HONEY COOKIES & PEPPER COOKIES - MEDENJACI I PAPRENJACI

Place of Origin: Croatia

Honeycookies and Peppercookies are old and traditional cookies that can be found in practically all parts of Croatia in many different variations. They're usually eaten during the winter and especially for Christmas and New Year holidays or at many festivals throughout the year. They’re almost similar to Gingerbread or Ginger biscuits, but they don’t contain ginger and they’re usually shaped as a small ball or disk. I'm sharing with you this old recipe from my grandma's who comes from a village between towns Novska and Jasenovac, near the Sava river.
INGREDIENTS:
800 g flour (brown flour if possible, otherwise pastry flour)

25 tbsp honey (app. 400 g)

11 tbsp sugar

2 eggs

150 ml water

100 g pork fat (if you can’t find pork fat or don’t want to use it, substitute with same amount of butter)

2 tsp baking soda

cinnamon, ground cloves, ground nutmeg according to taste

1. Put honey, sugar, fat/butter and water in small pot and simmer over low heat till melted and combined. 
2. In another bowl combine all dry ingredients.
3. Pour liquid ingredients into the bowl with dry ingredients. Knead with wooden ladle till smooth and well combined.
4. Cover with kitchen towel and set aside to rest in a cool place for 1 hour.
5. Flour your hands, take small amounts of dough and roll into small balls (walnut sized). Place balls on a tray lined with parchment paper.
6. Heat oven to 180°C and bake for 10 minutes.
7. When done, carefully remove biscuits from the pan and spread them onto clean working surface to cool – when hot, they’re very soft (don't think they're not done! ;-) )  and can deform easily.
8. When cooled, store covered in an airtight container. When stored like that, they can be kept for a very long time. 

PEPPERCOOKIES: to make peppercookies, add some finely ground pepper together with other spices. You can also divide ingredients into two parts and make a batch of honeycookies and peppercookies at the same time. From this amount of ingredients you can get a lot (I mean really a lot) of cookies so I usually make them like that - two at the same time. :-) 

MEDENJACI I PAPRENJACI

Tradicionalni hrvatski kolačići, svi znamo što su, pa nema potrebe za nekim posebnim objašnjenjem. S vama dijelim recept moje bake koja potječe iz jednog sela između Novske i Jasenovca.

SASTOJCI:  
800 g brašna (najbolje je crno brašno, a ako ga nemate onda oštro)

25 žlica meda (oko 400 g)

11 žlica šećera

2 jaja

150 ml vide

100 g masti (ili jednaka količina maslaca)

2 žličice sode bikarbone

cimet, mljeveni klinčić i orašćić prema ukusu ili mješavina začina za medenjake

1. Stavite med, šećer, mast ili maslac i vodu u lončić i krčkajte na laganoj vatri dok se sve ne otopi i dobro ne pomiješa.
2. U drugoj posudi pomiješajte sve suhe sastojke.
3. Prelijte tekuće sastojke preko suhih sastojaka i miješajte kuhačom dok tijesto ne postane homogeno.
4. Pokrijte i ostavite stajati na hladnom mjestu 1 sat.
5. Nabrašnjenim rukama otkidajte male komadiće tijesta i oblikujte loptice (otprilike veličine oraha) te ih slažite na pleh obložen papirom za pečenje.
6. Pecite 10 minuta u pećnici zagrijanoj na 180°C.
7. Gotove medenjake pažljivo prebacite s pleha na čistu radnu površinu. Topli medenjaci su vrlo mekani (nemojte misliti da su sirovi!) i lako se mogu deformirati.
8. Ohlađene medenjake pohranite u dobro zatvorenoj posudi. Tako pohranjeni mogu se jako dugo održati.

PAPRENJACI: da biste napravili paprenjake, u začine dodajte fino mljeveni crni papar. Pazite s količinom i stavite prema želji, ali za prvi puta bolje stavite manje nego više pa kasnije prilagodite ukusu. Možete sastojke podijeliti na dva dijela i istovremeno napraviti turu medenjaka i turu paprenjaka. Količina je inače dovoljna za jako puno keksića pa ja obično radim tako. :-)

Recipe by Katarina