The last year when Kaluga confectioneries sold their "branded" Kaluga dough was 1916. According to one version, the owner of the confectionery died and took the recipe with her. Another printed publication says that the main bearer of the secret recipe was a merchant by the name of Kobelev, who hid it from resentment against Soviet power.
At the end of the 40s, an attempt was made to make Kaluga dough on an industrial scale, but the business was quickly curtailed. Today, local historians of the Kaluga region are doing everything possible to revive the traditional delicacy of their ancestors, and it is already sold in souvenir boxes near the local history museum.
Yes, it is a delicacy, because the Kaluga dough contains more sweet components than flour. Although, one of the most famous writers of the Silver Age, Boris Konstantinovich Zaitsev, being a native of Kaluga, spoke very unflatteringly about this product. He believed that the "mealy-honey" mixture is unlikely to be to anyone's taste except for the residents of Kaluga.
However, today the traditional dough made according to old recipes is purchased in Kaluga, rather not by the residents of Kaluga, but by the guests of the city. The weight of such a souvenir is small to try. And then, leaving the container itself from under the sweets as a souvenir, you will certainly want to cook the Kaluga dough yourself. It must be said that it is not difficult and the ingredients are all available. Having shown imagination, you can make your own contribution to the signature recipe of the Kaluga dough.
The main ingredients are: rye bread rusks, sugar, honey, water, spices. But still there are subtleties and secrets. It should be borne in mind that modern rye bread is not like what was baked at the beginning of the 19th century. Therefore, ideally, it is best to bake it yourself. If you buy, then just not Borodinsky. It already contains spices, and they are not at all what are needed for the Kaluga dough. That is, the first step is to get rye bread without spices.
Rye bread is cut into cubes and dried to a crisp state. Crackers should be ground in a mortar or meat grinder. You will need 2 cups of crackers. It is also recommended to sift it through a fine sieve. Next, you need to make a syrup from sugar and water. However, different sources, although they refer to an old recipe found, give different proportions of sugar to the amount of rusks. Somewhere 3 * 1, somewhere 2 * 2, so you can only rely on your own taste.
It's the same with water. According to one recipe, 2 glasses of water for 2 glasses of sugar, in the other 1 glass of water for 3 glasses of sugar. In the second case, the mass of Kaluga dough turns out to be too hard, but should have the consistency of a thick jam. Although it also depends on the cooking time. So, the syrup is cooked with the addition of spices: star anise, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom. You can use anise. Each spice is taken at the tip of a teaspoon.
Next, a rusk mixture is poured into the syrup, which is simmering over low heat, and cooked until thickened. It should be remembered that the mixture will thicken even more after cooling. If you boil the dough immediately to the consistency of a thick jam, then after cooling it will be difficult to cut. They don't eat Kaluga dough right away. It should cool down, and then stand for another 10 hours in the cold.
Some, having tried an old recipe, began to add ground nuts, dried apricots and prunes, rolled through a meat grinder to the Kaluga dough. Only then the mixture turns out to be thick and does not require cooking. I must say that in the old days, honey was often used instead of sugar. In addition to bread crumbs, buckwheat flour was added. There were also quite exotic additives: orange, cocoa. Therefore, having mastered the very principle of making Kaluga dough, you can safely fantasize.
