Tula gingerbread: TOP 4 recipes

Manufacturing secrets and tricks
Real gingerbread according to GOST
With jam
Spiced
On choux pastry
Video recipes

To enjoy real Tula gingerbread, you don’t have to go to Tula. You can get the hang of this baking for us by preparing Tula gingerbread yourself at home. It distinguishes the fragrant and savory real Tula gingerbread by adding spices and natural honey, which gives the baked goods an amazing spicy smell and a tender honey crumb. Also, the originality of the product is the large surface, which is obtained thanks to special wooden template boards. The gingerbread is also distinguished by a corresponding marble coating of sweet glaze, and, of course, a viscous sweet and sour interior made of plum and apple jam.

Manufacturing secrets and tricks

The distinctive highlight of the Tula gingerbread is the large applique on the front side.
The usual set of goods is butter at room temperature (70 g), sugar (100 g), honey (100 g), two egg yolks and flour (about 2 tbsp.). Although each baker may have his own recipe and the proportions of ingredients vary depending on taste preferences.
Separating the yolk from the white is easiest if the egg is cool.
All products are kneaded by hand until smooth and without lumps.
Beat the finished dough on the table so that it looks like plasticine, wrap it in film and cool it in the refrigerator for half an hour.
For the fruit interior, dissolve the jam and sugar in a water bath and heat until it becomes thick and does not spill over the dough.
Instead of jam, you can use marmalade.
The dough is rolled out into a flat cake, on which the filling is placed, covered with a second flat cake and the edges are clamped.
The edges of the Tula gingerbread can be trimmed with a curly knife or the dough can be decorated with the tines of a fork.
Bake the preparations in the oven for 15 minutes at 180 degrees. But the baking time may differ from that indicated in the recipe, because... it depends on the quality of the oven and the size of the gingerbread mold.
Use the remaining whites for glaze, which is used to brush the finished gingerbread cookies. Combine them with sweet powder and heat until smooth and fluffy.
Cardamom or cinnamon is often added to Tula gingerbread to give it a more pungent and unusual taste and smell.
You will get an inimitable snack if you put oriental seasoning, like reddish pepper, in the dough.
Dried fruits and candied fruits are often added to the filling for baking along with jam, and cardamom, cinnamon, saffron, and cloves are added to the glaze.

Real Tula gingerbread according to GOST

The presented recipe is usually for home execution, because... does not require special costs and a huge amount of time. It is not bad because of its simplicity, since even an inexperienced housewife in the wider world of cooking can handle it.

Calorie content per 100 g - 493 kcal.
Number of servings - 9 pcs.
Production time - 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:

Flour - 2.5 tbsp.
Ground cinnamon - 1 tbsp.
Honey - 5 tbsp. Testicles - 2 pcs.
Margarine – 125 g
Milk - 2 tbsp.
Sugar - 1 tbsp. into the dough, 5 tbsp. for glaze
Soda - 1 tsp.
Thick sour jam – 150 g

Making real Tula gingerbread according to GOST:

Pour sugar, soda, cinnamon, honey, eggs into a bowl and stir the ingredients until smooth.
Add softened margarine and beat everything with a mixer until light and fluffy.
Place the mixture in a water bath and heat for 15 minutes, stirring.
Then pour in the sifted flour and knead a firm, soft and elastic dough, which you send to the refrigerator to cool.
Roll out the chilled dough into a careful layer 0.5 cm wide into a square shape.
Place thick jam on one half of the square and cover it with a loose edge. Form a careful seam.
Place the products on a baking sheet covered with parchment at a distance of 2 cm from each other and grease it with oil.
Bake in a hot oven for 10-15 minutes at 180°C.
Glaze for Tula gingerbread with jam, prepare them with sugar and milk. Stir the ingredients, put on the fire, boil and cook for 5 minutes.
Brush the finished hot gingerbread cookies with glaze and leave to cool.

Tula gingerbread with jam

Savory, fresh, crumbly with a huge amount of inside - Tula gingerbread with jam. If after baking the gingerbread does not look very impressive, cover small imperfections and cracks with glaze, maybe multi-colored. Then a very beautiful gingerbread came out.

Ingredients:

Testicles - 2 pcs.
Sugar - 250 g
Butter - 100 g
Cinnamon - 0.5 tsp.
Soda - 1 tsp.
Jam (apple, apricot, plum) - 4 tbsp.
Honey - 5 tbsp.
Flour - 400 g
Sweet powder - 60 g

Making Tula gingerbread with jam:

Place sugar, butter, eggs, cinnamon, soda, honey in a saucepan and place everything in a water bath.
Melt the ingredients until the butter disperses, the mixture becomes watery and becomes covered with snow-white foam.
Remove the pan from the bath, add flour and knead into an elastic and smooth dough that does not stick to your hands.
Divide the dough into 2 parts and roll each one 5 mm wide.
Transfer the dough to a baking tray lined with baking paper and brush with jam, leaving free edges.
Place the second layer of dough on top and seal the edges so that the inside does not leak out.
Bake the gingerbread in a preheated oven at 180°C for 20 minutes.
For the glaze, pour sweet powder into a bowl, pour in boiling water and cook over moderate heat until the mixture is suitable: thicker or thinner.
Spread the glaze on the hot gingerbread and leave it to harden.

Tula spiced gingerbread

The best way to become familiar with the recipe and technology for making Tula gingerbread is to prepare it yourself. Try the very tasty, spicy and soft Tula gingerbread with a bouquet of fragrant spices.

Ingredients:

Flour - 4-5 tbsp.
Testicles - 2 pcs.
Sugar - 1 tbsp. for dough, 4 tbsp. for glaze
Butter - 100 g
Soda - 1 tsp.
Ground cinnamon - 1 tbsp.
Ground cardamom - 0.5 tsp.
Nutmeg - 0.5 tsp.
Ground cloves - 0.5 tsp.
Honey - 5 tbsp.
Water - 2 tbsp.
Jam or non-liquid jam - for the inside

Making Tula spiced gingerbread:

Combine eggs, sugar, butter, soda, cinnamon, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, honey and knead the dough.
Place the ingredients in a water bath and cook for 10 minutes, stirring until smooth.
Remove the container from the heat, add flour and knead into an elastic dough.
Divide the dough into 2 parts and roll out two cakes.
Place the first shortbread on a baking sheet, and place a layer of jam on top. If the jam is liquid, mix it with flour to make it thicker.
Then place the second layer of dough on top of the inside and seal the edges.
Bake the gingerbread over medium heat at 170°C for 20-25 minutes.
Cover hot baked goods with glaze. To do this, boil sugar and water until the sugar is completely dissolved and brush the product with hot glaze. After drying, the glaze will become whitish.

Tula gingerbread on choux pastry

Brew tea and drink a mug of hot drink with real hand-made Tula gingerbread. And the secret of its taste, which has been preserved since ancient times, is the addition of ginger, cinnamon and other spices to the dough.

Ingredients:

Flour - 500 g
Sugar - 150 g for dough, 100 g for glaze
Honey - 150 g
Testicles - 2 pcs.
Butter - 75 g
Soda - 1 tsp.
Plum jam – 300 g
Water – 30 ml

Making Tula gingerbread with choux pastry:

Break the eggs into the pan and scramble them with a fork.
Then add butter, sweet sand, honey, soda and, if desired, any spices.
Place the pan in a water bath and, stirring, heat until all ingredients are completely dissolved. This will take about 10 minutes.
Brew the sifted flour into the consistency given to us and knead the dough with your hands so that there are no lumps left. Its mixture will resemble soft plasticine.
Divide the still warm gingerbread dough into two equal parts, cover with cling film and place in the refrigerator for half an hour.
Roll out one piece of dough into a layer 1-1.5 cm wide and spread plum jam on it in an even layer, not reaching the edges a few cm.
Roll out the second piece of dough and place it on top of the first, covering the filling.
Using your hands, press down the edges of the dough and seal them well.
Line a baking pan with parchment paper and transfer the dough.
Bake the Tula gingerbread in a previously preheated oven at 180 degrees at medium level for 30 minutes.
For the glaze, pour sweet sand into a bowl, pour in water and place everything on the stove, where you cook for 2 minutes after boiling.
Cover the hot gingerbread with hot sweet syrup and leave the Tula gingerbread to cool completely.

Video recipes for making Tula gingerbread cookies.

Tula gingerbread. History of appearance

Surely, any inhabitant of the Russian Federation is familiar with such a delicacy as Tula gingerbread and has tasted it at least once in his life. Gingerbread is made in almost all towns of Russia, but only Tula gingerbread has become widely known. In this article for us, we will look at the history of the appearance of the Tula gingerbread, and find out why it captured the love of all Russians.

History of appearance

According to some chronicles, Tula gingerbread originated more than 300 years ago, from the time when people only began to learn the basics of baking. The people of Tula in the 17th century lived poorly, and therefore it was necessary to earn money, so almost everyone was engaged in various crafts, for example, trade, and among other products they also sold gingerbread.

In those days there were a lot of craftsmen who knew gingerbread making. Everyone had their own unique recipe, which was kept in the strictest confidence and passed down from generation to generation only by men. The masters never wrote down their recipes, because they were afraid that they would be stolen, and when mixing all the ingredients, they were guided by pebbles, which indicated the weight of a certain product.

Gingerbread masters

In the 19th century, craftsmen arose in Tula who invented gingerbread recipes and knew all the intricacies of making them. Among the gingerbread masters were the Grechikhin brothers, M. Belolipetsky and P. Kozlov. Year after year, confectioners showed their talents at various Russian and foreign fairs. At that time there was a large assortment of gingerbread cookies, which differed in their shape and name.

Forms for baking gingerbread were made from wooden planks, they were cut from birch or pear, and then dried and cut into their pattern in a mirror image. After complete drying, some sketch was also applied to the form, which reflected Tula sights and ceremonial events. Also, on Tula gingerbread there was always a text that duplicated historical actions and dates.

Gingerbread symbolism

In Rus', many customs, traditions and rituals were associated with gingerbread. For every occasion, be it a birthday or a wedding, a special gingerbread was baked. For example, the wedding gingerbread contained a lot of baked goods, to which nuts and berries were added. Such gingerbread was constantly presented to newlyweds with wishes for a prosperous home life. Any gingerbread had its own symbolism, for example, “Gingerbread-heart” is a sign of sympathy, love, and “Gingerbread-deer” reflected the strength and courage of a man.

In the old days, Tula gingerbread was considered a precious gift, given only to the closest people. It was believed that it had special healing qualities and was able to help with certain diseases. For such gingerbread cookies, the initials of the archangels were cut out on molding boards so that they would protect a person from misfortunes and help cope with illness.

Tula gingerbread today

Nowadays, on the shelves of Russian stores you can still find printed gingerbreads - traditional Tula gingerbreads of round, oval or rectangular shape with a pattern and any text. To this day, the traditions of past masters are continued by bakers and confectioners at various factories, and thanks to the unique design and Tula symbols, such gingerbread cookies have become known throughout Europe, becoming a special souvenir.

How everything works: How true Tula gingerbreads are made

Myslo photojournalist visited a confectionery factory and saw how Tula gingerbread cookies are molded, baked and prepared for sale.

In the wake of the development of tourism in the Tula region, one of the signs of the town - the Tula gingerbread - has been experiencing a real renaissance in recent years. Branded stores open, new production facilities emerge, excursions and master classes at confectionery factories are attended by tourist groups from all over Russia. Gingerbread cookies themselves can be found on the shelves of shops and hypermarkets far outside the Tula region.

At the moment, Tula gingerbread is produced at several large enterprises, not counting a number of small ones. Myslo photojournalist visited a confectionery factory and saw how authentic Tula gingerbreads are molded, baked and prepared for sale.

Tula printed gingerbread is considered the most famous type of Russian gingerbread. Gingerbread has been known in Tula since the 17th century. The first mention of Tula gingerbread is contained in a scribe book from 1685.

The base for making gingerbread is dough, which is divided into two unequal parts: the larger one goes to fill the board (baking mold), the smallest covers the lower part of the gingerbread.

Despite the development of technology and innovation, gingerbread is still prepared by hand. Baking a really good gingerbread is a huge art that requires knowledge, skill, experience and dexterity.

Modern Tula gingerbreads are made with insides made from jam or condensed milk.

Gingerbread dough is made from wheat flour and honey. Honey improves the properties of gingerbread, slows down the staleness and gives the classic delicacy a unique smell.

Making gingerbread is a real assembly flow. All stages must be carried out in strict sequence: after baking in the oven, the gingerbread cookies are cooled and sent for glazing.

Gingerbread workers are called craftswomen. And this is essentially true. Before starting to work in the workshop, any of them undergoes training for several weeks.

Now you can order a whole gingerbread in any form - corporate, greeting or souvenir. It all depends on the imagination of the customer and the skill of the artist.

Making gingerbread dough is a whole science. Requests special precision when weighing components, the sequence of their placement and compliance with temperature conditions.

Modern gingerbread shapes are a tribute to web trends and retro fashion.

Putting the blank into a gingerbread mold: the dough is pressed into the mold with your hands so that the sketch cut out on the board is completely repeated on the future gingerbread in small details. That is why Tula gingerbreads are called printed ones.

The process of applying glaze to finished gingerbread cookies. It is the glaze, which lays down in a beautiful shiny smooth surface with snow-white glimpses, that gives the gingerbread its usual appearance.

The gingerbread production shift starts early in the morning. The first gingerbreads go into the oven at 6 am!

Any new mini-production cycle begins with weighing and dividing the dough into pieces.

Any craftswoman feels responsible for her work. They look at the finished gingerbread cookies only with a magnifying glass.

Gingerbread producers rightfully consider it not just a delicacy, but an object of artistic creativity, a work of folk decorative and applied art.

Any gingerbread board is practically a piece of jewelry by a professional artist - a wood carver.

Preparation for the next production cycle.

One of the most exciting moments of gingerbread making is knocking the gingerbread out of the mold. The slightest incorrectness leads to irreparable consequences - the sketch loses its shape, the gingerbread breaks.

The dough and inside are hung in accordance with the weight of the upcoming gingerbread.

Gingerbread cookies are baked in an oven at a temperature of 200 to 220 degrees.

The daily production load can range from 200 to 500 kg of finished gingerbread (with a gingerbread weight of 150 grams to 1 kg). In the photo: gingerbread production packing shop.

The most experienced craftswoman molds one gingerbread on average per minute! After modeling, the gingerbread cookies are placed on a baking sheet, which is sent into the oven.

Gingerbread maker's tools: gingerbread board, rolling pin and punching board.

In addition to the production of gingerbread, “gingerbread” tourism is becoming popular in Tula.

During the master classes, you can create a real Tula souvenir gingerbread with your own hands using the method in which it was made more than 300 years ago.

Kids and adults are in ecstasy!

Tula gingerbread is the hallmark of Tula. It's nice to create something when it's done with love, glorifying the city and its traditions.

About Tula and Tula gingerbread

What secret does Tula gingerbread keep? The Tula gingerbread was first mentioned in 1685 in a scribe book, and it has its own biography. Even in ancient times, craftsmen baked gingerbread cookies of various shapes and types. They would have been with or without entrails, and they would have differed in the composition of the flour. This is where the names came from - “carved”, molded, printed.

Now Tula gingerbread can be purchased either in a store near your home or in a chocolate machine. But those who have tried the original know that true Tula gingerbread can only be found in Tula. Once upon a time, gingerbread was used to propose marriage and congratulate people on their birthday instead of a postcard. And they never cut it with a knife. The Tula gingerbread was only supposed to be broken.

Printed gingerbread cookies were especially famous. They also demanded great labor from the masters. They were made using molds cut from wood; birch or pear were often used. After drying the wood for a long time, various designs were cut out with great care on the boards. This is how the name of the gingerbread appeared - “printed”. There were various printed gingerbreads: honey, raw, with a jagged edge, cream, custard, mustard, etc. Gingerbread cookies also had their purpose. They were baked for weddings, as gifts, and for funerals. By the way, the method of creating printed gingerbread is not outdated to this day. In the old days, people tried to create gingerbread cookies for some important event. Unique ones included those for which the form was used once. There is a famous gingerbread that was made for the celebrations in connection with the coronation of Emperor Nicholas II. The king's profile was clearly visible on it. At the end of the last century, Tula bakers presented noble gingerbread cookies with the image of the Tula coat of arms and the Tula Kremlin to Boris Yeltsin, Patriarch of All Rus' Alexy II. At various times, they were received as gifts by Vladimir Putin, Yuri Luzhkov and the TV presenter of the game “Field of Miracles” Leonid Yakubovich... One of the oldest gingerbread companies belonged to Vasily Serikov.

It is clear that Vasily’s father worked as a cook and taught his son everything he knew. After graduating from the district school in Aleksin, Tula province, Vasily moved to Tula. The master worked not alone, but with his relatives. In addition to the factory, Serikov also had a store where you could constantly buy orange, melon, almond, and chocolate gingerbread. Since Serikov also produced candies, the number of his products reached 800 items. So, in 1913, more than 150 people worked at Serikov’s factory, in total they made about 4 thousand pounds of gingerbread during the year, for 16 thousand rubles.

Gingerbread man Serikov put postcards into boxes: on one side,
a cute girl’s face, and on the other, his last name and address.

Confectioner Pyotr Kozlov is also famous, who, together with his wife and daughter, produced sweet products in his own factory. These are cakes, gingerbreads, pastries, chocolate, candies. He was one of the first confectioners who packaged his products in tin and cardboard boxes, which was very popular with customers. For his work, Pyotr Kozlov received a medal and a Grand Prix diploma at the Global Confectionery Exhibition in Rome.

Tula confectioner Pyotr Kozlov spoiled Tula residents with “City Rusks”
of the highest grade. The box is ordinary, but tasteful!

During these same years, confectioners D. Filippov, the Grechikhin brothers, the Belolipetsky brothers, and the Shchukin family worked in Tula. There were other masters of gingerbread baking. Interestingly, everyone baked gingerbread according to their own recipe, which was kept secret and passed down only by inheritance, usually to their sons. In their work, the bakers did not use weights to measure the amount of honey or flour. There were stones in circulation, the most ordinary ones, or pieces of alloy. All this was kept under “lock and key” and in a hidden place. Every pastry chef saved his own gingerbread recipe. In those years, bakers brought Tula gingerbread by cartload to Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Tula confectioners traded their products not only at Russian fairs. They visited European countries. Thus, the Grechikhin dynasty received a total of 12 awards for their gingerbread cookies. The Belolipetsk merchants also glorified Tula. Empress Maria Feodorovna really liked their gingerbread cookies. During the revolutionary events of 1917, almost all companies producing gingerbread were destroyed. And only during the NEP years gingerbread appeared on store shelves again. True, their names were completely different - “Komsomolskie”, “People’s”, “Commissarskie”, etc. Well, they couldn’t compare in taste to the gingerbread cookies that masters baked before the revolution. During the Second World War, an artel was organized in one of the workshops of the plant, which once belonged to Vasily Serikov. In this artel for us, workers made noodles from low types of flour, mint “fingers” (small-sized gingerbread cookies) and the largest gingerbread cookies. They produced a little more than 2 thousand kg of gingerbread per year, and later, due to a lack of sugar, their creation was completely stopped. But after the war, it was decided to revive gingerbread baking in Tula. But it wasn't that easy. Almost all the masters died, the recipes were lost. There were also those who did not want to help the Russian authorities. It was then that the local administration of the town gathered those people who once worked in confectionery factories. Whether this is true or not, the only person who knew the unique recipe for gingerbread production was Stepan Sevastyanov. When he was 13 years old, he worked at the factory of the merchant Grechikhin as an apprentice. One Sunday, when everyone had gone to church, a smart boy, pretending to be ill, found a box in the factory closet in which Grechikhin kept his “weights.”

On the brightest boxes for monpensiers and gingerbreads, Tula confectioners engraved the name of
their own trading house and address. This is the kind of tin “chest” invented by gingerbread maker Grechikhin.

As the legend says, Stepan measured all the “pebbles” on the scales and remembered them. Thus the secret of the Tula gingerbread recipe was revealed. The young gingerbread maker Anna Matveevna Pavlova put a lot of effort and soul into the revival of sweets, who began to organize the production of gingerbread at the factory where Vasily Serikov’s masters once worked. The famous craftswoman Pavlova has been baking gingerbread for 33 years. For her own work, she was awarded an abundance of awards and certificates. But then, when the gingerbread recipe was already known to almost everyone, no one, except Anna Pavlova, dared to open a gingerbread factory. To all questions about gingerbread, Anna Matveevna answered: “The recipe is a recipe, but the most important highlight of gingerbread baking is in the master’s head.” According to the memoirs of Pavlova’s son, Igor Klimov, his mother spent her entire life collecting recipes for baking gingerbread from old masters. As for Stepan Sevastyanov, he later became an inventor. He invented molds for baking children's gingerbread cookies. And in 1996, the Tula Gingerbread Museum was opened in Tula. It is here that you can see the smallest gingerbread, weighing no more than fifty dollars, also weighing a pound, perhaps the only one in our country. The “Ancient Tula” factory still amuses Tula residents and guests of the town with its own sweet products. But history does not understand the name of the culinary specialist who invented the Tula gingerbread to this day...

Tin box “Tula gingerbread”.
Tula, 20s of the 20th century Tula gingerbread cookies by V. R. Grechikhin, 1922
Based on an article by Olga Konodyuk