Latviešu piparkūkas (Latvian Gingerbread) or How do I make it 😄

 

When I was little, my grandma baked Christmas cakes and gingerbread cookies, and I made delicious treats. I decorated the Christmas tree with my grandpa, and my parents took me to children's parties. I grew up long ago, but December is still my most magical month of the year, and Christmas is my favorite holiday. Of course, I bake gingerbread cookies all December, and I want to share the recipe and cooking method with you.

Piparkūkas (piparkukas), spiced gingerbread cookies, are considered a traditional Christmas treat in Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Scandinavian countries. Spicy "Gingerbread cookies" can be eaten as a treat and used to decorate a Christmas tree or packed in beautiful boxes and given as gifts to friends. But how did gingerbread cookies appear, and how did they become traditional Christmas cookies?

Baking Piparkūkas is an integral part of the Christmas tradition. They are baked so that there is no shortage of love. Gingerbread contains many carbohydrates and vitamins E and K, phosphorus, iodine, potassium, magnesium, and tryptophan. Tryptophan is especially valuable because it acts as a natural antidepressant and benefits the human nervous system.

How do I make piparkūkas:

(Preparation time: 45 minutes + 1 hour for cooling the dough)

Ingredients: 100 g butter, 50 g brown sugar, 1 tbsp honey, 1 tbsp cinnamon, 1-2 tbsp gingerbread dough seasoning (can be replaced with individual seasonings), 1 pack vanilla sugar (10 g), a pinch of salt, ~500 g flour (200 g whole grain flour, ~300 g premium flour), 2 tsp baking powder, 1 egg.

Preparation:

1. Melt butter, add sugar and honey.

2. Heat until sugar melts; remove from heat.

3. Add gingerbread seasoning, vanilla sugar, salt.

4. Cool the mixture of sugar, honey, butter, and spices so that it is not hot (this is necessary so that the egg you will add later does not turn into an omelet).

5. Add the egg and mix everything.

6. Add flour, baking powder, mix.

7. Add 200 g of premium flour and knead the dough. If necessary, add more flour.

8. Place the finished dough in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

9. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 3 mm, mold the cookies using different molds, and bake for about 10-20 minutes (the time depends on the size of the cookies - the smaller they are, the less time it takes to bake).

10. If desired, you can decorate the gingerbread cookies with a glaze: beat the egg whites, add powdered sugar and cinnamon, and mix everything thoroughly until smooth.

11. Pour the glaze into a pastry bag and decorate the finished cooled cookies!

Bon appetit!