Piernik (Polish Gingerbread)
Piernik is a delicious Polish treat that has the same aromatic sweetness of gingerbread but it takes a cake-like form!
This Polish spiced honey cake goes back several centuries and is pretty much synonymous with Christmas in Poland. It’s often baked at home together with all the family to the sound of Christmas carols. And if that’s not enough to stir up those festive feelings you should try a slice of this gingerbread! Delicious!
Piernik (Polish Gingerbread)
This gingerbread recipe is quick and easy to make, yet very tasty, fluffy and moist thanks to the jam.
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat flour
- 1 cup milk
- 1 tbsp cacao powder
- 1/2 cup honey
- 9 tbsp butter
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger or gingerbread spice
- 2 tsp cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg or gingerbread spice
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves or gingerbread spice
- 2 tbsp plum jam (or strawberry, currant jam or marmalade)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp baking powder
For the filling:
- plum jam (or strawberry, currant jam or marmalade)
Glaze (optional):
- 1/2 cup whipping cream
- 3.5 oz chocolate chopped
Instructions
- Place the honey, plum jam, one tablespoon of cocoa, butter and the gingerbread spices in a pan and heat through until well-combined and the butter has melted and all the ingredients are combined into a uniform cream. Do not boil the ingredients. Set aside to cool completely.
- Once the honey mixture has cooled, add in the eggs one by one, then pour in the milk and stir until homogenous.
- In a separate small pot, add one cup of sugar and one glass, equivalent to 250 ml, of milk. On low heat, stir the mixture until the sugar dissolves in the milk. Avoid boiling the sweetened milk. Once the sugar is fully dissolved, turn off the heat, and allow the pot to cool.
- Sift approximately two cups of wheat cake flour into a bowl, blending it with two teaspoons of baking powder and 1 tsp of baking soda. Incorporate the cooled sweet milk and the honey mixture from the pan.
- Thoroughly mix all the ingredients, preferably using a mixer on low speed. Verify the integration of the flour with the other components by gently stirring the dough, perhaps with a spatula. The consistency of the gingerbread dough is not thick.
- Preheat the oven to 325° F/150 ° C.
- Crease a bread loaf pan, dimensions of 11 x 30 cm with butter and line with parchment paper.
- Carefully pour the batter into the loaf pan and place in the oven and bake for 50 minutes to 1 hour, until the batter has risen and an inserted toothpick comes out clean.
- Once the cake has cooled off completely it's time for the fun part of filling and glazing the gingerbread.
- The filling is very easy. Simply slice the cake horizontally in half (Or you can slice it horizontally twice to get 3 cake layers) and spread a generous layer of plum jam. Or if you'd prefer, you can also spread the jam on each individual slice while serving.
- Then, if you like a glaze on top, just follow the instructions below.
For the glaze:
- Place the cream in a saucepan over medium heat until hot. Then take off the heat and stir in the chopped chocolate, stirring until fully melted and homogenous.
- Let the glaze cool a little, then pour it over the ginger bread.
- Leave to rest until everything has cooled and serve!
Enjoy!
Notes
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
