Honey gingerbread is a traditional Russian delicacy. They are not ceremonial foods, such as pancakes, so without causing any associations, they can be served for tea any day.
Honey gingerbread has received its name for the fact that various spices are included in their recipe: you cannot bake gingerbread without them.
So it is necessary to stock up in advance with a mixture of spices (suitable mixture for making mulled wine) or separately cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, vanilla, nutmeg, star anise, anise, allspice, ginger.
If you want, you can add peppermint essence. Honey gingerbread without spices is like tea without tea leaves. Of course, you can bake, but this is not gingerbread, and cookies.
General principles of baking honey cakes
Honey dough is made raw and choux. In the first case, all the ingredients are kneaded cold. When cooking the same scalded honey cakes, you must first prepare the syrup, then cool it, to about 70 degrees, and use as a base. Eggs, sour cream or butter may be added to the dough. But there are a lot of options and barley dough - it is used to make gingerbread, which can be eaten during the post.
Both methods are not particularly difficult and do not require much time. Gingerbread is also baked for a short time, usually 10 minutes.
Many people like to add candied fruits, nuts, chocolate to the gingerbread dough. They can also decorate the top of the gingerbread by pressing before baking into the dough. Not bad chop nuts with a rolling pin and stir. It is worth trying to put raisins or dried cranberries, other dried fruits, crushed citrus rinds minced through a meat grinder - the taste will be original and pleasant.
Honey cakes can be stored for a long time, they will remain tasty and fragrant for at least a week. This especially applies to custard gingerbread. You can put the items in a paper bag and put them in the fridge, where they will wait for the holiday or will simply be used as needed. To further increase the shelf life of gingerbread, glazing is applied. However, glazed honey cakes also aesthetically benefit, and children like it more, because they are made sweeter. You can also cover products with fudge, decorate with the help of a drawing mass.
Gingerbread dough must be kneaded well: at least 10 minutes, ideally about half an hour.
Recipe 1. Raw honey gingerbread “In a hurry”
Such honey cakes do not require a lot of time and products, but they will be inferior in taste to custard.
Ingredients
Flour - 300 g
Honey - half a cup
Egg - one whole
Butter - 50 g
Soda - about a third of a spoon, extinguish with a spoon of lemon juice
Spices a total of about half a spoon
Cognac (or vodka, etc., taste is not important - it is to maintain fermentation) - 1 shot glass
Method of preparation
Get the butter out of the refrigerator beforehand so that it softens, but still does not become liquid. Mix it with spices, brandy, eggs, honey, add hydrated soda. Now it's time to add flour, making sure that the dough does not become too dense, otherwise the gingerbread will be hard. The dough should be soft, but not liquid, knead relatively well and not extremely sticky. Sticky it will remain all the same, honey gives this stickiness.
Roll out the dough into a fat cake and bake for about 10 minutes.
To divide the layer that has not cooled down by means of fishing line or a knife into two cake layers, sandwiched with jam, put one over the other. It is better to immediately cut the gingerbread into portions, because when cooled it is cut worse.
Recipe 2. Orange and nut honey cakes
Such honey cakes usually turn out to be softer than cooked according to other recipes.
Ingredients
Honey - 400 g
Wheat flour - 1 kg
Egg yolks - 4 pieces
Orange juice - 4 tablespoons
Granulated sugar - 0.3 kg
Vodka - a pair of glasses
Spices
Nuts (for example, almonds, cashews or, in extreme cases, peanuts) - 200 g
Candied orange peels
Orange peel - 3-4 tablespoons
Soda - 10 g
Method of preparation The juice is heated, diluted in it honey and sugar. Beat the yolks slightly, adding spices, alcohol and soda. Combine with honey syrup. Put crushed (triturated) nuts, dried peel, strongly crushed with a knife or scissors, and candied fruits. Gradually add the flour until the dough is soft and pleasant to the touch. Knead the dough well. To rest for five or six hours.
Roll out into a layer of medium thickness, cut out any figures with a mold or a knife and bake them in the oven for about 10 minutes. Hot gingerbread to cover with orange icing or lipstick.
Recipe 3. Honey cakes “Russian souvenir” (scalded)
This is, in fact, the traditional recipe for honey cakes.
Ingredients
Honey - half a cup
Flour - 3 glasses
Fructose (you can sugar, but the dough turns out more fructose) - 3/4 cup
Sour cream 20-30% fat - 100 g
Vodka - 2 glasses
Egg - one piece
Water - 50 ml
Spices - up to 1/2 tsp.
Method of preparation
Mix honey and fructose (sugar) in water and heat to 70 degrees. Do not boil!
Pour about 1/2 of the whole flour and instantly stir it with a wooden spatula, without losing time, otherwise the flour will boil into lumps.
Cool the mass to a state colder than the temperature of the hands, add sour cream, vodka, egg, spices. Gradually, knead, pour the remaining flour, focusing on the consistency of the dough: it should not be steep, but not liquid, soft and pleasant to hands. Knead another 10-20 minutes, then immediately roll out, form gingerbread and bake.
Hot honey gingerbread to grease.
Recipe 4. Honey “Hazel” honey cakes
Ingredients
Sugar or fructose - half a cup
Honey - 3/4 cup
Water - a quarter cup
Eggs - 2 whole and 2 yolks
Softened butter - 2 tablespoons
Amaretto - 2 tablespoons
Nuts crushed with a rolling pin - 3-4 tablespoons
Flour - about 3 glasses
Sour cream - 5 tablespoons
Various spices, to taste - up to half a teaspoon
Method of preparation
Put honey and fructose (sugar) in water, warm up with stirring to 70 or 75 degrees, but do not bring to a boil. Remove the saucepan from the heat, pour the syrup into the bowl and immediately stir in a glass of flour, preventing the formation of lumps. Cool the dough to room temperature, and then beat the eggs and one yolk, add sour cream, nuts, spices, melted butter, liqueur and knead as much flour as is needed to obtain a soft but firm dough that can keep the shape.
Form a gingerbread of any shape, put it on a baking sheet, brush with the remaining yolk and bake for about 15 minutes at a temperature of about 180 degrees.
Finished gingerbread can be covered with icing or decorate with patterns.
Recipe 5. Honey cakes for gingerbread house
From these honey cakes you can make a house - a traditional tasty decoration for Christmas. To do this, it is necessary to bake “bricks” or “blocks” from which to build a house, fastening them with icing based on egg white. You can decorate the house with marmalades, colored dragees, sprinkles, nuts, candied fruits, or you can simply paint them with tinted protein glaze or marzipan.
Ingredients (indicated only for gingerbread, excluding decorations and glaze for bonding)
Flour - 4 glasses
Honey - 3/4 cup
Sour cream - 100 g
Butter - 50 g
Icing sugar - 1 cup
Rum or vodka - 1 glass
Egg - 3 pieces
Spices - up to half a teaspoon
Water - a quarter cup
Method of preparation
Dissolve honey and powdered sugar in water (better to take fructose) and warm it. Pour a glass of flour and stir quickly, otherwise there will be lumps that you cannot get rid of.
Remove and cool the mass. Add sour cream, butter, 2 eggs, spices and alcohol. Pour the flour, kneading thoroughly. The dough should make it look like well-kneaded plasticine. Thoroughly knead, at least 20 minutes, better than 40. Of course, it is difficult, but you don’t do a gingerbread house every day!
After giving the gingerbread a selected shape or simply rolling it into a layer from which the parts will be cut after baking, put it on a greased baking sheet, cover the surface with the remaining egg and bake in the oven at 200 degrees until ready (usually about 10 minutes).
Get gingerbread. If you decide to cut from the finished gingerbread layer, it is better to cut immediately, while hot. But to build a house better from the cooled honey gingerbread.
Recipe 6. Honey cakes from a mixture of rye and wheat flour
For honey cakes, it is generally better to take flour of the 2nd grade, and it will be even more interesting if you use rye flour in the ratio of 1 part rye to 2 parts wheat flour.
Ingredients
Wheat flour - 300 g
Rye flour - 150 g
Sour milk - 1 cup
Sour cream with fat content not lower than 20% - 100 g
Egg yolks - 2 pieces
Honey - 400 g
Apricot Jam for Frosting
Spices
Method of preparation
On a water bath, warm the honey until thinned, pour rye flour into it and quickly stir with a spatula. Wheat flour mixed with yogurt, sour cream, spices and yolk. Cool honey mixture and mix with other ingredients. Knead the dough well.
Put the dough on a baking sheet and bake at a temperature of 220 degrees 7 or 10 minutes. Remove, cut into squares, let cool until warm and zaglazirov apricot or some other jam, smearing it thinly over the surface of the gingerbread. It is better to serve such honey cakes right away.
Recipe 7. Lenten honey cakes
Of course, in the post sometimes you want to pamper homemade honey cakes. Our ancestors did not deny themselves such pleasure.
Ingredients
Flour - about 0.5 kg
Water - 1/4 cup
Vegetable oil - 3-4 tablespoons
Honey - 350 g
Sugar or fructose - 150 g
Dried fruits - 100 g
Soda - 1/2 tsp
Vodka or liquor - 2 tablespoons
Spices
Lemon or orange zest - 2 tablespoons of ground
Nuts, candied fruits and others - on request
Method of preparation
In hot water, dissolve the honey and sugar, leaving some honey for glazing. Do not boil the mixture!
Quickly mix half the flour into the syrup, trying to ensure that the lumps do not work out. Allow to cool.
Grind dried fruits in a meat grinder. Add to them the remaining flour, butter, zest, alcohol, spices and soda. Combine the mixture, add the remaining flour and knead well. Let stand a couple of hours.
If you want to add chopped nuts or candied fruit, then do it now. Then make gingerbread sticks or roll out the dough and cut out the figures. Put on a sheet and bake in a hot oven (220 degrees) for 7-12 minutes. Ready-made gingerbread should be glazed with honey heated to liquefaction, inflicting it with a brush.
Recipe 8. Honey rye bread cakes
With all the unusual recipe honey cakes for it are very pleasant.
Ingredients
Rye crackers, crushed into a crumb - 2 glasses
Cookies, crushed into a crumb - 1 glass
Syrup or jam sour taste (for example, currant) - 1 cup
Honey - half a cup
Flour - 1 tablespoon
Cognac - 1 tablespoon
Spices
Vegetable oil - 3 tablespoons
Sometimes add egg yolk
Method of preparation
Heat the honey and jam, add spices, oil and knead a spoonful of flour. Pour the croutons and knead the dough. It should be pretty cool.
Put the dough on a baking sheet and put in the oven, heated to 200 degrees and turned off. Dry thoroughly.
Cut out various shapes from the layer and cover them with glaze.
Recipe 9. The icing is usual for honey cakes
Honey gingerbread is better to cover this icing, causing it with a brush.
Ingredients
Water - 1 cup
Icing sugar - 1 cup
Egg whites - 2 pieces
Method of preparation
Sugar pour into the water, dissolve and boil the syrup before the so-called soft ball test (that is, when a drop of syrup thrown into a glass of cold water begins to turn into a soft-touch ball).
Squirrels thoroughly beat with a mixer and, without ceasing to beat, pour gradually a thin stream of syrup. Continue for a few more minutes whipping. Add lemon juice or other flavoring. Gingerbread should be glazed with a temperature of about 60 degrees. This means that the finished glaze should be either heated or cooled to the desired temperature.
Recipe 10. Leaf Frosting for Honey Gingerbread
Ingredients
Water with lemon juice - 3 tablespoons
Icing sugar - 1 cup
Method of preparation
Heat the water to 40 degrees and add sugar powder there. Mix very well.
Honey Gingerbread: Tricks and Tips
- There are a huge number of recipes for honey cakes, the choice of them should be carried out according to how you are going to use them. The most delicious gingerbreads are obtained by cooking according to the traditional recipe: with butter, egg and sour cream. Excluding these ingredients or replacing them with others will lead to some deterioration in the taste of honey cakes, as well as an increase in the amount of sugar to the detriment of honey. So, if circumstances allow, it is better to prefer one of the traditional recipes.
- However, even lean gingerbread is tasty and fragrant. But it is better to cover them with icing!
- Do not overheat honey syrup! When boiling, honey loses its aroma and gets a not very pleasant aftertaste.
- Many spices are put in the gingerbread, but still not so much that they beat the taste of the product itself.
- Zest must be crushed. It is better to take fresh orange or lemon zest.
- When cooking syrup, it is necessary to ensure that it does not stick to the walls of the pan. What appeared there should be washed with a wet (not wet!) Gauze. If, however, caramelized sugar gets into the syrup, it will have to be digested by adding water.
- The most fragrant gingerbread is made on buckwheat honey.
- Honey gingerbread can be tinted by adding a spoonful of burnt sugar to the dough.
- Gingerbread can be covered with chocolate. To do this, melt the chocolate in a water bath, you can add a small piece of butter. Gingerbread put on a fork and dip in chocolate. Put on a glass plate or chopping board.
