Cook Pokrovsky gingerbread at home. Pokrovsky gingerbread - this is not Tula for you

My sister, who traveled near Vladimir, stopped halfway in Pokrov. And she bought us these gingerbread cookies as a gift. Here, enjoy. Of course, this is their modern interpretation - with condensed milk and walnuts. But nearby they sell quite authentic ones, according to an old recipe.

The county town of Pokrov has generally become one of the historical places that have inscribed their fate in the culinary annals of Russia. It emerged as a monastery village in 1506. In Rus', the Pokrovskaya district was famous for potters, weavers, confectioners, fishermen, hunters and carpenters. And to this day, in this illustrious city, long-standing Russian traditions that have gone into the depths have not been forgotten, and just like in the old days, it is famous for its Pokrovsky gingerbread.

Very often, Pokrovsky gingerbread is considered a copy of the famous Tula ones, which is completely untrue. This gingerbread has its own history. And it began about two hundred years ago under Pokrov in the estate of Count Baskakov :)), where they began to bake this truly sweet product. After the revolution, the recipe seemed to be irretrievably lost and restored only at the end of the last century through the efforts of Viktor Vakhlin, who entered the Russian market with this product.

In order for the delicacy to be not only tasty, but also beautiful, the dough is formed in special gingerbread boards. Then the gingerbread is sent to the oven for 25 minutes. Preparations for the New Year in Pokrov begin in September. Gingerbread birds and cats are replaced by horses, Christmas trees and Santa Clauses.

Gingerbread cookies can be decorated with food coloring. White "paint" should be prepared from egg whites and powdered sugar. Then any color can be added to this mixture. A tasty picture can please the eye for three months. That is how long the Pokrovsky gingerbread is stored.

Pokrovsky pryanik LLC was founded in 1995. As in the old days, gingerbread is made only by hand using various wooden forms by skilled confectioners and only from natural ingredients. A feature of Pokrovsky gingerbread is the content in the recipe of a mixture of spices, consisting of cinnamon, cloves, cardamom and ginger. Pokrovsky Gingerbread is an environmentally friendly product. Theoretically, it does not and cannot contain any chemical additives.

Step-by-step recipe for Pokrovsky gingerbread with photo.

• National cuisine: Russian kitchen
• Dish type: Dessert
• Recipe Difficulty: Easy Recipe

• Preparation time: 7 minutes
• Cooking time: 40 min
• Servings: 3 servings
• Amount of calories: 137 kilocalories
• Reason: For lunch

A favorite delicacy of children and adults for a long time - pokrovsky gingerbread - will decorate any table. Gingerbread prepared according to this recipe will not stale for several weeks.

Servings: 3-4

Ingredients for 3 servings

• Sugar - 1 Cup (in the dough)
• Soft margarine - 125 Grams
• Soda - 1 teaspoon (do not extinguish!)
• Ground cinnamon - 1 tbsp. spoon
• Honey - 3 Art. spoons
• Sugar - 4 Art. spoons (for frosting)
• Water - 2 Art. spoons (for frosting)
• Jam, jam, boiled condensed milk - 1 To taste (Choose the filling to taste)
• Eggs - 2 Pieces
• Flour - 1-1.5 cups

step by step

1. Cooking Pokrovsky gingerbread:
2. In a container, mix eggs, sugar, margarine, cinnamon, honey, soda thoroughly.
3. Put the resulting mass for 10 minutes in a water bath.
4. Pour in the flour so that you get a not very steep elastic dough.
5. Roll out two cakes about 5 mm thick.
6. We spread the filling on one of the cakes, put the second cake on top. If you use condensed milk as a filling, you can add ground walnuts. Pinch the edges of the cakes with a fork.
7. We spread on a baking sheet previously greased with margarine. We put in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees.
8. Cover the surface of the finished pokrovsky gingerbread with glaze. To do this, mix sugar and water, bring to a boil and grease the still hot gingerbread. The icing is prepared just before the end of baking the gingerbread.
9. Pokrovsky gingerbread prepared in this way can be immediately served on the table for tea.
10. Bon appetit!

Who hasn't tried gingerbread at least once in their life? This product is baked everywhere, but not everywhere equally well. In some countries there are cities that have become famous for their gingerbread. In Germany, these are Frankfurt am Main and Nuremberg, in Poland - Torun, in the Czech Republic - Pardubice, in Latvia - Riga. And in Russia there are especially many such “gingerbread towns”. Suffice it to recall Tula, Pokrov, Vyazma, Novgorod, Tver, Gorodets, Dmitrov. And this is not a complete list! This article is devoted to the history and regional features of the Pokrovsky gingerbread. How does it differ from, for example, Tula? And what should you definitely visit if fate throws you into the Pokrov? Can you make your own gingerbread? Read the recipe for this delicious dessert below.

Pokrovsky gingerbread: history

Honey dough was known to the ancient Egyptians. But gingerbread is something special. The very name of the culinary product in Russian comes from the word "spices". Thus, a lot of “dry spirits” (as they said in Rus') were put into the honey gingerbread: cinnamon, ginger, cloves. All these ingredients were brought from India or Arabia and were very expensive. Therefore, gingerbread has always been a festive dish.

A culinary product in its modern form came to us from Germany. And there they learned how to make “lebkuchen” from Belgian masters from the city of Dinant. But long before the appearance of Western European gingerbread in Rus', since the ninth century, they have been baking “honey bread”. After all, sugar at that time was extracted from Egyptian cane. In the composition of the ancient Russian gingerbread, honey occupied more than half of the ingredients. The rest of the ingredients were rye flour and berry juice. In Siberia, they still bake pink gingerbread with raspberries and cranberries.

But the history of the Pokrovsky gingerbread began when “dry perfumes” began to be brought to Russia. Experimenters from the kitchen put everything into the dough: cloves, and vanilla, and cinnamon, and ginger, as well as black allspice, saffron, nutmeg, star anise, anise, Italian dill, cardamom, citrus zest. There are three types of gingerbread in shape: stucco, cut and printed.

Regional features of the Pokrov item

This city in the Vladimir region has long been known for its culinary specialists. Gingerbread has been made here since the eighteenth century, since, thanks to Peter the Great, Russian people got acquainted with “lebkuchen”. According to the form, the products from the Intercession belong to printed ones. This means that for their manufacture a wooden board is used, on which the artist carved a drawing. The dough, poured onto such an artistic baking sheet, imprinted all the lines. Later, craftsmen decorated the surface of the product with edible paints (icing or mastic).

The Tula gingerbread also belongs to the printed ones. And what is the regional feature of the dessert from the Vladimir region? First, it's stuffing. Condensed milk with walnuts is considered branded. But even more than other similar products, the composition of the dough distinguishes the Pokrovsky gingerbread. They don't put eggs in it. But they use a lot of spices, which is why baking has an amazing aroma and taste.

Where to buy authentic pokrovsky gingerbread

In this town, you do not need to think about what to bring to friends as a souvenir. Of course, it will be a beautiful, painted pokrovsky gingerbread. The company store in Pokrov will offer you a wide range of its products. There are both gift gingerbread cakes for all occasions, as well as small figurines of fairy-tale characters who are so fond of eating small children. There are as many as three branded stores in the small Pokrov. Two of them are located in the center of the town and at the exit to Moscow. But tourists recommend visiting the store, which is located across the river, when leaving for Vladimir. More accurate address: Nagorny village, Novaya street, 1, confectionery factory "Pokrovsky gingerbread".

Excursion

Why do you need to go out of town to buy in company store No. 1? Yes, the range of products in it differs little from that which you will find in Pokrov. But before you get to this store, you will have an exciting tour of the workshops of the confectionery factory. After all, this is not an ordinary plant. Even the building in which it is housed is stylized as a gingerbread house.

But the most interesting is inside. An interactive museum of pokrovsky gingerbread has been created right at the factory. Groups of tourists traveling along the Golden Ring often come here. Hanging tunnels have been laid in all workshops, from which visitors can clearly see all the details of production.

First, the sightseers are shown rare boards on which printed Pokrovsky gingerbreads were molded in the old days. The interior, the costumes of the masters - all this immerses visitors in the atmosphere of the nineteenth century. This is followed by a visit to the cold and hot shops.

After the sightseers have seen the process of kneading the dough and baking it, they go to the art workshop, where the craftsmen give the gingerbread an elegant look. This tour lasts forty minutes and costs three hundred rubles per person. But the ticket price also includes a tasting of products with tea from a samovar.

How can you join the creation of dessert

Why is the museum called interactive? Because, in addition to the main tour of the Pokrovsky gingerbread confectionery factory, you can order various master classes. The duration of the lesson is half an hour, the cost of participation is three hundred rubles. The “school” accepts everyone who has reached the age of seven or more. Participants are dressed in disposable overalls.

What are the master classes? Variety. This is participation in the kneading of gingerbread dough, and decoration of the finished product. It is interesting that tourists are allowed to show their imagination and decorate the blank to their taste. And later - buy "your" gingerbread in the company store.

There is also a candy making shop at the factory. Each student of the master class can make a cockerel on a stick himself. A visit to the chocolate shop is very popular. Pokrovsky gingerbread in cocoa glaze has no analogues in Russia. Participants of the master class can get involved in the manufacture of fillings and see how a drawing created by the master appears under a thick layer of chocolate. And in the company store at the factory, a discount is provided for excursion participants.

What you need to know

The dough for these products can be made from both wheat flour and its mixture with rye. The latter will turn out to be more moist and stay fresh longer. But if you are planning to bake small gingerbread cookies, use only wheat flour. Honey should make up thirty percent of the dough. An artificial substitute will also work. But gingerbread will not be so tasty and fragrant. If natural honey is candied, it must be heated, and it will become liquid.

For one kilogram of flour, ten grams of spices should go. Favorite spices in the Pokrov are nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, ginger, zest, cardamom, anise, cloves and black pepper. In order for the spices to reach their full potential, they need to be heated in honey and boiled flour with hot syrup. Do not forget to add a little rum or liquor to the finished dough - so the product will be even more fragrant. Chocolate, cocoa, strong coffee or burnt sugar will give a beautiful dark shade to the gingerbread.

Pokrovsky gingerbread: cooking recipe number 1

Sift two and a half cups of flour into a deep bowl. It can be either wheat or mixed with rye. Also sift a glass of powdered sugar. Add two tablespoons of soda and the same amount of selected spices. We mix. Grind half a glass of honey (or strawberry jam) with 250 milliliters of warm milk. Add one hundred grams of refined sunflower oil. Gradually add the prepared flour. We knead the dough. Preheat the oven to one hundred and sixty degrees. Lubricate the form with margarine, sprinkle with breadcrumbs. We spread the dough and bake for about fifty minutes.

One more recipe

This time we will prepare the dough for pokrovsky gingerbread with eggs. They will need two. We break them into a bowl, add a glass of sugar, a spoonful of cinnamon and one more - other spices (ginger, cardamom, nutmeg). Do not forget to throw a pinch of salt, as well as a bag of baking powder. Beat until smooth, but not foamy. Add three large spoons of honey and one hundred and thirty grams of butter. We put the bowl in a water bath. You should get a smooth homogeneous mixture without lumps. Let it cool down a bit. In the meantime, sift four cups of flour, mix it with vanilla (on the tip of a knife). We brew this mass with a warm egg-honey mixture. You should get a smooth dough that does not stick to your hands. We heat the oven to two hundred degrees. We cover the form with baking paper. Divide the dough into two halves, roll out. We transfer one cake to the form. Lay out the filling. Flatten and cover with the second cake layer. We pinch the edges. We decorate the surface with patterns. We bake the product for forty minutes.

Filling and glaze

Pokrovsky gingerbread, reviews of which are only positive, are recommended to be sandwiched with a proprietary composition. Making it is very simple. Walnut kernels should be calcined in a dry frying pan, and then mixed with condensed milk (fresh or boiled - as you like). But you can also use any jam for the filling. For the glaze, heat two tablespoons of water and dissolve four tablespoons of sugar in it. We also add a little citric acid. After boiling, hold for another five minutes. Lubricate the cooled gingerbread with this syrup.

When it comes to food, cooking, sometimes I turn into a child. If you really want to cook something, the mind recedes, and feelings and emotions come to the fore. So what ... there is no boiled condensed milk at home. You can run out to the store just for the sake of condensed milk. Stop thinking. It's time to do it, period!

I wanted to cook this gingerbread for so long, but I never found a recipe that would really look like pokrovsky gingerbread. Neither the color, nor the texture, nor the composition of more than one recipe, of those that caught my eye, I did not like. Such is the secret ... Pokrovsky gingerbread. It would seem that we need to calm down, find a point in Moscow where they are sold, and buy. But the thought of the gingerbread never let me go: I so wanted to do something similar with my own hands. And one day, in one video blog, I saw an absolutely wonderful recipe for gingerbread dough that did not contain eggs, and in texture and color was very similar to gingerbread from Pokrov. You can imagine, after that I generally lost my peace ... And one fine January sunny morning, having bought a jar of good boiled condensed milk, I ran to knead the gingerbread dough.

I’ll make a reservation right away that in this recipe, instead of the butter that was originally used in the pokrovsky gingerbread, vegetable oil, but this dough is no worse, on the contrary, it is more plastic and moist, it is easier to work with and it is less prone to overdrying, which is very important for gingerbread . Also, there is no cocoa in this recipe. The taste of cocoa is actually very difficult to "hear" in the gingerbread over the abundance of spices, although it participates in the symphony, giving the gingerbread a brighter and deeper taste. Most likely, it is added to the dough for color. Gingerbread dough is made by boiling flour with a spicy sugar-honey syrup. Syrups for gingerbread are different - from light to dark. If the syrup is based on burnt sugar, it will turn out dark, and there is no need for cocoa (however, you can add it along with spices). I have already managed to try different options and came to the conclusion that I like this version of the test for the homemade version of the Pokrovsky gingerbread the most. The beauty of this test is also that it is lean! For lean gingerbread, instead of condensed milk with nuts for filling, use marmalade.

So, it is with great pleasure that I share the recipe!

For a gingerbread weighing about 800 g

300 g wheat flour
140 g sugar
150 ml boiling water
2 tbsp honey
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp soda
a pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
1/4 tsp nutmeg (optional)
1/4 tsp cloves (optional)

For the filling: 1 can of boiled condensed milk (380 g), a handful of chopped walnuts.
For icing sugar: 4 tbsp. sugar + 2 tbsp. water

1. Boil water. Pour half of the sugar (70 g) into a ladle or saucepan and melt over medium heat, as soon as it starts to change color to golden, start stirring with a spatula so that the sugar is all dispersed and darkens evenly. When the color turns brown (do not overdo it!), carefully pour in boiling water and mix again with a spatula so that the sugar is completely dispersed. Pour the remaining sugar, spices, a pinch of salt and mix again. Now bring the mixture to a boil, dissolve honey in it, pour in soda - as soon as it sizzles, mix with a spoon and immediately remove from the stove. After cooling a little (15-20 minutes), stir in the vegetable oil.

2. Sift flour. Mix half the flour with the syrup. Add the remaining flour to the resulting soft dough. Mix with a spatula or a mixer and let the dough stand for about an hour in the refrigerator. If the dough is too sticky, add another 20-40 grams of flour. The dough should stay moist, so don't overdo it with flour! The dough should be left in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours (overnight).

3. Divide the rested dough into 2 parts. Put one part in a bag, roll out the second part into a layer 4-5 mm thick, cut off the edges. Well, then - the most interesting! For Pokrovsky printed gingerbread, special forms are used. And although I found a store with a huge assortment of such forms, I did not want to wait until they got to me. I decided to do this...
First, use a baking dish of suitable size, with low sides (like this one). Glass, silicone and ceramic are also suitable as a form, the main thing is that the sides are not too high for easy extraction.
Secondly, paint the gingerbread by hand, "printing" letters from scraps. This, of course, takes longer than making a "cutting down" by simply rolling out a layer of dough in shape, but ... not so much as to be afraid of it. If you do not want to spend too much time on this, choose shorter words. If you are planning to bake for your birthday, you can cut out a number from the dough - this is the most primitive and fastest. In any case, even such a small painting will make the gingerbread more elegant and textured. From scraps, I rolled out strips 1 mm thick, and fashioned letters out of them: after I laid everything out on the surface of the gingerbread, I lifted the letters again and, moistening my finger in water, glued them to the surface. Transfer the upper "painted" part of the gingerbread to the form, letters down. Lay out the filling: spread the entire can of condensed milk over the surface of the gingerbread and sprinkle with ground nuts. Then roll out the remaining half of the dough, cut off the edges and put on top of the filling. Carefully connect the edges of the dough so that nothing leaks out during baking.

4. Preheat the oven to 200-220 degrees (for convection, the degrees are less, it is better to do this in advance if it does not accelerate quickly). On a baking sheet covered with baking paper, carefully transfer the gingerbread from the mold so that the front side is on top. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove the gingerbread from the oven and immediately start preparing the glaze (the ingredients can be put in a ladle in advance).
Mix sugar and water in a ladle and bring to a boil. With the resulting syrup, cover the still hot gingerbread with a culinary brush. Wait until it cools down and delight others with the most delicious dessert!
Well, if it works out, wait until the filling soaks the gingerbread, in a day, believe me, it is even tastier! So that the edges of the gingerbread do not dry out, it is best to put it in an airtight container or bag.

This gingerbread is a real holiday and a great gift!

PS By the way, I discovered that Pokrovsky gingerbreads are also lean, that is, vegetable oil is added to the dough instead of butter. So this recipe is very close to the original)

For the lazy, here are a couple of places (in Moscow) where they are sold.

Few people know the method of preparing Pokrovsky gingerbread. Therefore, in the presented article, we decided to describe its step-by-step recipe. Using it, you are sure to get a delicious and beautiful holiday dessert.

Step-by-step method of making Pokrovsky gingerbread

It is no secret to anyone that the Pokrovsky region is famous for its gingerbread craftsmen. From generation to generation they pass on the secrets of making this delicious and unusual dessert. Driving through the Vladimir region, the great empress herself appreciated its delicate aroma and unique taste.

Thanks to modern masters, this delicacy has not changed since Catherine's time. Following ancient production techniques, this dessert always turns out to be special.

The recipe for pokrovsky gingerbread should be known to every housewife. After all, not always such a dessert is sold in the store.

To make this delicacy at home, we need:

• beet sugar - 1 cup (for dough);
• soft quality margarine - about 125 g;
• table soda - 1 dessert spoon;
• ground cinnamon - 1 full large spoon;
• thick honey as fresh as possible - 3 large spoons;
• beet sugar - 4 large spoons (for glaze);
• ordinary drinking water - 2 large spoons (for glaze);
• jam, jam, boiled condensed milk - choose according to your taste (for the filling);
• large eggs - 2 pieces;
• wheat flour of any grinding - about 1-1.5 cups.

Cooking gingerbread dough

How to knead the dough for pokrovsky gingerbread? To do this, chicken eggs are strongly beaten with a whisk, and then very soft margarine, granulated sugar, ground cinnamon, fresh honey and table soda are alternately added to them without quenching.

After mixing the components with a spoon, they are immediately placed in a water bath. Food should be heated for ten minutes. During this time, a dark and viscous mass with a pleasant aroma should form in the dishes.

After the described actions, the base is removed from the stove and cooled slightly. As soon as the mixture becomes warm, wheat flour is gradually poured into it. At the same time, make sure that lumps do not form in the dough.

Intensively mixing the products, they get a not very cool, but rather elastic mass of cinnamon color with a pleasant aroma of cinnamon and honey. In this form, it is left under a bowl for ¼ hours.

We form a gingerbread semi-finished product

Where to buy pokrovskiy gingerbread? Quite often, such a delicacy is sold in supermarkets. But, unfortunately, this product is not always fresh. Therefore, we recommend making it at home.

As soon as the gingerbread dough acquires the desired consistency, they immediately begin to form the product. To do this, the base is divided in half and carefully rolled into two cakes, the thickness of which does not exceed 5 millimeters.

Having placed one cake on a baking sheet with baking paper, a filling is applied to it (for example, jam, jam or condensed milk), and a second layer is laid on top.

By the way, if you decide to use condensed milk as a filling, then you can add ground walnuts to it.

Having formed the product, its edges are strongly fastened.

Baking gingerbread in the oven

How long does Pokrovsky gingerbread bake? Reviews report that such a dessert should not be heat-treated for a very long time. It is pre-lubricated with margarine and placed in the oven. At 200 degrees, the gingerbread should be completely ready after 20 minutes.

After the lapse of time, the product is removed and immediately smeared with glaze.

Preparation of icing sugar

The icing for pokrovsky gingerbread is quite simple. To do this, add to drinking water and then put on fire and very slowly bring to a boil. If desired, a little vanillin, cinnamon or honey can be added to the resulting mixture. In this case, the dessert will turn out especially delicious.

By the way, the icing should be prepared before the end of baking the gingerbread. Otherwise, it may freeze.

Serve Pokrovsky gingerbread to the family table

After the homemade Pokrovsky gingerbread is ready and carefully smeared with icing, it is immediately presented to the family table. After cutting the product into small pieces, it is laid out on a plate and served with hot tea.

If you don't like a big delicacy that needs to be cut, then it can be prepared in the form of individual small gingerbread cookies. But in this case, you will need a little more time to form them.

To obtain a real pokrovsky gingerbread, we recommend that you comply with all the above requirements. By the way, some pastry chefs make such a dessert with a pattern. On the surface of the formed semi-finished product, they place dough scraps and create any images. The most common picture is the image of the Intercession Church. However, its creation requires special experience and skills.

Bon appetit!