Aganiok's Gingerbread Cookies (Pierniczki Aganiok)

This is one of the most popular gingerbread cookie recipes on the Mniammniam.pl forum. The dough needs a fairly long rest, so the cookies should be baked at least a dozen or so days before Christmas and stored in a tin.

Delicious gingerbread cookies. Soft, fluffy, and they disappear very quickly.

Aganiok gingerbread cookie dough

The recipe comes from Aganiok, as the name suggests. I made only minimal changes to it.

Instructions:

You can make this dough by hand, but also in a food processor. I divide the batch in half and mix it in the food processor.

Heat the honey, sugar, cocoa, butter (or margarine) and salt in a heavy-bottomed pot, stirring constantly. When all the ingredients have combined, set aside. Now you can add the spices and, if you like, the nuts and dried fruit. I like these cookies without them. Mix well.
Sift most of the flour into a bowl, add the eggs and the baking soda dissolved in the cold milk, and mix. Then add the honey mixture while it is still warm, or even better, hot. Mix again, and once the dough is smooth, add the rest of the flour.

Transfer the dough to a bowl, cover it with a linen towel and set it aside in a cool place to rest for a few weeks. During this time the dough should harden. After about 6 weeks (I wait about 3) you can start baking the cookies. The dough can be very hard. I usually scoop it out with a spoon, and I've already bent more than one! Roll the dough out to about 0.5 cm thick, dusting with a little flour. Cut out the cookies and, before baking, brush them with the egg beaten with the milk. (I don't do this, but then they aren't shiny, they're matte.)

Bake at 160-170°C (320-340°F) for about 10 minutes, depending on your oven and the size of the cookies. The edges should be firm and the centers soft. They shouldn't get overbaked, because then they won't soften.

Additional tip:

If the cookies are too hard, put them in a tin with a piece of apple for a few days.