This is the archived version of the Milk Street website and is no longer up to date.

Please visit 177milkstreet.com to see the current website with all of the latest recipes!

ADVERTISEMENT

This is the archived version of the Milk Street website and is no longer up to date.

Please visit 177milkstreet.com to see the current website with all of the latest recipes!

Polish Gingerbread Cookies with Honey and Rye (Pierniki)

40 Cookies

1 hour Plus chilling and cooling

Made This Recipe? Write a Review.
Thank you for submitting your review! A member of our team is confirming the review meets our site's Community Guidelines. It will be posted on the site shortly.

Pierniki, Poland’s honey-based gingerbread cookie, is heavily spiced. To replicate that and get the most flavor from our spices, we infuse them into the honey. This both draws out their flavors and distributes them more evenly through the cookies. A dark, robust honey stands up nicely to the intensity of the spices and the nuttiness of the rye flour. Our favorite is buckwheat honey, which has notes of molasses. Clover honey works well, too, but avoid honeys with a distinct floral sweetness, such as orange blossom and wildflower. Traditional pierniki dough is aged for days or even weeks, but we opted to chill the dough for only two hours or up to overnight; if time allows, bake the cookies the day before serving, as their flavor improves with resting. These can be decorated in a couple different ways. Rolling the dough balls in turbinado sugar before baking creates a pretty, crackled appearance. Alternatively, you can drizzle the baked and cooled cookies with an espresso glaze that pairs well with the spices.

40

Cookies

Tip

Don't chill the cookie dough for longer than 12 hours or the cookies will bake up cakey and thick.

1 hour

Plus chilling and cooling

Ingredients

  • 251

    grams (¾ cup) buckwheat or clover honey

  • 113

    grams (8 tablespoons) salted butter, cut into 6 to 8 pieces

Directions

Reviews
Nancy G.
December 23, 2023
Authentic Flavor and Texture
Closest I've made to the flavor of thef amous gingerbread from Torun. I use the turbinado sugar and the glaze. The sugar gives a nice crunch and the glaze compliments the pepper. They are gingerbread, not gingersnaps, so this isn't supposed to be crisp all the way through. It's one of my family's favorite cookies.
BROOKE W.
December 8, 2025
Flavorful Cookies
These look wonderful and remind me of many of the traditional German spice cookies I make around the holidays. I wish this recipe had some information about how long these cookies can be stored with the different toppings.
Delaney T.
December 12, 2023
Great for the holidays!
Cookies have an excellent flavor-- however, the texture is quite soft and chewy
Mark R.
December 27, 2025
Delicious and complex
Such a nice soft texture with an enticing and exciting flavor. These spiced cookies are warming and even downright stimulating to eat. Everyone with whom I shared them loved them.

ADVERTISEMENT