Latvian Christmas Gingerbread

"This is a wonderful Christmas cookie which my family prepare every year -- it's from an old Latvian cookbook, and I guarantee that Recipezaarians will love it! In Latvian it's called piparkukas (pi-pahr-koo-kuhs)"
 
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photo by Liesma photo by Liesma
photo by Liesma
photo by Kristie C. photo by Kristie C.
photo by Evie B. photo by Evie B.
Ready In:
50mins
Ingredients:
16
Yields:
100 cookies
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ingredients

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directions

  • Put the molasses, brown sugar, butter and lard in a pot and heat, stirring constantly under medium-low heat until the butter, lard and sugar are completely melted. DO NOT BOIL. The process can be sped up by first softening the butter and lard in the microwave. Do not allow the mixture to scorch, or the cookies will not hold together.
  • Take the mixture off the heat and add 2-1/2 cups of flour, along with all of the spices. Mix thoroughly and set aside to cool to lukewarm, stirring occasionally.
  • Lightly beat the eggs and incorporate them into the dough. Let it cool completely.
  • Sieve together the remaining flour with the baking soda and baking powder. Add the flour gradually to the dough, stirring thoroughly after each addition. When the dough becomes too thick to stir, knead with your hands -- first in the bowl, then on a well-floured work surface. Initially the dough will stick like glue, but eventually you will get a smooth, shiny and quite heavy dough. Add more flour if needed, but only a bit at a time.
  • Grease a bowl with butter and put the dough in it. Cover with cloth and let rest for a couple of hours.
  • To bake: Generously flour your work surface. Take a piece of dough and roll it out very thinly. Cut out shapes and place on a cookie sheet. No need to grease the sheet -- that's why the lard is there (you won't taste it at all).
  • Bake in a 400 degree oven. The cookies should bake in no more than five or six minutes -- watch them carefully, and when the bottom edge begins to brown and the surface looks dry, they should be ready. Take the cookies out of the oven and put the pan on a rack. When the cookies cool, they should be harder and slide off the pan. If they are still moist or stick, pop them back into the oven for another minute or two.
  • This recipe makes lots of cookies, so it can be halved (or doubled, for that matter). The dough will keep almost indefinitely in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap. When it comes out of the fridge, it will be quite hard, but a bit of kneading and rolling will make it soft and pliable again.

Questions & Replies

  1. Why is there mention of HONEY in the recipe..but none in the DIRECTIONS?
     
  2. Unsalted or salted butter. Size of cookies to yield 100?!!! Need answer very soon please
     
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Reviews

  1. I love this recepie! Try dipping them in honey! DELICIOUS!
     
  2. this is not your ordinary ginger bread cookie. yum.
     
  3. Tried making these twice now with hopes that they would turn out closer to what they have in Latvia but both times it failed. First if you put the amount of flour it says, they are way too dry and crumbly. And after baking they are super light and taste like baked flour with some pepper. Just simply inedible .
     
  4. Somehow I made this too dry but I fixed it with another beaten egg ( I must have missed something!) Absolutely amazing flavour and texture. I didn't go as thin as the recipe calls for so they aren't crispy. BUT the taste is to die for. I did a thin drizzle of cinnamon icing as well.
     
    • Review photo by Kristie C.
  5. Thank you for the recipe! First time in years I have achieved near to perfection gingerbread! I have made the first batch and have left a half to prove in the fridge for until the weekend to see what difference there is in taste (spices infuse the dough over time). Ended up adding extra 200 g of flour at the end of kneading, also substituted molasses for black treacle, worked out wonderfully! Golden syrup would probably work just as well for more mellow and lighter in color dough. I used double amount of ginger, mixed peppercorns and cinnamon and some ground cardamom from whole pods. Mulled wine spice mix is perfect for this and you can also use clementine zest for the oomph :) Some of the gingerbreads are stripy because of me using silicone baster on them to glaze with egg. Cookies turn out crisp and you can vary the thickness to your liking. I went from very thin to very thick. Tip- wrap your chipping board and rolling pin in cling film - no messing with flour and no sticking to surfaces! Happy First Advent! K?rli, paldies! Pirmo reizi daudzu gadu garum? man visa m?ja smaržo p?c b?rn?bas, sv?tkiem un laimes! Priec?gu Pirmo Adventi!
     
    • Review photo by Evie B.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

I'm an American-born journalist who has lived in Latvia (Old Country for my family) since 1989. I work in television and teach journalism at the local university, but make most of my living as a translator. Freetime activities include film, reading, theatre (I've performed in several plays myself), surfing the Web. My favorite cookbook without any question is the Doubleday Cookbook by Jeanne Hanna, which is the best basic cookbook in the world, as far as I'm concerned. I have lots of other cookbooks, too, but now that there's the Internet, one can find recipes there, as well.
 
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