Who hasn’t tried gingerbread at least once in their life today? This product is baked everywhere, but not equally well. In some countries there are cities that are famous for their gingerbread. In Germany these are Frankfurt am Main and Nuremberg, in Poland - Torun, in the Czech Republic - Pardubice, in Latvia - Riga. And in Russia there are especially many such “gingerbread cities”. It is enough to recall Tula, Pokrov, Vyazma, Novgorod, Tver, Gorodets, Dmitrov. And this is not a complete list! This article is devoted to the history and regional characteristics of Pokrovsk gingerbread. How does it differ from, for example, Tula? And what should you definitely visit if fate takes you to Pokrov? Is it possible to make gingerbread cookies yourself? Read the recipe for this delicious dessert below.

Pokrovsky gingerbread: history

Honey dough was known to the ancient Egyptians. But gingerbread is something special. The very name of the culinary product in Russian comes from the word “spices”. Thus, a lot of “dry perfumes” (as they said in Rus'): cinnamon, ginger, cloves were put into the honey cake. All these ingredients were imported from India or Arabia and were very expensive. Therefore, gingerbread has always been a festive dish.

The culinary product in its modern form came to us from Germany. And there they learned how to make “lebkuchen” from Belgian masters from the city of Dinan. But long before the appearance of Western European gingerbread, “honey bread” was baked in Rus' from the ninth century. After all, sugar at that time was extracted from Egyptian cane. In the ancient Russian gingerbread, honey accounted for more than half of the ingredients. The remaining ingredients were rye flour and berry juice. In Siberia, pink gingerbreads with raspberries and cranberries are still baked.

But the history of Pokrovsky gingerbread began when “dry perfumes” began to be brought to Russia. Experimenters from the kitchen put everything into the dough: cloves, vanilla, cinnamon, ginger, as well as black allspice, saffron, nutmeg, star anise, anise, Italian dill, cardamom, citrus zest. There are three types of gingerbread cookies: molded, carved and printed.

Regional characteristics of products from Pokrov

This city in the Vladimir region has long been known for its culinary specialists. Gingerbread has been made here since the eighteenth century, since, thanks to Peter the Great, Russian people became acquainted with “lebkuchen”. In terms of shape, products from the Intercession belong to the printed type. This means that they are made from a wooden board on which the artist has carved a design. The dough poured onto such an artistic baking sheet imprinted all the lines. Later, craftsmen decorated the surface of the product with edible paints (icing or mastic).

Tula gingerbread also belongs to the printed ones. What is the regional feature of the dessert from the Vladimir region? Firstly, this is the filling. The signature product is condensed milk with walnuts. But what distinguishes Pokrovsky gingerbread even more from other similar products is the composition of the dough. No eggs are put in it. But they use a lot of spices, which is why the baked goods have an amazing aroma and taste.

Where to buy authentic Pokrovsk gingerbread

In this town, you don’t need to think about what to bring to your friends as a souvenir. Of course, it will be a beautiful, painted Pokrovsky gingerbread. The company store in Pokrov will offer you a wide range of its products. There are both gift gingerbread cakes for all occasions and small figurines of fairy-tale characters that little children love to eat. There are three branded stores in small Pokrov. Two of them are located in the center of the town and at the exit to Moscow. But tourists recommend visiting the store that is located across the river, when leaving for Vladimir. More precise address: Nagorny village, Novaya street, 1, Pokrovsky gingerbread confectionery factory.

Excursion

Why do you need to go out of town to shop at company store No. 1? Yes, the range of products there differs little from the one you will find in Pokrov. But before you get to this store, a fascinating tour of the confectionery factory awaits you. After all, this is not a simple plant. Even the building in which it is located is stylized as a gingerbread house.

But the most interesting thing is inside. An interactive museum of Pokrovsky gingerbread has been created right at the factory. Groups of tourists traveling along the Golden Ring often come here. All workshops have suspended tunnels, from which visitors can clearly see all the details of production.

First, tourists are shown rare boards on which printed Pokrovsk gingerbread cookies were placed in the old days. The interior, the costumes of the masters - all this immerses visitors in the atmosphere of the nineteenth century. Then follows a visit to the cold and hot shops.

After the excursionists have seen the process of kneading the dough and baking it, they move on to the art workshop, where craftsmen give the gingerbreads an elegant look. This excursion lasts forty minutes and costs three hundred rubles per person. But the ticket price also includes a tasting of products with tea from the samovar.

How can you get involved in dessert creation?

Why is the museum called interactive? Because, in addition to the main tour of the Pokrovsky gingerbread confectionery factory, you can also order various master classes. The duration of the lesson is half an hour, the cost of participation is three hundred rubles. Anyone who is seven years old or older is accepted into the “school.” Participants are dressed in disposable overalls.

What kind of master classes are there? Variety. This includes participation in kneading gingerbread dough and decorating the finished product. Interestingly, tourists are allowed to use their imagination and decorate the workpiece to their taste. And later - buy “your” gingerbread in a company store.

The factory also has a workshop for making candy. Each master class student can make a cockerel on a stick themselves. A visit to the chocolate shop is very popular. Pokrovsky gingerbread in cocoa glaze has no analogues in Russia. Participants in the master class can get involved in the making of fillings and see how a pattern created by a master appears under a thick layer of chocolate. And in the company store at the factory there is a discount for excursion participants.

What you need to know

The dough for these products can be made from either wheat flour or its mixture with rye. The latter will be more moist and will remain fresh longer. But if you are planning to bake small gingerbread cookies, use only wheat flour. Honey should make up thirty percent of the dough. An artificial substitute will also work. But the gingerbread cookies will not be as tasty and aromatic. If natural honey is candied, it must be heated and it will become liquid.

One kilogram of flour should require ten grams of spices. Favorite spices in Pokrov are nutmeg, cinnamon, coriander, ginger, zest, cardamom, anise, cloves and black pepper. In order for the spices to reach their full potential, they need to be heated in honey and the flour infused with hot syrup. Don't forget to add a little rum or liqueur to the finished dough - this will make the product even more flavorful. Chocolate, cocoa, strong coffee or burnt sugar will give the gingerbread a beautiful dark shade.

Pokrovsky gingerbread: recipe No. 1

Sift two and a half cups of flour into a deep bowl. It can be either wheat or mixed with rye. We also sift a glass of powdered sugar. Add two spoons of soda and the same amount of selected spices. Mix. Grind half a glass of honey (or strawberry jam) with 250 milliliters of warm milk. Add one hundred grams of refined sunflower oil. Add the prepared flour little by little. Mix the dough. Preheat the oven to one hundred and sixty degrees. Grease the mold with margarine and sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Place the dough and bake for about fifty minutes.

Another recipe

This time we will prepare the dough for Pokrovsky gingerbread with eggs. You will need two of them. Break them into a bowl, add a glass of sugar, a spoonful of cinnamon and another spoonful of other spices (ginger, cardamom, nutmeg). Don't forget to throw in a pinch of salt, as well as a packet of baking powder. Whisk until smooth but not foamy. Add three large spoons of honey and one hundred and thirty grams of butter. Place the bowl in a water bath. You should get a smooth, homogeneous mixture without lumps. Set aside to cool slightly. Meanwhile, sift four cups of flour, mix it with vanilla (at the tip of a knife). Brew this mass with a warm egg-honey mixture. The dough should be smooth and not sticky to your hands. Preheat the oven to two hundred degrees. We cover the form with baking paper. Divide the dough into two halves and roll it out. Transfer one cake layer to the mold. We spread the filling. Level and cover with the second cake layer. We pinch the edges. We decorate the surface with patterns. We bake the product for forty minutes.

Filling and glaze

Pokrovsky gingerbread, which has only positive reviews, is recommended to be sandwiched with a proprietary composition. It's very easy to do. Walnut kernels should be calcined in a dry frying pan, and then mixed with condensed milk (fresh or boiled - as you like). But you can also use any jam for the filling. For the glaze, heat two tablespoons of water and dissolve four tablespoons of sugar in it. We also add a little citric acid. After boiling, let it sit for another five minutes. Brush the cooled gingerbread with this syrup.


I spent a long time looking for the recipe I was looking for for Pokrovsky gingerbread, and came to the conclusion that there is no consensus on the exact recipe. One of the sites believes that the peculiarity of Pokrovsky gingerbread is the addition of spices: cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger. Others write that they don’t put eggs in the dough. It is clear that each manufacturer considers his own recipe to be the real one and tries not to advertise it.

Pokrovsky gingerbread cookies are baked with a wide variety of fillings: boiled condensed milk, confiture, nuts, dried apricots, prunes, berries and fruits.

The recipe is widespread among cooks, which I bring to your attention. For the filling I used apricot marmalade and some fresh apple. The gingerbread turned out very tasty, aromatic and generally very pleasant!

A difficult recipe for Pokrovsky gingerbread from Russian cuisine step by step with photos. Easy to prepare at home in 20 minutes. Contains only 258 kilocalories. Author's recipe for Russian cuisine.



  • Preparation time: 20 min
  • Cooking time: 20 minutes
  • Calorie Amount: 258 kilocalories
  • Number of servings: 20 servings
  • Occasion: Dessert, snack, breakfast
  • Complexity: Not an easy recipe
  • National cuisine: Russian kitchen
  • Type of dish: Desserts and baked goods
  • We will need: Oven

Ingredients for twenty servings

  • For the test
  • Ground cinnamon 1 tbsp. l.
  • Butter 125 g
  • Honey 3 tbsp. l.
  • Wheat flour 4 tbsp.
  • Sugar 1 tbsp.
  • Soda 1 tsp.
  • Chicken eggs 2 pcs.
  • Filling
  • Marmalade 100 g
  • Apple 1 pc.
  • Glaze
  • Water 2 tbsp. l.
  • Sugar 4 tbsp. l.

Step-by-step preparation

  1. To prepare Pokrovsky gingerbread, you need to take flour, butter, eggs, sugar, honey, soda (do not extinguish), cinnamon, marmalade, and apple.
  2. Mix eggs, sugar, cinnamon.
  3. Add oil, honey, soda. Place in a water bath for 10 minutes, gradually stirring the mixture until smooth.
  4. Cool the resulting mass, gradually add flour (the amount varies in different sources from 1.5 cups, I used about 4).
  5. You should get a fairly soft, non-sticky dough.
  6. Divide the dough in half, roll each part into a layer 0.5-0.7 cm thick.
  7. Place on a baking sheet.
  8. Distribute the filling.
  9. My marmalade is very sweet, so I decided to dilute it slightly with an apple.
  10. Cover the filling with a second layer of dough and go around the edges with a fork.
  11. Decorate with figures from the leftover dough. Real Pokrovsky gingerbread is formed using special wooden boards, which are called “gingerbread”. They have carved designs that are imprinted on gingerbread cookies. Place the pan in the oven (200°C) for 20 minutes, I reduced the temperature after 10 minutes, as the gingerbread began to bake well.
  12. Towards the end of baking the gingerbread, prepare the glaze: mix sugar and water.
  13. And boil until the sugar dissolves.
  14. Remove the finished gingerbread.
  15. And pour hot glaze over it. Cool a little and you can drink tea! They say it doesn't go stale for several weeks, let's check?
  16. The finished gingerbread is cut into portions.

Recipe for Pokrovsky gingerbread with jam and apple at home

There are many recipes for Pokrovsky gingerbread online. Some of them use a lot of herbs and spices, while others exclude eggs from the composition. This cooking option is as close as possible to the authentic recipe.

Pokrovsky gingerbread is filled with condensed milk, marmalade, nuts, prunes, dried apricots or jam. By serving a piece of honey pastry with a cup of aromatic herbal drink, you can have a cozy home tea party with your family. Due to the fact that such baked goods are perfectly stored for a long time (7-10 days), they can be made for future use. The main thing is to store the gingerbread cookies in a food box with a tight-fitting lid.

Souvenir gingerbread cookies can be decorated to your liking (make flowers, letters or patterns from the dough).

Ingredients for Pokrovsky gingerbread:

  • - cinnamon (1 tbsp);
  • - wheat flour (3.5-4 tbsp.);
  • - jam (200 g);
  • - soda (1 tsp);
  • — butter (100 g);
  • - honey (3 tbsp);
  • - sugar (1 tbsp.);
  • - 2 eggs;
  • - 1 apple (optional)
  • - water (2 tbsp);
  • - powdered sugar (5 tbsp).

1. In a thick-bottomed saucepan, mix granulated sugar, natural honey, baking soda, cinnamon and raw eggs.

2. Add oil to the preparation.

3. Heat the workpiece at a minimum temperature until the honey mass acquires a uniform texture. We wait for the mixture to cool completely.

5. We combine all the ingredients for Pokrovsky gingerbread.

6. Divide the workpiece into 2 parts. We form two equal rectangles. Place the dough on the mold and cover it with any jam. If desired, add fresh apple pieces.

7. Place the second part of the honey cake into the mold and pinch the edges of the Pokrovsky gingerbread. Decorate the baked goods to your liking. We send the Pokrovsky gingerbread to the oven (180 degrees). We wait 47-60 minutes.

9. Cook sweet syrup: mix powder and water in a bowl. We are waiting for the mass to boil.

10. Cover the top of the pie with the sweet mixture. We chop Pokrovsky gingerbread in portions and serve it at any time.

The recipe for Pokrovsky gingerbread was shared by xristya.

Interesting facts about Pokrovsk gingerbread:


Taken from the author galio1989.


Step-by-step recipe for Pokrovsky gingerbread with photo.
  • National cuisine: Russian kitchen
  • Type of dish: Dessert
  • Recipe difficulty: An easy recipe
  • Preparation time: 7 minutes
  • Cooking time: 40 min
  • Number of servings: 3 servings
  • Calorie Amount: 137 kilocalories
  • Occasion: For lunch


Pokrovsky gingerbread, a favorite delicacy of children and adults since ancient times, will decorate any table. Gingerbread prepared according to this recipe will not go stale for several weeks.

Number of servings: 3-4

Ingredients for 3 servings

  • Sugar - 1 Cup (in dough)
  • Soft margarine - 125 grams
  • Soda - 1 teaspoon (do not extinguish!)
  • Ground cinnamon - 1 tbsp. spoon
  • Honey - 3 tbsp. spoons
  • Sugar - 4 tbsp. spoons (for glaze)
  • Water - 2 tbsp. spoons (for glaze)
  • Jam, marmalade, boiled condensed milk - 1 To taste (Choose filling to taste)
  • Eggs - 2 pieces
  • Flour - 1-1.5 Cups

Step by step

  1. Preparing Pokrovsky gingerbread:
  2. In a container, thoroughly mix eggs, sugar, margarine, cinnamon, honey, soda.
  3. Place the resulting mass in a water bath for 10 minutes.
  4. Add flour until you get a soft, elastic dough.
  5. Roll out two cake layers about 5 mm thick.
  6. Spread the filling on one of the cakes and place the second cake on top. If you use condensed milk as a filling, you can add ground walnuts. Pinch the edges of the cakes with a fork.
  7. Place on a baking sheet previously greased with margarine. Place in the oven for 20 minutes at 200 degrees.
  8. Cover the surface of the finished Pokrovsky gingerbread with glaze. To do this, mix sugar and water, bring to a boil and grease the still hot gingerbread. The glaze is prepared immediately before the end of baking the gingerbread.
  9. Pokrovsky gingerbread prepared in this way can be immediately served with tea.
  10. Bon appetit!

When it comes to food and cooking, sometimes I turn into a child. If you really want to cook something, the mind retreats, and feelings and emotions come to the fore. So what... there is no boiled condensed milk at home. You can run out to the store just for condensed milk. Stop thinking. It's time to do it, period!

I have wanted to make this gingerbread for so long, but I never found a recipe that would really be similar to Pokrovsk gingerbread. Neither the color, nor the texture, nor the composition, I did not like any of the recipes that caught my eye. This is the secret... Pokrovsky gingerbread. It would seem that you need to calm down, find a point in Moscow where they are sold, and buy. But the thought of gingerbread never left me: I really wanted to make something similar with my own hands. And one day in one video blog I saw an absolutely wonderful recipe for gingerbread dough, which did not contain eggs, and in texture and color was very similar to the gingerbread from Pokrov. You can imagine, after that I completely lost my peace... And one fine sunny January morning, having bought a jar of good boiled condensed milk, I ran to knead the gingerbread dough.

Let me make a reservation right away: in this recipe, instead of butter, which was originally used in Pokrovsk gingerbread, there is vegetable oil, but this makes the dough no worse; on the contrary, it is more plastic and moist, it is easier to work with and it is less susceptible to overdrying, which is very important for gingerbread. . There is also no cocoa in this recipe. The taste of cocoa in gingerbread is actually very difficult to “hear” behind the abundance of spices, although it participates in the symphony, giving the gingerbread a brighter and deeper taste. Most likely, it is added to the dough for color. Gingerbread dough is made by steeping flour in spiced sugar and honey syrup. There are different syrups for gingerbread - from light to dark. If the syrup is made from burnt sugar, it will turn out dark, and there is no need for cocoa (however, you can add it along with spices). I have already tried different options and came to the conclusion that I like this version of the dough for the homemade version of Pokrovsky gingerbread the most. The beauty of this dough is that it is lean! For lean gingerbread, instead of condensed milk with nuts for filling, use marmalade.

So, it is with great pleasure that I share the recipe!

For a gingerbread weighing about 800 g

300 g wheat flour
140 g sugar
150 ml boiling water
2 tbsp. honey
4 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp. soda
a pinch of salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground cardamom (optional)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
1/4 tsp. cloves (optional)

For the filling: 1 can of boiled condensed milk (380 g), a handful of chopped walnuts.
For sugar glaze: 4 tbsp. sugar + 2 tbsp. water

1. Boil water. Pour half the sugar (70 g) into a ladle or saucepan and melt over medium heat; as soon as it starts to change color to golden, start stirring with a spatula so that the sugar is all dispersed and darkens evenly. When the color turns brown (do not overcook!), carefully pour in the boiling water and stir again with a spatula until the sugar is completely dissolved. Add the remaining sugar, spices, a pinch of salt and mix again. Now bring the mixture to a boil, dissolve honey in it, add baking soda - as soon as it sizzles, stir with a spoon and immediately remove from the stove. After cooling slightly (15-20 minutes), stir in the vegetable oil.

2. Sift the flour. Mix half the flour with the syrup. Add the remaining flour to the resulting soft dough. Mix with a spatula or mixer and let the dough rest for about an hour in the refrigerator. If the dough is too sticky, add another 20-40 grams of flour. The dough should remain moist, so don't overdo it with flour! The dough should be left in the refrigerator for 8-12 hours (overnight).

3. Divide the rested dough into 2 parts. Place one part in a bag, roll the second part into a layer 4-5 mm thick, trim the edges. Well, then - the most interesting! Special molds are used for Pokrovsky printed gingerbread cookies. And although I found a store with a huge assortment of such forms, I didn’t want to wait for them to get to me. I decided to do this...
First, use a baking dish of suitable size, with low sides (like this one). Glass, silicone and ceramic are also suitable as molds, the main thing is that the sides are not too high for easy removal.
Secondly, paint the gingerbread by hand, “printing” letters from scraps. This, of course, takes longer than making a “punch” by simply rolling out a layer of dough into a mold, but... not so much that you are afraid of it. If you don't want to spend too much time on this, choose shorter words. If you are planning to bake for a birthday, you can cut out a number from the dough - this is the most primitive and fastest. In any case, even such a small painting will make the gingerbread more elegant and textured. From the scraps, I rolled out strips 1 mm thick, and from them I sculpted the letters: after I laid everything out on the surface of the gingerbread, I lifted the letters again and, moistening my finger in water, glued them to the surface. Place the top “painted” part of the gingerbread into the mold, letters down. Place the filling: spread the entire can of condensed milk over the surface of the gingerbread and sprinkle with ground nuts. Then roll out the remaining half of the dough, trim the edges and place on top of the filling. Carefully connect the edges of the dough so that nothing leaks out during baking.

4. Preheat the oven to 200-220 degrees (for convection the degrees are lower, it is better to do this in advance if it does not accelerate quickly). Carefully transfer the gingerbread out of the mold onto a baking sheet covered with baking paper, so that the front side is on top. Bake for about 20 minutes. Remove the gingerbread from the oven and immediately begin preparing the glaze (the ingredients can be placed in a ladle in advance).
Mix sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover the still hot gingerbread with the resulting syrup using a pastry brush. Wait until it cools down and delight others with the most delicious dessert!
Well, if you succeed, wait until the filling soaks the gingerbread, after a day, believe me, it’s even tastier! To prevent the edges of the gingerbread from drying out, it is best to place it in an airtight container or bag.

This gingerbread is a real holiday and a great gift!

PS By the way, I discovered that Pokrovsky gingerbreads are also lean, that is, vegetable oil is added to the dough instead of butter. So this recipe is very close to the original)

For the lazy, here are a couple of places (in Moscow) where they are sold.