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This homemade Pokrovsky pryanik is spicy sweet, very aromatic and incredibly tasty. The filling of caramelized sweetened condensed milk and walnuts gives it a special flavour. The famous Russian gingerbread is ideal as a Christmas gift. You can find a detailed Pokrovsky pryanik recipe with the exact quantities and step-by-step instructions below.
What is Pokrovsky pryanik?
Pokrovsky pryanik is a Russian printed, filled gingerbread, similar to the Tula pryanik. The classic filling consists of caramelized sweetened condensed milk and walnuts.
This gingerbread is produced in the Russian town Pokrow by the company “Pokrovsky pryanik”. The brand is now protected.
Original filling
Traditionally, the Pokrovsky pryanik is made with caramelized sweetened condensed milk and walnuts. This was the first filling used to make the famous gingerbread.
The combination of caramelized sweetened condensed milk and walnuts had never been used in a pastry before. It gave the gingerbread a unique taste and quickly became popular.
The Pokrovsky pryanik with this filling is still one of the most popular varieties, even though the manufacturer now also produces it with other fillings.
How to make the spice dough?
To ensure that your Pokrovsky pryanik tastes close to the original, you should pay attention to a few details when preparing the dough.
First, prepare all the ingredients for the dough and weigh them. Because some steps need to be done quickly.
Caramelize sugar
Caramelize the sugar until dark brown. You must not dissolve it with water too early if it still has a light caramel color, as for the caramel sauce. However, the caramelized sugar must not burn.
So don’t leave it unattended on the stove. Also lower the heat if you notice that the sugar has already browned in some places and has not yet melted in others.
Dissolve sugar with water
If you dissolve the caramelized sugar with hot water, it can splatter hot. It is therefore best to use a narrow and tall saucepan for this. Also be very careful.
Correct dough consistency
The spice dough for the Pokrovsky pryanik must have a sticky but not runny consistency, just like for the orange cookies, apple cookies or ponchiki. You may need a little more or less flour than is specified in my recipe. Add it to the liquid mixture in portions until the required consistency is achieved.
Chill dough
Leave the dough to mature in the fridge for at least 8 hours. This allows the flavors of the spices to develop well. After chilling, the dough will no longer be so sticky.
How to shape and decorate?
I formed two large round pryaniki from the dough. Alternatively, you can make three slightly smaller gingerbreads. It is also possible to make just one large pryanik from the whole dough. Instead of round, your pryaniki can be rectangular.
I made cut out cookies from the leftover dough and spread them on the gingerbread before baking. If you want your pryaniki to look like they were printed by a professional, you can use a wooden gingerbread mold.
Pokrovsky pryanik vegan
The dough for the Pokrovsky pryanik contains no eggs and no butter. The only animal ingredient in it is honey, which you can replace with agave syrup or sugar beet syrup, which I used for my vegan medovik cake.
In this case, double the amount of baking powder instead of baking soda. For the recipe below, you will need 15 g of baking powder.
You can fill your vegan Pokrovsky pryanik with jam, for example the apricot jam or cherry plum jam. Pureed dried fruit is also perfect for this.
Sweet Christmas gift
Pokrovsky pryanik, along with the filled gingerbread hearts, Dominosteine and marzipan potatoes, is ideal as a gift, especially at Christmas. It’s a sweet treat for anyone with a sweet tooth.
The gingerbread tastes even more delicious over the next few days, similar to the medovik cake and chocolate Spartak cake, so you can make it in advance. Store it in an airtight container in a place that is not too warm after the icing has dried well.
This homemade Pokrovsky pryanik is
- spicy sweet,
- fluffy,
- moist,
- soft,
- uniquely delicious,
- very aromatic,
- filled with caramelized sweetened condensed milk and walnuts,
- easy to make,
- long shelf life,
- even more tasty in the next few days,
- perfect for the Advent season,
- ideal as a gift.
Divide the preparation over two days
The Pokrovsky pryanik recipe, which you can find in the recipe box at the end of this post, is not difficult at all. As the spice dough needs to rest in the fridge for at least 8 hours, it is best to spread the preparation over two days. On the first day, finish the dough and then make the pryanik the next day.
Step 1:
To make the dough, caramelize sugar in the bottom of a saucepan until dark brown. Then dissolve it with hot water. Now dissolve remaining sugar and salt in the water.
Then add cocoa powder and spices first. And then add vegetable oil, honey and baking soda. Finally, add flour and mix to form a sticky dough. Leave the dough to rest in the fridge for 8 – 12 hours.
Step 2:
Then divide the dough into pieces and roll out each piece to about 1 cm thick. Spread caramelized sweetened condensed milk and roasted walnut kernels on one piece of dough, place a second piece of dough on top and stick the edges together firmly.
Bake the Pokrovsky pryaniki for about 30 minutes, depending on their size.
Step 3:
In the meantime, boil the icing using sugar and water. Coat the hot gingerbread with the hot icing and leave to dry and cool.
How to make Pokrovsky pryanik: tips and tricks
- The sugar must be caramelized to a dark brown, but must not burn. Therefore, do not leave it unattended on the stove. If the sugar becomes too brown in some places before it has completely dissolved, switch the heat to a lower setting.
- As you pour boiling water into the caramelized sugar, the hot mixture may splatter. Be careful!
- The amount of flour specified in the recipe may vary. Only add as much flour to the caramel honey mixture in batches until you have a very sticky, but no longer runny dough.
- You can store the dough in the fridge for up to a month.
- To print the pryaniki like a professional, use a wooden gingerbread mold.
- Instead of two pryaniki, you can make three smaller or one large pryanik. Depending on the size of your pryaniki, the baking time given in the recipe may vary.
- Work with the icing as quickly as possible, as it dries quickly.
- The Pokrovsky pryanik only tastes best the next day after baking.
Did you make the Pokrovsky pryanik using this recipe? I look forward to your results, your star rating and your comment below on how you liked the famous Russian gingerbread.
Try out these pryaniki recipes too:
- Farmer’s cheese pryaniki – heavenly fluffy and tender
- Honey pryaniki – popular Russian gingerbread cookies with honey
- Vegan pryaniki recipe – so fluffy, with lemon
Pokrovsky pryanik
Ingredients
for the dough
- 100 g honey
- 80 + 80 g sugar
- 220 ml boiling water
- 70 ml vegetable oil
- approx. 500 g flour
- 8 g baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
- 1 tsp cocoa powder
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp ginger powder
- 1/2 tsp ground cardamom
- 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp salt
- flour for the work surface
for the filling
- 300 g caramelized sweetened condensed milk
- 80 g roasted, roughly chopped walnuts
for the icing
- 100 g sugar
- 30 ml water
Instructions
Preparation of the dough
- Prepare all the ingredients and weigh them. This is because you should concentrate exclusively on caramelizing the sugar later on.
- Spread 80 g of sugar evenly and thinly on the bottom of a narrow, tall saucepan and place it on the stove.
- Slowly heat the sugar in the saucepan over a low to medium heat until it has dissolved and turned dark brown. If the sugar does not melt evenly, you can carefully move it back and forth with a silicone dough scraper (do not stir!) or slowly swirl the saucepan back and forth.
- Leave the saucepan on the stove over a low heat and carefully pour hot water into the caramelized sugar in small portions while stirring.
- Add another 80 g of sugar and salt and stir until the sugar and salt have dissolved.
- Add cocoa powder, cinnamon, ginger powder, cardamom, nutmeg and cloves, stir and heat for approx. 1 minute.
- Add vegetable oil and stir.
- Add honey and stir again until the honey has dissolved (do not boil!).
- Remove the caramel honey mixture from the heat, add baking soda and stir until the mixture foams.
- Add flour in portions to the caramel honey mixture and stir briefly to form a very sticky but not runny dough.
- Leave the dough to cool to room temperature, cover it and place it in the fridge for 8 - 12 hours.
- Divide the dough into four equal pieces on a floured work surface.
- Roll out each piece of dough to a thickness of approx. 1 cm and cut out circles of approx. 15 cm in diameter.
- You can use the leftover dough to decorate the pryaniki later.
- Place two of the four dough circles on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, leaving plenty of space between them.
- Spread caramelized sweetened condensed milk evenly over the two circles of dough on the baking sheet, leaving a 0.5 cm border around each circle of dough.
- Spread roasted, chopped walnuts over the caramelized sweetened condensed milk.
- Now place a circle of dough without the filling on top of each circle of dough with the filling and stick the edges firmly together so that you have two large, filled round pryaniki.
- Roll out the scraps of dough and cut out figures of your choice using different cookie cutters.
- Place the dough figures on the pryaniki (you can moisten them slightly with water from underneath so that they stick better).
- Bake the Pokrovsky pryaniki in a preheated oven at 356 °F (180 °C) for approx. 30 minutes.
Preparation of the icing
- Put sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat slowly, stirring until the sugar has dissolved.
- Bring the icing to a boil and cook for 2 minutes until bubbling.
Coating the pryaniki with the icing
- Brush the hot pryaniki quickly with the hot icing.
- Allow the icing to dry and the Pokrovsky pryaniki to cool completely.
Notes
- The sugar must be caramelized to a dark brown, but must not burn. Therefore, do not leave it unattended on the stove. If the sugar becomes too brown in some places before it has completely dissolved, switch the heat to a lower setting.
- As you pour boiling water into the caramelized sugar, the hot mixture may splatter. Be careful!
- The amount of flour specified may vary. Only add as much flour to the caramel honey mixture in batches until you have a very sticky, but no longer runny dough.
- You can store the dough in the fridge for up to a month.
- To print the pryaniki like a professional, use a wooden gingerbread mold.
- Instead of two pryaniki, you can make three smaller or one large pryanik. Depending on the size of your pryaniki, the baking time given may vary.
- Work with the icing as quickly as possible, as it dries quickly.
- The Pokrovsky pryanik only tastes best the next day after baking.
- Take note of the detailed tips and tricks for making the Pokrovsky pryaniki at the top of the article.
If you are using Pinterest, you can pin the following picture: