Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

a food & travel blog

Home » Recipe » Medovníky: a Slovak Spiced Honey Cookie Recipe

Medovníky: a Slovak Spiced Honey Cookie Recipe

Published on by 28 Comments
Last Updated on

Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

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.

Medovníky: Slovak Spiced Honey Cookies

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.

Medovníky: Slovak Spiced Honey Cookies

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.

Medovníky: Slovak Spiced Honey Cookies

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.

Decorating Slovakian Honey Cookies with 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.

Medovníky: Slovak Spiced Honey Cookies

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

Medovníky: Slovak Spiced Honey Cookies

Flavoured with honey, cinnamon and cloves these delicious cookies are often served at Christmastime in Slovakia decorated with white icing swirls.
4 from 4 votes
Print Rate
Prep Time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Cook Time: 12 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 42 minutes
Servings: 40 cookies
Author: Elizabeth

Ingredients

for the honey cookies

for the icing

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.

Notes

Recipe adapted from one found in the cookery book Festive Foods: Christmas Cooking Around the World by Hanne Kruse (2002).
Tried this recipe?Mention @TangoRaindrop or tag #elizabethskitchendiary!

PIN THIS MEDOVNÍKY RECIPE FOR LATER

[color-box]

Elizabeth's Kitchen Diary

Have you made this recipe?

Take a photo and tag @tangoraindrop or use the hashtag #elizabethskitchendiary and share on Instagram and Twitter. It would make my day to see your creations!

[/color-box]

Comments

  4. 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.

    Reply

  12. 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! 🙂

    Reply

  16. 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 😀

    Reply

  17. 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

    Reply

  25. 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.

    Reply

  27. 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

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

CommentLuv badge

Latest Posts

In this easy recipe, lemon zest, lemon extract and lavender flowers are combined to make a delicious, fluffy, moist, perfectly baked doughnut with a lavender icing sugar glaze. #doughnuts #bakeddoughnuts #lavender #lemondoughnut #lemondonut #bakeddonut
Scottish stovies are the ultimate in Scottish comfort food. Made with the leftovers from Sunday night's roast dinner, it's a super easy Monday meal to make. Serve with oatcakes and sliced beetroot for a true taste of Scotland.  #Scottishfood #lamb #stovies
Date and oat muffins are super easy to make, and they taste absolutely fantastic! If you're a fan of sticky toffee pudding or date squares you'll love these breakfast muffins made with rolled oats, buttermilk and chopped dates. #breakfast #muffins #oatmuffins
This lazy chicken tray bake takes five minutes to prep and only has five ingredients! It's a complete meal in one tray bake, and there's only one pan to wash up afterwards! #chickentraybake #sheetpanchicken #chicken
This delicious and warming spicy carrot soup contains seven different store-cupboard spices, as well as fresh ginger and garlic. It freezes and reheats well too, so you can batch cook it if you've got a glut of carrots. #carrotsoup #soup #elizabethskitchendiary
Peanut butter cookies are a classic family favourite. This dairy free version is super easy to make! #peanutbuttercookies #cookierecipe #elizabethskitchendiary

Latest Tweets

Elizabeth’s Kitchen Diary is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.co.uk. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.