Printed gingerbread recipe. Tula gingerbread

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

You need to cook not only with soul, but also with imagination! Then your dishes will fly off the tables, and friends will vying to ask for recipes for signature dishes. Why not take note of the printed gingerbread? Maybe you can make it at home? Or will you have to go straight to Tula for a good gingerbread? Why are their gingerbreads famous all over the world and who came up with this form of gingerbread? Let's try to delve into history and find out the recipe for a good gingerbread!

What is a gingerbread?

This is a flour confectionery product that is made on the basis of a special dough. For taste, nuts, candied fruits, raisins, fruit jam or honey can be added. The gingerbread we are used to has a slightly convex shape with a pattern in the upper part, which is applied with sugar icing. History shows that gingerbread has always been considered a festive attribute, since expensive ingredients were used to make it. The name of the gingerbread has"spicy" basis, which indicates that pepper was also added here earlier.

From history

Gingerbread was first mentioned before our era. These were honey cakes, much loved by the ancient Egyptians. The Romans slightly improved the recipe: they not only spread the cakes, but also baked gingerbread cookies directly with honey. Over time, honey cakes were called "lebkuchen". Today, these are German Christmas gingerbread sold in Belgium. In Russia, gingerbread was called honey bread. They were made on a mixture of rye flour with honey and berry juice. Later, the recipe was diluted with forest herbs and roots.

From the 11th century, exotic spices were brought to Russia from India and the Middle East. Then the gingerbread got its current name. The palette of flavors depended on the dough and the added spices. Black pepper, lemon, mint, coriander, vanilla, cumin, ginger, nutmeg and more were popular. External appetizing gingerbread was achieved by processing burnt sugar.

I'm from Tula

Since the 18th century, the production of gingerbread has developed everywhere. It was then that Tula made herself known for the first time. Printed gingerbreads were still considered an elite product, but already more affordable. Only one thing is not clear: what is a printed gingerbread?

Here you need to talk about the varieties of gingerbread. They can be printed, cut and molded. The most common is just a printed gingerbread, which was made using a board. The manufacturers of such boards were called flagmen. They worked with linden, but sometimes they used thirty-year-old birches and pears. The boards were dried for a long time at natural temperature, and then smeared with resin or wax. Printed gingerbread boards were covered with designs made by a carving artist.

Printed gingerbread had its own varieties, one of which was "disperse". Such gingerbreads had a semantic function - the owner handed them to the guests who stayed too long, hinting that it was time and honor to know.

Carved gingerbread was made using a metal mold. This variety was especially widespread in the North.

One of the types of Russian gingerbread was "kozuli". By the way, this is one of the symbols of Pomorie. According to the manufacturing method, these are cut-out gingerbread with the addition of caramelized sugar syrup. All of them are richly decorated with whipped protein mass and dyes.

Worldwide

Did you know that Russia has the richest assortment of gingerbread? There are even museums that are over three hundred years old! Exhibits of a similar age are stored there, moreover, they have retained their original appearance and honey aroma. True, tasting such a gingerbread is not recommended because of the historical value and, of course, stone hardness. These gingerbread cookies have dried up a long time ago.

But our inquisitive people are not embarrassed by such trifles and people from all over the world flock to the "gingerbread" museums. Until now, printed gingerbread is in wild demand. The forms of their manufacture may vary, but the Tula gingerbread is easily recognizable. After all, it is decorated with an imprint of the seal onfront side. Such drawings depict fairy-tale characters and oriental ornaments. Sometimes the gingerbread has coats of arms of cities or other symbols, often patriotic.

But the Ryazan gingerbread is made in the form of church domes and covered with white icing. Cumin and anise are added to the dough, due to which a special taste and aroma of gingerbread is achieved.

Trying again

The recipe has reached us and we can try to make Tula gingerbread at home. True, it will not be possible to indicate the exact proportions, since the master confectioners of Tula keep them a secret and pass them on from generation to generation. But still, focusing on your own taste, you can try to bring to life the recipe for the gingerbread that was baked 300 years ago in the Tula province.

Add liquid honey and eggs to melted butter. Whisk the mixture thoroughly.

Separately sift the flour and knead the dough with water and s alt.

You should choose a simple stuffing - apple jam. By the way, store-bought Tula gingerbreads are sold with this filling. At home, boil apples with sugar until a thick jam.

Roll out the dough into two layers, and place the chilled filling between the layers. Now send the potential gingerbread to the oven. The finished gingerbread must be cooled and glazed, and then re-sent to the oven so that the glaze sets and hardens.

For the beauty of the result

If you want to know how printed gingerbread is made, you should alsoexamine the composition of the glaze with which the drawings are applied. For it, you need to grind the egg white with powdered sugar, gradually adding a quarter of a spoon of potato starch and lemon juice to the mixture. The final mass should be thick and shiny. Put it in a pastry bag and draw patterns on the gingerbread surface. The icing hardens very quickly, but to be sure, put the gingerbread in the oven. Today, sweets are made in this way in Poland, Belarus, Northern Europe. True, the European gingerbread resembles something between a rich biscuit and our gingerbread, so you won’t find a “native” abroad.

Printed gingerbread will have to be prepared using a special board, but today you can buy it in stores. You can also complicate the recipe by adding coriander, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg and cloves. Everything is mixed in a coffee grinder. Ready-made "dry perfumes" with honey and cinnamon insist in a water bath, adding sugar, butter and eggs. The mass will swell and foam. This is a sign - it's time to remove from the fire and stir in the flour.

Now we take out the molding board and cut off a layer of the appropriate size from the dough. We knead the layer with our hands, and then roll it into two cakes. Coat the board with oil. It is best with corn, as it does not become bitter over time. Lay one cake on the board and press it well into shape. We put the filling in the middle, and on top - another cake, which must be connected along the edges with the first. Sprinkle the workpiece with flour, and then separate the dough from the mold with a knife and lay it on the table. Cut off the edges and lay the product on a baking sheet. On themedium heat baking will take about a quarter of an hour. Ruddy gingerbread must be removed and smeared with icing.

From the city is sweet

Sweet-toothed people often mention Pokrovsky gingerbread. And why is he good? Pokrov is indeed called the city of sweets, as recipes for special printed gingerbread are passed down from generation to generation. By tradition, they are made in small handicraft industries. Sometimes this is a family business and the scale of production is quite modest - about four thousand gingerbread cookies a week. Only natural production is used. No palm oil, and natural honey is added instead of honey essence. But the main difference from Tula is the absence of eggs in the dough, as well as an abundance of spices.

Wrong comparison

Often Pokrovsky gingerbread is compared with Tula, and not in favor of the first. And such a comparison does not correspond to the truth, because this gingerbread has its own history, which began two hundred years ago in the estate of Count Baskakov. In the process of cooking, the dough is formed on gingerbread boards and baked for about 25 minutes. In the warm season, gingerbread is baked in the form of animals, and for the winter holidays - in the form of a Christmas tree or Santa Claus. Decorate products with food coloring or icing made from egg whites and powdered sugar. Such a gingerbread can be stored for three weeks, but it is clearly not stale, because the flavors are amazing.

Famous even today

Figured gingerbread is a very tasty and beautiful delicacy, and therefore you can present it to your child as a gift. It's also a good dessert option.festive feast. If you use molded boards, any culinary specialist can become a pastry chef. Gingerbread is baked for weddings, as gifts, or even for wakes. Depending on the occasion, the shape of the gingerbread is created and its filling is determined. Very tasty, but not so authentic gingerbread with condensed milk. They are very sweet, so it is better to drink them with tea without sugar. In addition, varieties of creamy, custard, mustard and, of course, honey are in demand. And the way to create gingerbread is not outdated at all, and today it seems to be original and interesting again.

There are molds that have only been used once and have therefore become especially valuable. For example, a gingerbread presented to Emperor Nicholas II had a clear profile of the tsar on the surface, and Tula masters once presented gingerbread with their coat of arms and the Kremlin to Boris Yeltsin and Patriarch of All Russia Alexy II.