Cookies for Carolers

Cookies for Carousers

By the time you read this column, the holiday season will have passed. But the calm of late January gives us time to ruminate on some of the rituals the winter holidays once involved. Long before Christianity took hold in Russia, the winter solstice marked a time of sacrifice to Rod, the pagan god of fertility and light. Even after the Church was established, pagan practices did not quickly disappear – the Russians still found ways to celebrate light in the season of darkness. Two Russian rituals in particular endured well into the twentieth century: kolyadovaniye (caroling) and ryazheniye (mummery).

The onset of cold weather ushered in rounds of socializing among relatives and friends. For the first time in months, people had free time: the harvest had been gathered, food had been put up for the long winter ahead. In the days leading up to Christmas, groups of young people would set out through the village, carrying a large, wooden Star of Bethlehem with a lighted candle in the center. As they reached each house, they stopped to sing kolyadki,

carols of greeting that wished their hosts well in the coming year. As a reward, the carolers received holiday treats, more often than not pryaniki, or gingerbread. In many villages the carousers were mummers who donned shaggy furs to resemble bears, or horns to imitate devils; they blackened their faces with soot or made them red with beet juice and sometimes covered their faces with frightening animal masks crafted of birch bark. The pryaniki these groups received were often molded in animal shapes that echoed the costumes they wore. 

The Russians enjoyed three types of pryaniki. For pechatnye (stamped) pryaniki, the dough was pressed into carved wooden forms that left a decorative impression on the baked dough. Siluetnye (silhouette) pryaniki were even more ornate, cut out in elaborate forms depicting such figures as reindeer pulling a sleigh, or Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and Snegurochka (the snow maiden). These cookies were elaborately decorated with stiff white icing. Lepnye (molded) pryaniki were three-dimensional cakes shaped by hand into horses, cocks, sheep, bulls, and other creatures. In a carryover from pagan times, these figures often represented animals that had once been sacrificed to the gods. Villagers hung pryaniki on their Christmas trees, as well as in their windows, to ensure the family’s good fortune in the new year. Sometimes they affixed them to livestock corrals to encourage the animals to produce abundant offspring. 

The first pryaniki were made simply from rye flour mixed with plenty of honey. Later, wheat flour was sometimes used to make lighter cookies; yeast could likewise be added to lighten the dough. When exotic spices became more widely available, bakers began adding cloves, anise, ginger, and other spices to the dough. In fact, the name pryanik comes from the word for “spice.” 

Pryaniki differ from our familiar gingerbread – they are neither crisp like gingersnaps nor soft and cakelike. Instead, they are rather dry, intended for long keeping. The cookies were originally set in a warm stove after the bread had finished baking. So firm did they become, that competitions were sometimes held to see whose cookie could be thrown the farthest without breaking. I assure you that the cookies at right are not nearly that hard! Here, a simple glaze is poured over them for a sweet touch, but if you want to make more elaborate patterns, pipe on a stiff icing instead.

Pryaniki

2 tablespoons butter

½ cup honey

1 egg

1¾ to 2 cups all-purpose flour

¼ teaspoon baking soda

¼ teaspoon each: ground cardamom, ginger, mace (or nutmeg) and cinnamon

2 tablespoons finely chopped candied orange peel

Glaze

½ cup confectioners’ sugar

2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice

Cream the butter, then beat in the honey, and then the egg. Stir in the baking soda, spices and orange peel, mixing well. Add enough flour to make a soft dough. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour. Preheat the oven to 350° F. On a floured board, roll out the dough 1⁄8-inch thick. Use animal-shaped cookie cutters to make various forms. Place cookies on a greased baking sheet and bake for 8 minutes at
350° F, then reduce the heat to 325° F and continue baking for about 8 minutes more, until the cookies just begin to color. Cool on a rack.

To prepare the glaze, mix together the confectioner’s sugar and lemon juice. Pour over the cooled cookies.

Makes 3 dozen.

Adapted from A Taste of Russia