Since the second half of the seventeenth century, Tula gingerbread has been known - a regional type of printed gingerbread. Baked in the form of a flat figure or tile with a relief pattern, stuffed with jam or condensed milk, the product is sold in many stores. But a fragrant, rich treat, which used to be considered an expensive gift, can also be prepared at home.
Recipe number 1
Ingredients:
- 100 g margarine
- 2 eggs
- 200 ml granulated sugar
- 0.25 tsp salt
- 1 tsp soda
- 2 tbsp honey
- 1 tbsp ground cinnamon
- 4 cups flour
- 400 g jam or boiled condensed milk
- 2 tbsp milk
- 4 tablespoons granulated sugar for glaze
Tula gingerbread at home can be prepared with or without a gingerbread board. Let's prepare a gingerbread in a simple way, forming the product ourselves.
Put chopped margarine, eggs, granulated sugar, salt, soda, honey and cinnamon in a wide saucepan. Soda in this recipe does not need to be extinguished; it cannot be replaced with a baking powder. All ingredients should be mixed and the dish with the base for the dough should be placed in a water bath.
It should be remembered that the mass will foam a lot, so the pan should be 2-3 times larger than the original volume of products.
Stirring constantly, cook the mass in a water bath for about 10 minutes, until the margarine is completely dissolved and the mixture is completely homogeneous.
After that, remove the pan, put it on a towel, add flour in parts. After it becomes difficult to stir the dough with a spoon, put it on the table. Sprinkling flour in small portions, knead a soft, non-sticky dough. It should be homogeneous, without lumps.
Divide the finished dough into two unequal parts. Lay baking paper on the table, roll out most of the dough on it to a thickness of 5-7 millimeters. Transfer the paper with the dough to a baking sheet, form the sides. If there is no baking paper, grease a baking sheet with vegetable oil, dust the table with flour, roll out the dough. Use a rolling pin to transfer it to a baking sheet, do not forget about the formation of the sides.
Put boiled condensed milk or jam on the dough, flatten it. Roll out a smaller part of the dough, cover the filling. Connect the sides with a fork. The main thing is to prevent the filling from flowing out when baking.
Preheat the oven to 180 ° C. Gingerbread of this size is baked for 25-30 minutes. The product should rise strongly during baking. Remove the finished baked goods from the oven and carefully, using oven mitts, transfer to a tray.
While the gingerbread is baking, prepare the icing. Boil 2 tablespoons in a saucepan. milk and 4 tbsp. granulated sugar until completely dissolved. Pour hot icing in portions onto the gingerbread and spread evenly with a silicone brush.
The gingerbread must be completely cooled before use, because there is a risk of scalding yourself with the hot filling.
Recipe number 2
Ingredients:
- 5 tbsp honey
- 2 eggs
- 350 g sugar
- 1 tsp soda
- 100 g butter
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
- 0.5 tsp nutmeg
- 1 vanilla pod
- 100 g rye flour
- 500 g wheat flour
- 5 tbsp fruit jam
- 100 g of water
You can use a gingerbread board to make a printed gingerbread at home and get a typical pattern. Before starting work, it is necessary to fill it with vegetable oil for 10-15 minutes. This will make it easy to remove the finished product.
Prepare the dough. To do this, mix honey, eggs, 100 g of sugar, soda, butter, vanilla seeds, cinnamon and nutmeg in a bowl.
Stirring constantly, heat the food until a homogeneous consistency is obtained. Remove the dishes from the water bath and in portions, stirring thoroughly, add both types of flour.
Cover the dough with cling film and refrigerate for 2 hours.
Prepare the sugar syrup. Pour 250 g of sugar into a metal bowl, add water and cook, stirring continuously, for 10 minutes. Remove cookware from heat. Be careful! Hot syrup causes severe burns.
Drain the oil from the gingerbread board. Roll out the cooled dough into a layer 7 millimeters thick, put on a gingerbread board and press firmly against it to print the pattern. Spread the jam evenly, cover it with a second layer of dough. Roll the blank with a rolling pin, remove the dough scraps. Make sure that all edges are tightly sealed.
Gently place the finished gingerbread on a greased baking sheet. Form the rest of the products in the same way.
Preheat the oven to 225 ° C, bake the gingerbread for 7-8 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 175 ° C and continue baking for 25 minutes.
When the baked goods are ready, take them out of the oven and put them on the wire rack. This will help keep the bottom of the cake dry. Pour hot syrup over the gingerbread cookies, wait until they cool completely.
Gingerbread with cold milk is especially tasty.
Recipe number 3
If the oven is not available, but you want to cook Tula gingerbread and please your family, you can use a slow cooker. The baked goods in it will not correspond to the traditional appearance, but the characteristic taste and aroma will remain.
Ingredients:
- 3 tbsp honey
- 2 eggs
- 120 g sugar
- 100 g butter
- 260 g wheat flour
- 1 tsp soda
- 0.5 tsp cinnamon
- Jam or jam for the filling
The beginning of the preparation of the dough for the Tula gingerbread baked in a multicooker is traditional. In a heat-resistant dish, mix all ingredients except flour. Put the dishes with the mass in a water bath and cook, stirring occasionally, until the mass begins to foam. Remove the dishes with the heated mass from the water bath, add the sifted flour, knead the dough.
Lubricate the multicooker bowl, put the dough into it, level. Bake the gingerbread in the "Baking" mode for about 1 hour.
Put the finished gingerbread on a flat tray, cut into two parts. Grease the lower part with jam or jam, cover with the upper part. Sprinkle the product with icing or sprinkle with icing sugar, and you can drink tea with fragrant delicate pastries.
How can you paint a gingerbread?
Use icing to bake gingerbread cookies, party decorations, or lettering. To prepare it, take a clean, dry dish, manual or electric whisk. Separate the egg white from the yolk. Place the protein in a bowl and beat it slowly until small bubbles appear over the entire surface. Keep in mind that cold egg whites work better and the dishes and whisk should be free of edible fat. When bubbles appear, add powdered sugar to the future icing. The finer the icing sugar, the more uniform the icing will be. Usually, about 200 g of powdered sugar is needed for a glaze from the protein of one egg. The exact amount depends on the required consistency. For a continuous pouring of the surface of the gingerbread, you need a glaze of the consistency of thick sour cream. If you are going to make an inscription, beat the icing until strong peaks appear. The inscriptions should be made using a pastry bag with a very thin nozzle. The use of food dyes opens up tremendous opportunities for creating a color palette of glaze and decorating gingerbread.
Little secrets of the big gingerbread
All dough products should be at room temperature.
The dough should look like well-mashed plasticine. A large amount of flour will make the dough not elastic, and the finished gingerbread will dry.
You can put a little starch under the fruit jam. This will prevent the filling from spreading.
Gingerbread rises very much during baking. If you make a small drawing on the blank for decoration, then during cooking it will blur. To decorate Tula gingerbread, cut out flat figures from the dough and place them on the product.
Instead of a fruit jam, you can use a marmalade cut into pieces.
To enrich the taste of gingerbread, in addition to traditional spices, you can add dried fruits and candied fruits, cardamom, saffron, cloves, red pepper to the dough.
