What associations immediately arise when the city of Tula is mentioned? Along with the samovar, the famous Tula gingerbread will be remembered. Soft, aromatic, stuffed with jam or condensed milk. It will be a great treat for tea or coffee. Tula gingerbread cookies are especially tasty with the heat of the heat, so you can not only buy ready-made products, but also bake them at home.
Tula gingerbread recipe
For the test, you will need:
- 600-650 grams of wheat flour;
- 2 chicken eggs;
- 200 grams of granulated sugar;
- 100 grams of butter;
- 3 tablespoons of liquid honey;
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda;
- cinnamon powder to taste;
- nutmeg to taste.
Butter can be substituted with margarine if necessary.
For the filling, you will need a few full tablespoons of any thick jam to taste, such as apple, apricot, or plum jam. The exact amount of jam depends on how thick you want the filling in the finished product.
Boiled condensed milk is also suitable for the filling.
For the glaze you need the following ingredients:
- 4 tablespoons of powdered sugar (no top);
- 1 tablespoon of boiled warm water.
Mix sugar, chicken eggs, softened butter or margarine, runny honey, baking soda, cinnamon and nutmeg in a deep bowl or saucepan. Place the container in a water bath and heat for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the bath and, adding in small portions sifted wheat flour, replace the dough.
Divide the dough into 4 approximately equal pieces, roll each into a layer about ½ cm thick. Cut into an even number of identical rectangular pieces. Grease half of the pieces with the filling (jam or boiled condensed milk), cover with the other halves and pinch the edges.
From scraps of dough, you can make some figures (curls, Christmas trees, stripes), using them as decoration. Then the finished gingerbread will look very aesthetically pleasing.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, grease it with some odorless grease. Place the gingerbread pieces on top and bake in the oven at 200 ° C for about 15 minutes. During this time, prepare the icing by dissolving the icing sugar in water.
Remove the gingerbread baking sheet from the oven and coat the hot baked goods with icing.
Interesting facts about Tula gingerbread
The first written mentions of the Tula gingerbread date back to 1685. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were over 20 manufacturers of this delicacy in Tula, each of which produced gingerbread according to its own unique recipe. Alas, almost all of them are lost.
The great writer Leo Tolstoy was very fond of Tula gingerbread. They were made for him at the Yasnaya Polyana estate according to an old recipe written by the writer's wife, Countess Sofya Andreevna.
