Russian Pryaniki Recipes

RUSSIAN GINGERBREAD COOKIES (PRYANIKI)

Steps:

• Cookies: In a large bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves.
• In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and brown sugar until smooth. Beat in honey and egg. With mixer on low, add flour mixture; mix just until a dough forms. Dough will be soft. Divide dough in half, wrap each half in plastic, and pat into rectangles. Refrigerate until firm, 1 to 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line three rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Working quickly with one rectangle at a time, roll out dough 1/4 inch thick on a well-floured surface, turning, lifting, and flouring dough (and rolling pin) as needed. Using a 2 1/2-inch round cutter, cut out rounds and transfer to prepared sheets. Brush off excess flour; freeze until firm, 1 hour. Repeat process with remaining dough.
• Top half the rounds with 1 teaspoon each plum jam. Brush edge of dough lightly with water, then top with another dough round and press edges together to seal. Reshape each cookie into a neat circle, if necessary, on sheets, spaced 2 inches apart. Bake until puffed and dry, 14 to 16 minutes. Let cool completely on sheets.
• Glaze: Whisk together confectioners' sugar and lemon juice until smooth. Dip the top of each cookie in glaze, then transfer to a wire rack until glaze is set, 1 hour. Glazed cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days.

RUSSIAN PRYANIKI RECIPE

Steps:

• Whisk egg yolks with sugar until well combined.
• Whisk in sour cream, mayonnaise, and honey until well combined.
• In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking powder.
• In small portions, add your dry ingredients into your wet. Don't fret if the dough is sticky -- it should be! Chill dough in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.
• Using a spoon, portion out individual pieces of dough. With wet hands, shape the dough mounds into circles.
• Bake cookies at 350°F for about 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove cookies from the oven and bring to room temperature.
• Using a stand up mixer, beat egg whites with powdered sugar until you get a thick glaze.
• Using a pastry brush, glaze the tops of the cookies and let them completely dry at room temperature. Turn cookies over and apply the same glaze to the bottoms. Repeat the drying process. Serve and enjoy!

PRYANIKI - RUSSIAN HONEY SPICE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a medium saucepan, dissolve the instant coffee in the water.
• Add the butter, sugar and honey to the dissolved coffee in the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat and cook, stirring, just until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves and the mixture is homogenous. Take off the heat, pour it into a large bowl. and cool for about 10-15 minutes.
• Add all the spices - vanilla, allspice, nutmeg and anise. You can also add cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, mint extract, etc.
• Whisk in the eggs, the baking soda dissolved in vinegar and baking powder. You will notice that the mixture will fizz a little when it's all mixed up.
• Add the flour and mix with a large wooden spoon until all the flour is incorporated.
• Cover the cookie dough with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and set aside at room temperature for at least 4 hours or overnight.
• Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.
• Shape the cookie dough into approximately 1 Tablespoon balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving some room around each cookie, since they will expand while baking. I use a 1 Tablespoon measuring scoop to get the cookie dough out of the bowl and then roll it around in my hands. This will make sure that all the cookies are the same size and will bake evenly.
• Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Do not over bake, or the cookies will be too hard.
• Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and the milk to make a glaze. You can flavor the glaze by adding some kind of extract to it, like vanilla, mint, almond, etc.
• Dip the cooled cookies into the glaze, letting the excess run off. Set the glazed cookies on a rack or parchment paper to dry. When the glaze is dry, you can flip the cookies over and glaze the other side as well. When glazing the cookies, work fast, since the glaze will be harder to work with when it starts to dry up. You can add a tiny splash more of milk to thin it out if it hardens.
• Store the cookies at room temperature in a sealed container.

RUSSIAN SPICE COOKIES (PRYANIKI)

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, cardamom, cinnamon, ginger, cloves (be careful with the cloves-too much can produce a bitter taste), optional nutmeg, optional allspice, and salt. Set aside.
• In a separate large bowl, beat together 2 egg yolks , 1 whole egg, melted butter, and honey or agave syrup. If using agave, bake 25 degrees lower because products brown faster. In this case, bake at 325 F instead of 350 F when using honey.
• Mix in the dry ingredients until well incorporated. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 hour.
• Heat oven to 350 F. Place parchment paper the size of your cookie sheets on a clean surface. Using a cookie scoop, portion out mounds of dough and roll them in your hands until they are a completely smooth ball. Place on the prepared cookie sheets leaving 2 inches between each cookie. They will flatten out somewhat but still retain a domed shape.
• Bake for 10 to 20 minutes, or until just golden, rotating the sheets halfway through for even baking. Cool on the sheets until the cookies firm slightly. Transfer to racks to finish cooling.
• Gather the ingredients.
• In a small bowl, whisk together the confectioners' sugar and enough water (1 to 2 tablespoons) to form a thin icing.
• Spread on cooled cookies with a pastry brush.
• Allow icing to harden before storing cookies in an airtight container.

TRADITIONAL RUSSIAN PIROZHKI

Steps:

• Place 1/2 cup milk in a cup or small bowl. Stir in sugar and sprinkle yeast over the top. Set aside until foamy, about 10 minutes. Pour the remaining milk into a large bowl.
• Add the melted butter, egg, salt and 1 cup of flour to the large bowl with the milk. Stir in the yeast mixture. Mix in flour 1 cup at a time until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl and doesn't stick to your hands. Cover the bowl loosely and set in a warm place to rise for about 1 hour. Dough should almost triple in size.
• While you wait for the dough to rise, melt the remaining butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add cabbage and cook, stirring frequently, until cabbage has wilted. Mix in the eggs and season with salt and pepper. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally until cabbage is tender. Set this aside for the filling.
• Place the risen dough onto a floured surface and gently form into a long snake about 2 inches wide. Cut into 1 inch pieces and roll each piece into a ball. Flatten the balls by hand until they are 4 to 5 inches across. Place a spoonful of the cabbage filling in the center and fold in half to enclose. Pinch the edges together to seal in the filling.
• Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line one or two baking sheets with aluminum foil. Place the pirozhki onto the baking sheet, leaving room between them for them to grow.
• Bake for 20 minutes in the preheated oven, or until golden brown.

MEDOVIYA PRIANIKI (RUSSIAN HONEY RYE COOKIES)

Steps:

• Heat the honey in a pan until it thins and comes to a boil; keep it very hot.
• Sift together rye meal and flour and heat in skillet over low heat, stirring constantly, so it doesn't brown.
• Add the baking powder, cloves, and ginger to the flour; mix quickly.
• Add part of the flour mixture to the honey (remember it must be very hot) and stir.
• Quickly add the whiskey, anise flavoring, and remaining flour.
• Beat the mixture as hard as you can with a wooden spoon until the mixture easily comes off the spoon.
• Shape the dough into a long roll, then flatten the roll slightly.
• Cut off slices about 1/2-inch thick.
• Place slices on a lightly greased and floured cookie sheet.
• Bake at 325°F until light brown (30 minutes).