Russian Cookies, Pastry and Sweet Meals

Russian cookies, pastry and sweet meals

Russian culinary was greatly influenced by eastern, and specifically Tatar cuisine which is connected with annexing Astrakhan and Kazan principality, Bashkiria and Siberia. During this period Russian cuisine become acquainted with raisins, figs, dried apricots, tea, that has become traditional Russian drink and enrich Russian sweet meals menu.

Paskha

The top rank among the sweet means of Russian national cuisine belongs to tvorog pasta or paskha. For long time until the 19th century paskhas appeared mainly on the tables of noble families. Nowadays it is a traditional dish for Easter table and is a symbol of God''s grave.

The main ingredients of pasta are tvorog (cottage cheese), butter, sour cream, cream, sugar, eggs. Nuts, raisins, candied fruit and species (lemon peel and vanilla) could be added optionally. There were distinguished raw pasta that involved mixing all the ingredients and then mashing them thoroughly until the mass is homogeneous. Another variation is coked pasta that required simmering the mixture on low heat for an hour or so.

The most popular Russian pastry is Russian pryanik (gingerbread) and kulich (Easter cake). There are about 20 variants of Russian Easter cakes and even more recipes of gingerbread. Both pryanik and kuclish are prepared with a numerous spices, whose mixture is called "dry perfumes" in culinary. This makes Russian pastry delicious and nutritious. Yet pryaniki re very different from kilichi due to the recipe and occasion they are cooked on.

Russian pryanik (Gingerbread/Honey Bread/ Ginger Honey Cakes/ Russian Spice Cakes)

Russian pryanik (Gingerbread/Honey Bread/ Ginger Honey Cakes/ Russian Spice Cakes) In Russia, the first pryaniks, called "honey bread", appeared already about in the 9th century. They represented a mixture of rye-flour with honey and berry-juice and were baked as round emblems of the sun god, Perun. Later they started adding forest herbs and roots to the honey bread, and in 12 - 13 centuries, when exotic spices brought from India and the Middle East began appearing in Russia, the pryanik got its name and practically definitively took shape of the dainty which we know now. In the 17 - 19 centuries pryanik-making was a widespread popular trade. The pryanik is a pastry with a variety of spices (pryanosti) - popularly with cloves, ginger, citrus fruits, pepper, nutmeg, badian, mint, anise, ginger and many others. Some other necessary components include confectionery syrup, caramelized sugar and honey.

Cooking pryanik dough is not that hard in fact. It involves mixing all the ingredients very thoroughly. Gorodetskie or bitye (beaten pryanik) were cooked from the whole piece of dough that was impossible to knead with hands, thus the dough was beaten with special wooden beaters which originated the name of pryaniki.

Originally there was the mixture of the sour cream and honey that made the dough work and was used as a leaven. In each region one's own pryaniki were baked by traditional recipes and the cooking secrets were passed from generation to generation. By the end of 19th century about twenty sorts of pryaniki were baked in Russia. Each kind was mainly different by the number of spices and other ingredients used in the recipe and the shape of pryanik. Traditional Russian pryianik is usually watered with a paste from sugar and water and decorated with white, rose or chocolate icing.

Many pryiniaks have relief design (tulskiy, vyazemskij pryanik). Sometimes the name of pryanik reflects its form: pechatnyj pryanik- prianiki formed with carved boards, Figure pryanik had a shape of a star, or a bird or a clown. They were usually made small and decorated with colour icing and hang on Yolka.

Sample pryanik recipe:

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Heat the honey in a small saucepan over low heat until it liquefies. Add the sugar, butter and mix well. Cool the mixture and beat into eggs and vanilla sugar. Sift the flour, baking soda and spices into a medium bowl. Mix with cooled honey mass and form to stiff dough. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 0.5 cm thick. Cut out pryaniki with a c cookie cutter or a simple glass and place the cookies on buttered cookie sheets. Bake for 25 minutes. Wisk eggs white with sugar to prepare icing. When the pryaniki are taken from the oven and cooled, dip each pryanik into the icing and let them dry.

Kulich (Russian Easter cake)

Kulich is a traditional Russian cake made from yeast dough and cooked for the Easter day. It has a shape of cylinder, usually contains flavour additives (raisins, candied fruit, candied lemon peel or dried orange) and can be coloured with saffron. The top of kulich is decorated with icing or confectioners' sugar. Kulich is blessed in church along with colored eggs and is the first meal to break the fast.

A sample recipe:

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Soak raisins in water at least for 2 hours. Solve yeast in 1 1/2 cup of warm milk, add half of necessary flour, mix well and put into warm place for the dough to take a rise. When dough increases in volume in twice add salt and yolks mixed with sugar vanilla and butter. Add beaten up white of eggs and flour. Mix it well. Dough should be not too thick but well mixed. Put the dough into warm place again. When dough increases in volume in twice add raisins and chopped almond. Mix well. Put dough into baking pans. (around ? of a pan) Pans should have bottom covered with oiled paper circle and inner sides wet with oil and sprinkled with flower. Leave the filled pans in a warm place. When dough increases in volume at 3/4 of pan's volume grease it with beaten yolk and put into the pre-heat oven F. Bake for 50-60 minutes. Let kulich cool. Decorate its top side with icing.

Apart from pryaniki and kulichi, Russian culinary includes various kovrizhki (a big pryanik, usually consisting of two parts, one covering another), sweet pies, ledenets (sugar candy), candied fruit, various varenie (confiture). Cane sugar was introduced in Russian in the17th century, which also boosted the appearance of various slasti and zaedki (sweet things)

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