Pierniczki (Polish Gingerbread Cookies)

Close up of iced pierniczki spread out on a cooling rack.

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Pierniczki (Polish Gingerbread Cookies)

Pierniczki aka Polish gingerbread cookies are soft, full of honey and warming spices like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg. They're very easy to make and traditionally enjoyed around Christmas although there is nothing stopping you from making them at any time of year.

Course Cookies

Cuisine Polish

Keyword Fefernuski, pierniczki, Polish gingerbread cookies

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Chilling & Maturing 2

Total Time 2 35

Servings cookies

Calories 81kcal

Author Jo Allison

Equipment

Ingredients

Dough

750 g plain (all-purpose) flour
125 g butter of your choice I use Flora Plant salted butter
250 g honey
3 eggs (medium or large)
110 g sugar caster (fine) or granulated
125 ml milk or unsweetened plant milk I use unsweetened soya milk
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ammonium bicarbonate mixed with 1 teaspoon water
1 teaspoon (heaped) of ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon (slightly rounded) ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon (slightly rounded) ground cloves
½ teaspoon ground black pepper optional but recommended

Icing

360 g icing sugar sieved
6 tablespoon lemon juice
4 tablespoon water optional, you can swap it for more lemon juice instead

Instructions

Put sugar, butter, milk and honey in a medium pan and heat up gently stirring constantly until dissolved/melted together into uniform mixture. Make sure you don't allow mixture to boil. Set aside.
125 g butter of your choice, 250 g honey, 125 ml milk or unsweetened plant milk, 110 g sugar
Put flour, spices, black pepper and baking soda in a large bowl or a bowl of stand mixer and give it a quick mix to incorporate.
***Quick Tips*** Although this dough can be mixed by hand with a help of wooden spoon, I would highly recommend using stand mixer with paddle attachment. It is a really stiff dough and you will need a lot of elbow grease to properly mix it by hand.
750 g plain (all-purpose) flour, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon (heaped) of ground cinnamon, 1 teaspoon (slightly rounded) ground nutmeg, ½ teaspoon ground black pepper, 1 teaspoon (slightly rounded) ground cloves
Pour butter and honey mixture into the flour and start mixing.
Add eggs one by one, mixing in between each addition.
3 eggs (medium or large)
Prepare ammonium bicarbonate by mixing it with a teaspoon of water. This makes it easier to evenly distribute through the dough.
Add ammonium bicarbonate water mixture into the dough and mix well to incorporate. At this point dough will be very sticky and it wouldn't be easy at all to work with. It requires chilling.
1 teaspoon ammonium bicarbonate
Transfer your dough into a bowl that will fit in your fridge. Cover and put in the fridge for minimum of 48 hours and up to 2 weeks to firm up and for flavours to develop.
When you're ready to bake preheat the oven to 180°C/ 350°F/ gas mark 4. I use fan oven at this temperature.
Take small piece of dough out of the bowl (it will be quite hard initially) and onto a counter dusted with some flour and roll it into sausage shape.
Cut it into small 2x2cm pieces (similar to gnocchi). Repeat with all the remaining dough.
Prepare couple of baking trays by greasing them lightly with some oil or butter and sprinkling over some flour. You might have to bake your pierniczki in batches if necessary.
Place pierniczki dough on prepared baking sheet leaving some room for them to expand.
Bake in preheated oven for about 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your cookies. You want them nicely browned but not too dark.
***Quick Tip*** They will be a little bit soft when they come out of the oven and will harden substantially as they cool down only to soften again once iced and allowed to rest in a tin for a day or two.
Take them onto a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before icing.
Prepare runny icing by mixing together sieved icing sugar, lemon juice and/or water.
One by one put cooled pierniczki into the icing and completely cover them in icing. Place on a cooling rack to drip dry and for the icing to set. Repeat with all remaining cookies.
Let pierniczki dry completely on both sides before putting them into airtight biscuit tins.
***Quick Tip*** Even though it will be hard allow them to rest in a tin for at least a day to soften slightly. They do improve with time and day or two is all you need.
360 g icing sugar, 6 tablespoon lemon juice, 4 tablespoon water

Notes

Nutritional information is approximate, per cookie (based on 80 cookies) and will differ depending on the ingredients (dairy vs non-dairy) used so it should be treated as a rough guideline only.
Please use plain (all-purpose) flour. Don't be tempted to use self-raising flour instead!
For more detailed info on ingredients and possible substitutions please see 📝 Pierniczki ingredients.
For best tried and tested results please follow the recipe as stated including the minimum dough chilling/maturing time of 48 hours.
If stored properly in the airtight containers pierniczki will keep for weeks (if they last that long).

TIPS:

Do use stand mixer or even food processor to mix the dough. It's very stiff and it's really difficult, although not impossible of course, to do it by hand. If you don't have a mixer ask another person to firmly hold the bowl for you as you mix the dough with wooden spoon.

Recommended chilling time for pierniczki dough is between 48 hours up to 2 weeks. I've baked mine at different times within that time span and the results have been similar.

If you don't have room in your fridge, in winter you can rest your dough somewhere else cold like conservatory, porch etc. Just make sure it's nice and secure (especially if you have pets).

Do get ammonium bicarbonate for pierniczki. It's really worth that bit of extra effort and you can always use it in other recipes.

Don't panic when pierniczki harden once cooled. Once covered in thin layer of icing, dried and stored in airtight tins for a day or two they will become lovely and soft plus their flavour will develop too.

The amount of dough in this recipe yields approximately 80 cookies. Even though it sounds a lot it really isn't. They keep for weeks in the airtight containers and it's so nice to have these delicious little homemade gingerbread bites to enjoy whenever you feel like.

Nutrition