Medovníky are deliciously spiced, decorated gingerbread style cookies flavoured with honey, cinnamon and cloves. These festive cookies are often served at Christmastime in Slovakia decorated with white icing swirls.
I do love experimenting with new recipes, and recently I had a notion to try one of the Christmas recipes from a cookery book I’ve had for some years: Festive Foods: Christmas Cooking Around the World by Hanne Kruse (2002). Note, I’ve never visited Slovakia (if I’m to be honest my European geography is somewhat appalling and if given a map I wouldn’t be able to identify where exactly the country even is!), and I have no Slovakian family connections. I simply found a recipe in an old cookery book and attempted to make it.
Alas, the recipe developers in this cookery book clearly didn’t road test their recipes before publication as, following the instructions to the letter in this book, the dough simply would not come together. Why? Because they forgot to include the butter and they suggested to only use the egg yolks in the dough, not the whole eggs.
I attempted to salvage the dough by guessing how much butter should be needed, but alas, my first lot ended in the bin after overnight chilling. I then found this recipe and tweaked the one I had with much success – and thus, my children have been thoroughly enjoying these delicious gingerbread style honey cookies with their intricate swirls of Royal icing. Santa will be enjoying a few this year too, when he stops by on his yearly visit, with a glass of milk of course.
I’ve decorated some of mine with blanched almonds, as recommended in the original cookery book. It’s really easy (and much cheaper) to blanch your own almonds. I buy raw almonds in bulk, and to blanch them you simply boil a kettle, pour hot water over your raw almonds and leave them for a few minutes before draining and plunging the hot almonds in a bowlful of cold water. The almond skins will slip off easily.
Classic medovníky are often decorated simply with swirls of white icing, and given that my children can be of two minds when it comes to nuts, I left half of my cookies plain so they could decorate them as they wished with the icing.
The spice mixture used in the cookies is very similar to gingerbread spice, but ginger is not always included. The original recipe I adapted this recipe from only had cloves, but I added cinnamon, nutmeg, star anise, allspice and a nice hefty pinch of freshly ground black pepper to mine. You can find a traditional recipe for the spice mixture here. Use whole spices and grind them yourself for a more intense flavour.
The dough will be very sticky when it first comes together, and I found it easier to leave it to chill in the fridge for a while before kneading and dividing into two discs to chill overnight.
When it comes to brushing the cookies with beaten egg white, you can either do this before you bake them to give a lovely rustic golden colour to the cookies or brush them with the egg white as soon as they come out of the oven for a more uniform glaze. The heat from the cookies will cook the glaze, so you don’t have to worry about brushing raw egg over them.
These cookies also improve with age, softening and becoming more gingerbread-like in texture. A perfect festive treat to leave out for Santa, I think.
As an aside, what do you think of our new Christmas tree? I’ve bought an artificial one this year as I am loathed to spend £90 on a real one whose needles will begin dropping before Christmas Day only to chuck the whole thing on top of the village bonfire after the festive. So, new tree, new baubles (all gold) and new soft white lights – I’m really loving our tree this year even though it isn’t real.
What cookies will you be leaving out for Santa this year? Let me know in the comments!
Medovníky: Slovak Spiced Honey Cookies
Ingredients
for the honey cookies
- 650 grams plain flour
- 300 grams icing sugar
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- 1.5 tsp ground cinnamon
- 0.25 tsp ground nutmeg
- 0.25 tsp ground allspice
- 0.25 tsp ground star anise
- 1 pinch black pepper
- 1 lemon zest only
- 3 medium free range eggs
- 160 grams runny honey
- 125 grams unsalted butter
- blanched almonds to decorate (optional)
- 2 egg whites to glaze
for the icing
- 200 grams icing sugar
- 1 egg white
- 1 tbsp lemon juice
Instructions
- Sift together the flour, icing sugar, bicarbonate of soda and spices.
- Measure out the honey and butter in a small saucepan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
- Add to the dry ingredients along with the eggs and mix well to form a soft dough.
- Leave to chill in the refrigerator for an hour to firm up. Knead gently on a floured surface and divide into two discs. Wrap each disc in cling film and leave overnight in the refrigerator to chill.
- Preheat your oven to 200 C/ 400 F and line a baking tray with paper.
- Roll out each disc on a floured surface to a thickness of half a centimetre.
- Cut out with your desired cookie cutter and place well apart on the baking sheet.
- Decorate with a few blanched almonds, if desired, and glaze with the beaten egg white.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes, depending on your oven (mine takes 12). Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- To prepare the icing, mix the ingredients together and pipe swirls and decorations over the top of the cookies.
- Will keep for several days in an airtight container.
Mum of three, daydream adventurer, OU Life Sciences graduate, occasional crafter, ex-pat Canadian & quite possibly Britain's most northerly food blogger.
Robert Price says
They look too good to eat
Heather Haigh says
They look so pretty, I wish I could pipe that neatly!
Laura says
Wow, nice! Love the idea of almonds for the decoration! 🙂
Cookery says
WOW, these are really so delicious. I am looking at all the recipes all are looking gorgeous. I would like to them. you are always awesome
Keep sharing.
Party ideas says
Woa, yummy, Their taste would be delicious. I will try this soon. Thanks allot for sharing.
Gloria @ Homemade & Yummy says
WOW…these are so pretty. I love looking at all the ethic holiday recipes. These sound do delicious…I would be eating them off the tree for sure…and I know my grandkids would too.
The Food Hunter says
they are a work of art. I bet the taste fabulous
Laura Dove says
Oh wow these are so pretty!! I doubt I would ever be able to make something so lovely, but I would love to give it a try! They look great on the tree!
Starlight and Stories says
Wow these look so pretty, we will definitely have to give making some of them a try x
Kate - Gluten Free Alchemist says
These cookies are absolutely beautiful Elizabeth. They came out perfectly, guess-work or not. x
Sam | Ahead of Thyme says
Wow these cookies are adorable!! So cute that you can hang them as ornaments!
Helene says
Your Slovak cookies remind me of our lebkuchen hearts. We hang them too on the Christmas tree or make bigger hearts to hang around the necks. 🙂 I have never heard of these cookies however, My Slovak friends never mentioned them. I am going to save this for next advent season, we love honey based spiced cookies! 🙂
Sarah says
Wow! These cookies are stunning! I bet they are delicious too!
Laura H says
Is this food or art?! These are so so gorgeous and I imagine they taste even better! Hope you had a very Merry Christmas Elizabeth 🙂
Tanya Brannan says
I am not sure my icing skills are quite up to making something as beautiful as these cookies. I would love to give it a go though!
Ivana at Blondie-ish at Kitchen says
I love your Medovníky. They look super delicious and the decoration is stunning. I´m actually from Slovakia and I can tell that medovníky or perníky (using sugar instead of honey) are a must-have in every family during Christmas. But fiding the right recipe so they wouldn´t be tough is hard and like a mission for an entire family generation 😀
Tanya says
Shame you had an issue with the recipe originally but great that you were able to amend it by using the second one too. Unfortunately I’m allergic to nuts otherwise I’d be all over these because they look delicious but I’ll show my Mum the recipe as they love baking and trying new things
sherry ryan says
No good for me my scale does not do grams, sound good . I hate when a recipe is in grams.
Elizabeth says
You can change the units from grams to US imperial if you fancy. 🙂 The drop-down menu is in the recipe box itself. Happy baking! 🙂
Hannah says
These look so good and are making me feel very hingry right now
Jenni says
They are so pretty! They sound delicious too, have a wonderful Christmas x
Dannii says
These cookies are so beautifully decorated. I think they would make a great homemade gift for someone.
Nayna Kanabar says
These cookies are so very pretty. I love the design and the white icing. They make lovely tree decorations.
Lisa Huff says
I pinned these earlier this morning! They are gorgeous!
Hannah says
I love how you added spices and made these so fun and bold! 🙂
Noel Lizotte says
Such pretty cookies! They’re lovely Christmas decor! But I’ll bet they’re even better to snack on. I love Christmas cookies and colletting ones from different cultures.
Natalie says
WOW these cookies are simply beautiful! ♥
Helen at Casa Costello says
How frustrating that you had to guess on the real recipe – Looks like they turned out well though in the end. Your piping is lovely! I don’t know how patient I would be to leave them to get to gingerbread consistency x