipe and am willing to give it a try.
December 5th, 2006 at 4:11 pm
Sounds delightful! Honey… cinnamon, chocolate icing…
Perfect indeed for Christmas. Oh, and i completely agree with Brilynn, they look like they just came out of the packet. You’re so good.
December 5th, 2006 at 7:42 pm
Pille: I love discovering more then you love reading about it : )
rowena: The spices are so typical xmas for me - lots of mulled wine and such like.
Brilynn: I love the storebought ones too - there’s an old Polish guy running a market stall near me that sells Katarzynki.
Mae: I would disagree - I’m fairly hit and miss. Your blog, is very good, with great photos!
December 5th, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Wow Scott! They really do look like store bought and are probably much more delicious! I’ve never thought about baking pierniki, I’m so used of just buying them but maybe I should give it a try!
December 6th, 2006 at 1:09 am
I’m not much of a baker but I must say, that’s one delicious looking dessert!
December 6th, 2006 at 1:15 am
Dagmar: The smell they make when cooked (by my Wife - I admit it) is delicious and well worth the effort.
Vani: They’re much too small for desert - enjoy them with a cup of coffee, instead.
December 7th, 2006 at 12:04 pm
I have tried them before (the store packed ones) and they are a real treat. Thanks for the recipe!
December 7th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
Um, if you pop on over to my site sometime you may find a suspiciously similar post… though not quite as elegant.
December 8th, 2006 at 1:32 am
This photo looks so delicious and after reading the recipe I really want to try one of these! I think it’s all those spices plus the chocolate icing that did it for me.
December 8th, 2006 at 9:14 am
simonetta: I agree. I think I’m addicted!
Brilynn: They look elegant to me! I’ll email you about this later, it might make a nice follow up post for this site too.
Ari (Baking and Books): Due to the spices they’re perfect for this time of the year. The chocolate icing works a treat too.
December 8th, 2006 at 4:21 pm
This looks amazing!
December 8th, 2006 at 10:51 pm
Ivonne: Thankyou very much : )
December 10th, 2006 at 2:57 am
Those look wonderful…I truly thought they were store bought at first as well.
December 11th, 2006 at 6:42 am
hey there!
love your site! but also wanted to let you know, that it is currently not W3C compliant. clicked the validator button and it came back with several errors - thought I’d let you know.
cheers,
c p
ps: feel free to delete this entry
pps: i tried using your contact form, but it produces a php @mail error
December 11th, 2006 at 1:20 pm
You do my Polish heritage proud son!
YOU ROCK!
December 11th, 2006 at 7:03 pm
peabody: Thanks! I’m taking photographic pointers from your wonderful site.
cathy: Thanks for the info. The W3C compliance is usually right; I’d applied a style to my sidebar which broke it (now fixed). And regarding the contact form, I believe my server has changed a couple of settings - all fixed now.
Therese/Wisconsin Cheesehead: Thanks very much! Hope I continue to do your heritage proud, too.
December 12th, 2006 at 7:59 am
Do they make a gluten-free version? My dad would just love those.
December 13th, 2006 at 11:00 pm
Trig: I’m no gluten free expert, but simply usually substituting gluten free flour like for like and adding a little more water will do the trick.
January 11th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
Pierninczki are also great with jam/marmalade filling like those:
[IMG]http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c337/DW-Invictus/Chinese/pct_recbig.jpg[/IMG]
January 11th, 2007 at 7:56 pm
Hmm - hope that url link will work better with your site :}
http://i30.photobucket.com/albums/c337/DW-Invictus/Chinese/pct_recbig.jpg
January 11th, 2007 at 8:02 pm
Voidan: They are indeed - I have a bag at home that my wife bought from a local Polish shop, filled with Raspberry jam. She also has something similar, with (I think) dried prunes inside.
January 12th, 2007 at 1:22 am
Yes - you can stuff it with several diffrent fillings like jam, marmalade, almonds, succades, nuts & many other
My favorite version is covered with chocolade icing, but with regular icing sugar is great too.
Gosia may check this site (it’s in polish) for some professional tips. It was created for students & teachers from schools for bakers & pastry cooks:
[url]http://www.technolog.friko.pl/1.technologia.ciastkarska/37.htm[/url]
January 12th, 2007 at 1:25 am
Sorry - still have probs with html
Best regards (& another try
)
http://www.technolog.friko.pl/1.technologia.ciastkarska/37.htm
January 12th, 2007 at 1:41 am
Voidan: Thanks for that - I’ll take a look myself (I can speak some Polish) and let her have a look too.
And with the code, I hope you’re not trying to break my XHTML1.0 validation… : p
January 12th, 2007 at 2:40 am
Hehe - I forgot that you even send me a mail partly in polish - sorry for that ^_^
About html - no, I try to learn a little of this to improve my blog. Tryied to use it here to paste a link, but it works better WITHOUT my efforts :/