Since ancient times, people baked various sweets for the holidays. For a birthday - a cake, for Easter - Easter cakes, for a wedding - a loaf. But for Christmas roe baked.
What are such sweets?
Roe is a traditional Christmas cookie made from rye or wheat flour. Most often it was made in the form of a goat, horse, sheep, cow, deer. The goat has always been considered a symbol of wealth and prosperity in the house, and the manufacture of cookies in the form of this animal symbolized wealth.
During the Christmas holidays, all relatives, friends, neighbors and caroling children received roe cookies for refreshments. The recipe for such sweets was inherited. In each family, roe baked with its own “zest”. After all, Christmas cookies were treated not only to people, but also fed him with pets. People believed that after this, cattle became very prolific. In addition, the roe was hung in the stable or stable as a talisman, and also used for fortune-telling on Epiphany evening.
Roe cookies. First recipe
To prepare you will need:
- 5 glasses of sugar (in dough and icing);
- 2.5 cups of water;
- 3 eggs (per dough);
- 5 yolks (per dough);
- 2 squirrels (in icing).
- 1/2 teaspoon of salt;
- 2 tablespoons of soda;
- 2-3 tablespoons of spices (cloves, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon);
- 2 drops of vinegar essence (in glaze);
- 1.8-2 kg of flour.
Cooking dough and making roe
On low heat in a thick bowl (it is better if it is a frying pan with a dense bottom), melt 2 cups of sugar (until brown). After slowly pour 1.5 cups of boiling water. The water in the dishes should boil and steam. It is better not to bend low over the pan so as not to burn your face. It is necessary to constantly stir the mass with a wooden spoon. Dissolve everything in a homogeneous mixture. Add as much sugar (2 cups), stir and allow to completely dissolve. Next, you can remove the syrup from the heat and add 350 g of margarine (butter). Pour the whole mass into a large saucepan and allow to cool.
While the syrup cools, in a separate cup you need to beat 5 yolks and 3 whole eggs (like an omelet). Pour the egg mixture into the cooled syrup. Add salt, spices (to taste) and soda. Sift the flour, then gradually pour into the sugar mixture. Flour should be poured as required by the roe recipe, even if the dough seems liquid. Otherwise, the products will be tough. Put the finished dough in a cool place for one day.
After the set time has passed, roll it out about a centimeter thick and cut out your favorite figures (you can make the necessary patterns in advance). Bake products at a temperature of 180 degrees.
Glaze
And how to make icing for roe? The recipe for cooking it, we now consider. First you need to beat two squirrels in a tight foam. Cook syrup from a glass of water and sugar. Remove the boiling syrup from the heat and pour the squirrels into it. Beat with a mixer until thickened (15-25 minutes). At the end pour the essence. If you want, you can add dye. Then icing, you can decorate the finished roe.
To make the cookies soft and tasty, it is better to make them large and not very thin. And most importantly, do not overdry the dough in the oven! Then you get real, “magical” Christmas roe, the traditional recipe of which is now known to you too!
Other products
Roe-cakes are also baked. And what are these products, and where did they come from? Gingerbread cookies appeared in the north of Arkhangelsk. In those ancient times they were baked only on New Year and Christmas. Gingerbread cookies were cut in the shape of figures of animals, birds, an angel, a Christmas tree, houses, a Christmas star or a sleigh. The roe recipe was passed on from grandmothers to mothers and has survived to this day. There are also individual family forms of roe, both old and new, modern.
Northerners believed that roe attracted good luck. If, for example, a young girl makes a gingerbread herself and gives it to a single guy, then soon she will certainly become a bride. But the biggest roe was decided to give the whole family for happiness. She was considered a talisman. Most often, roe roasted in the oven. But in the 30s of the past century, they began to use a different method: before putting the figure in the oven, they began to lower it in boiling water for a couple of minutes in order to maintain the shape of the gingerbread.
The main secret of making the roe is to make the dough with love, in a good mood and without haste. It is best to start kneading in the late evening, before going to bed.
Gingerbread dough
How to cook gingerbread dough for roe? Its recipe is clear to everyone. For cooking you will need:
- 2-2.5 kg of sifted flour;
- two eggs;
- a pack of margarine or butter;
- a tablespoon of soda, slaked vinegar;
- spices to taste (cloves, ginger, cinnamon);
- 3-4 cups of sugar.
Cooking
- First you need to pour half the sugar into the pan and pour a glass of water (cold boiled). Cook over low heat.
- Cut the butter (margarine) into small pieces.
- In a thick frying pan, burn one glass of granulated sugar, stirring constantly, until it melts to brown and a foam appears. After pouring the burnt sugar into boiling syrup, stirring all the time. Now you can add pieces of oil and mix so that a homogeneous liquid comes out. Cool in the cold.
- While the syrup cools, you can mix the selected spices. Cinnamon is best for gingerbread.
- Beat two eggs and pour into spices, add soda and cooled syrup there. All mix well.
- Before you start kneading the dough, you need to notice the time on the timer - the whole process should take more than an hour. This requires a real recipe for roe.
- Even if it seems that the dough is ready in 30-40 minutes, you still need to continue to knead it. Otherwise, the cakes will crack during baking.
- Flour should be sprinkled in small portions. First, knead the dough with a mixer, then with your hands. This is a very laborious job. If the woman herself can not cope, you can ask the man to help. The main thing is to knead the dough in a good mood and with good thoughts.
- The result should be a dough that looks like a wet loaf that does not stick to your hands. You need to put it in a bag and send it in the refrigerator for one to two weeks!
- Before baking, the dough should lie in the room. Then you can cut a piece from it and roll out a layer with a thickness of about 0.5 centimeters. From the rolled dough, cut out the figures using patterns.
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and bake the gingerbread cookies for 5 minutes until brown.
Glaze for roe. Recipe
First, we will tell you how to make white icing. Beat one protein thoroughly. Next, it is necessary to gradually add powdered sugar (a glass) and a few drops of lemon for shine. Pink glaze should be prepared as follows: first you need to separate a little white glaze and drip raw beet juice into it, and then mix until a uniform shade.
Gingerbread cookies can be decorated with a brush, match, sticks or pastry bag. It all depends on the imagination. It is better not to fill the items with glaze, but to draw intricate New Year's patterns. The glaze recipe can be varied a little if you add carrot, cocoa or dye juice to the cream.
Third recipe
Of course, these are not the only roe-cakes. The recipe for another magic baking will help to prepare such sweet products a little faster. For cooking you will need:
- sugar - 800 g;
- glass of water;
- margarine (oil) - 150 g;
- spices (cinnamon, cloves);
- soda - a teaspoon;
- 3 eggs;
- flour.
Gingerbread Cooking
Melt one glass of sugar over the fire and dissolve it in a glass of hot water. After pouring two more glasses of sand and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and put in butter syrup (about 150 g), a teaspoon of cinnamon and soda. Cool and add one egg and two yolks. After pouring 0.5 kg of flour and kneading a dough. Stand it in a cold place. Then add another pound of granulated sugar and roll it into a layer 50 mm thick. Cut animal figures and put on a sheet oiled.
Spice up the gingerbread eggs with water and put in the oven. Bake for about 7 minutes. Finished products must dry.
How to prepare in this case icing for roe? The recipe is practically no different from the usual. For cooking you will need:
- two proteins;
- powdered sugar;
- dye or juice of berries and vegetables.
Cool whisk two protein and icing sugar (5-7 tablespoons). Add food coloring or juice of cranberries, beets, blueberries, lingonberries, carrots. Mix well until smooth. Dye should be added until the desired color is obtained. After you can decorate the gingerbread with icing.
Conclusion
Many do not even suspect that there are such tasty and unusual gingerbread roes. Some have seen or tried this pastry, but did not know its name. Now you understand how to make real Christmas roes, the recipe of which is presented in the article, which means that you yourself can not only try, but also bake these amazing figures. Most of all they are loved by children. After all, gingerbread cookies are so similar to fabulous toys that bring joy and faith in a miracle on New Year's. And, however, there is no such holiday when it would be impossible to decorate the dining table with gingerbread roes! Whatever recipe of the roe you choose, bake it with love, goodness and faith in the best! Go for it - and you will succeed!