And Christmas. These painted fragrant goodies will decorate any table and cheer up every member of the family. Their advantage lies not only in their unique taste, but also in the manifestation of creativity, because you can depict anything on them. The article presents several recipes for cooking, as well as a photo of "Arkhangelsk goats". No less interesting will be the history of the origin of these delicacies.
"Arkhangelsk roes": the history of occurrence
The origin of these goodies has several versions, each of which is amazing in its own way. According to one of them, "Arkhangelsk roe" was previously a traditional pastry of Pomors (inhabitants of the White Sea coast), since the word "kozulya" in their language meant "snake" or "curl". Another version says that initially the gingerbread was baked in the form of a goat, which in old times was considered a symbol of wealth and well-being.
The history of gingerbread "Arkhangelsk roes" claims that their homeland is the well-known city of Arkhangelsk, from which such a name came. In different settlements tied to a certain area, their own baking techniques and decorating gingerbread have been preserved. It is worth noting that even in the same area they could radically differ from each other. The most famous gingerbread are:
- flat painted, which appeared in the northern part of Russia in the 18th century, when ordinary people ordinary spices and sugar became available;
- Kargopol, which were created from a bread tow;
- voluminous Kholmogory, which were prepared from black dough, occasionally colored with white.
In any case, northern roes are not just a national delicacy prepared according to a unique recipe, but a traditional ritual dish. The creation of such gingerbread is considered difficult. old rite where the deepest philosophical meaning was originally laid.
Magic power
In ancient times, people believed that the "Arkhangelsk roes" have magic power. According to some versions modern historians, in those days, people first came up with them not as food, but as ritual images of animals.
This version is also confirmed by the fact that the figurines had to be cut in a specific way: they all had to look to the left. If a person was depicted on the gingerbread, then it had to be done facing forward. At the very bottom of the roe, people always left an empty strip, which was a symbol of the earth.
Gingerbread in the old days
Previously, roes were baked only once a year. These were the days of Christmas time, as well as the Christmas holidays. peoples of the north believed that these goodies would bring them wealth, prosperity and good luck to the house. They were considered a charm and were often given to families.
On the eve of the holidays, all family members took part in such a rare event. Men always kneaded the dough, and women cut out various figures. The children also worked with them. They performed the final stage - decorating the dish.
On Christmas Day, all relatives, friends, neighbors and, of course, caroling children received roes as a gift. Often dropped to pets, as northern peoples were completely sure that the cattle in this case would bring an excellent offspring.
Gingerbreads were hung in stables and barns as amulets. They protected houses from the penetration of evil spirits and were used as an indispensable attribute for divination by girls and boys on Epiphany evenings.
Roe deer never ate right away. It was customary to keep them for some time, and only then eat them. A figurine donated or made by yourself should never be thrown away, even if it was broken, as this was a direct path to failure.
The symbol of Pomorie in modern times
To date, "Arkhangelsk kozuly" are baked not only in their homeland, but also in other areas. Modern people have long departed from traditions, so they make them for any celebrations as a delicious and original dessert. They also actively decorate the Christmas tree, use them in carols and use them as children's toys.
Gingerbread at home
In the old days, Arkhangelsk Kozuli gingerbreads were baked by real gingerbread, which kept the secret of making dough, icing and decorative decorations. The unique recipe, in which the chefs put their zest, was passed down from generation to generation, but only through the female line.
In those days, figurines were made in a special way. The first step was to make the dough rye flour. There are suggestions that it was against such a background that the glaze pattern looked the most advantageous. The flour for this was taken the darkest. Salt was added to it, and then kneaded hard. After some time, the dough began to be made from wheat flour, so burnt sugar was used to darken it.
Hereditary Arkhangelsk gingerbread men note that it is necessary to bake delicacies without haste and only in good mood. At the same time, you need to think only about the good and protect yourself from strangers so that no one interferes.
Nowadays, gingerbread is prepared not only according to classic recipe which has come down since those times. Chefs have long come up with slightly modified methods of baking. In any case, the cooking process will be exciting and long. It consists of only three stages:
- Test preparation.
- Bakery.
- Decoration.
Some best recipes, which are suitable for all events, are listed below.
honey deer
The traditional recipe for "Arkhangelsk roes" must be used before you start considering its modifications. Classic option are precisely honey gingerbread.
For cooking you will need:
- 450 g of flour (it is best to take wheat, but you can mix 300 g of rye and 150 g of wheat);
- 60 ml of water;
- 150 g of honey;
- 150 g of sugar;
- 1 teaspoon of soda;
- 3 tablespoons butter;
- ground spices.
The recipe for "Arkhangelsk goats" with a photo is presented below. If you strictly follow the instructions, in the end you can get a unique dish that can surprise every person.
Step by step cooking
In fact, the recipe for "Arkhangelsk goats" is simple. First you need to prepare the roast. First of all, sugar is melted, and then boiling water and honey are added to it. The result is a thick and rather sweet syrup. When it cools down a bit, you can add butter and stir until smooth. Next, spices and soda are added to the resulting mixture. Immediately after this, pre-sifted flour is poured there, and all this is thoroughly mixed so that no lumps remain. The final step in preparing the dough is to knead it on the board, adding flour in small portions. In the end, it should come out soft, elastic and plasticine-like in consistency.
The finished dough should be cooled, then divided into several parts and rolled out with a layer. Next, the figures are carefully cut out along the contour with a knife or molds. Then, almost ready-made gingerbread cookies should be greased with yolk (1 pc.) With water (0.5 cups) and spread out on a baking sheet pre-lined with parchment.
Bake the figurines for about 10 minutes at 200 degrees. They should brown a little. The most important thing is to prevent them from drying out, as they will simply break.
Descendants of classical goats
Scientists suggest that there are not only classic northern roes, but also their descendants - Ural gingerbread. They came to the Urals along with their creators - immigrants from the north. The traditional recipe was slightly changed, as the new area had a completely different culture and traditions.
The ingredients for the Ural roe are taken as follows:
- 500 g of honey;
- 500 g flour;
- 0.5 teaspoon of soda;
- spices to taste;
- a couple of eggs;
- 50 g butter;
- 1.5 cups of water.
Gingerbread "Arkhangelsk kozuly": recipe
First you need to boil water and honey in a separate container. When this mixture cools down a bit, you need to pour flour there, add eggs and other ingredients. All this is thoroughly mixed and kneaded by hand. Then, as in the previous recipe, pieces of dough are rolled into layers, from which figures are subsequently cut out (this can be done both with a knife and molds).
After laying out future gingerbread cookies on a baking sheet, they must be greased with yolk. They are baked at a temperature of 200 degrees until a blush is formed. After the gingerbread cookies are ready, they need to cool and only then decorate with icing. If desired, they can be poured with syrup or sprinkled with coconut.
Gingerbread decoration
Both northern and Ural roes should be traditionally painted. They need to be painted with colored glaze. Most actively used White color, because it is a symbol of snow, as well as pink, reflecting the northern lights. The brown color on the gingerbread represents earth or wood.
The process of coloring goats cannot be called simple. Here you will have to show not only imagination and taste, but also the skill of the artist. After all, in any case, the most important point in decorating the goats will be neat painting with thin lines of sweet syrup.
The pattern on the delicacy can be absolutely anything. In the process of drawing, a culinary syringe or an ordinary bag in the shape of a cone with a small hole will definitely come in handy. A good image can also be obtained with watercolor brushes or pencils with ready-made glaze.
It is worth remembering that in ancient times people drew patterns using wooden stick. This method is used to this day, but only by hereditary goats.
If you want to be more creative, you can first fill the gingerbread cookies with tinted liquid glaze of any color, and then, when the base hardens well, start depicting flowers, patterns and other elements on it. This method is quite good, but it requires a lot of time, since the glaze does not harden as quickly as we would like. But this makes it possible for modern chefs to create whole works of art on gingerbread.
Glaze
Having chosen the appropriate recipe for "Arkhangelsk goats", do not forget about the icing. There are many options for its preparation, but most often people use the classic. For him you will need to take:
- a couple of egg whites;
- 5 drops of lemon juice;
- 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar;
- dyes.
The first step is to beat the whites with powdered sugar until the mass thickens. Then it needs to be distributed among the cups (depending on the number of colors used). It is best to take, of course, natural dyes, but food ones are also suitable. As soon as the white mass is mixed with dyes and acquires new color, glaze is ready to use.
Natural colors are obtained in the following ways:
- white - milk, sour cream, powdered sugar;
- yellow - spinach juice, lime or lemon zest;
- red / pink - juice of raspberries, strawberries, beets, lingonberries, cranberries;
- brown - coffee, cocoa;
- orange - freshly squeezed orange or tangerine juice.
Holiday gingerbread cookies always look like fabulous toys. They look interesting on the tree. Just a little patience - and a unique delicacy will be a great decoration for any table, as well as an unexpected present for relatives.
Kozuli: a recipe for New Year's gingerbread
Stages of making New Year's Arkhangelsk gingerbread.
There are a lot of recipes for making Arkhangelsk gingerbread - kozul. I will share the one that our family uses and that my mother taught me. I participated in the manufacture of goats from the very early childhood- at first she painted the roes baked by her mother, and now, as an adult, she took over from her mother and bake them herself for every new year. This is our kind northern family tradition, and I will be glad if it enters your families and fills the new year with the feeling of an unforgettable magical winter fairy tale!
Making New Year's Arkhangelsk gingerbread is a very lengthy process that includes three stages:
- Test preparation.
- Bakery.
- Decorating baked gingerbread with icing.
Each of these stages cannot be done in a hurry or in the course of ordinary affairs - nothing will work out. Your mood will be reflected in the quality of the gingerbread. Before the start of each stage, you need to smile, get rid of unnecessary thoughts and worries, fully focus on this creative process, and during the creation of the gingerbread be in a peaceful state. For example, silently - to yourself - read prayers or pronounce good wishes to those people to whom you will give gingerbread. Then the roes will bring only joy, health and happiness. And your reward will be the smiles of those to whom you give them, as well as the unique taste and beauty of the resulting gingerbread, harmony and peace in your home.
Make the dough when no one will bother you or distract you - in our family it was always late in the evening when the children were sleeping. The dough is made by adults without the participation of children, as this process is very difficult and requires accuracy and precision. But cutting out roes with the help of molds and decorating them with icing is something that we can do together with the children as a family!
First stage. We make dough for goats.
To make the test you will need:
- 3-3.5 cups of granulated sugar, a glass of chilled boiled water, about 2 kg of flour (it must be sifted through a sieve), a pack of 200-250 gr. butter or high-quality creamy margarine (better done in butter), 2 eggs, 1 tbsp. baking soda slaked vinegar, spices for gingerbread (ground cloves, cinnamon, ginger, coriander).
How to make dough:
Step 1. Pour 2-2.5 cups of granulated sugar with 1 cup of chilled boiled water and put on a small fire. Cooking syrup.
Cut butter into small pieces.
Step 2 At the same time, on another burner in a metal saucepan, we burn 1 cup of granulated sugar until Brown. Do this over low heat with constant stirring. It is best to stir either with the handle of a metal spoon or with a knife (so that the sugar does not stick). Sugar will first melt to a brown liquid, then foam will appear, it will boil and smoke. Let it boil a little, turn off the burner and immediately go to step 3.
Step 3 Pour the burnt sugar into the syrup in a thin stream with constant stirring with a spoon of the resulting mixture. We do this very slowly and carefully, without haste.
Step 4 Add the chopped butter to the resulting mixture and mix until a homogeneous liquid is obtained. We put to cool on the balcony or outside the window.
While the mixture is cooling to a warm state in the cold, soak the dishes, otherwise the sugar will harden and it will be difficult to wash it. And then we prepare the dough.
Step 5 Put in another pot big size spices to taste. We usually put two tablespoons of spices: 1 tbsp. l. ground cinnamon and 1 tbsp. ground cloves. We buy whole cloves and grind them ourselves immediately before preparing gingerbread - it turns out to be more fragrant than ready-made ground cloves sold in stores. You can use other spices - ginger, coriander or ready mix spices for gingerbread.
Step 6 We put 1 tablespoon of baking soda in the same pan (extinguish it with vinegar).
Step 7 Beat 2 eggs with a mixer or whisk. Add to the same pot.
And then pour the warm liquid into this pan, which in step 4 we put in the cold to cool. Mix everything thoroughly.
Step 8 Test batch. We start adding flour to the pan. We note the time on the timer, since it takes at least an hour to knead. Be sure to sift the flour through a sieve before kneading. Add flour in very small portions, mix with a spoon or mixer. It is difficult to predict how much flour will be needed, you need to feel it - but about 1.5-1.8 kg.
When the dough becomes tight enough, we begin to knead it not with a mixer, but by hand. We knead exactly one hour. If even after half an hour it seems to you that the dough is ready, continue to knead it anyway. Incorrectly made dough will crack when baking. When kneading, we put our positive thoughts into our living dough, we say good wishes to ourselves to those people who will eat these gingerbread cookies, we read prayers - that is, we do everything that will help you bring yourself into a state of calm, joy and gratitude to the world, nature, gratitude to their family and loved ones.
Kneading the dough requires great physical effort, so men have been involved in this business for a long time.
After an hour of thorough kneading of the dough, you will get a beautiful loaf of uniform dense consistency. It looks like wet clay with a silky glossy surface that is very pleasant to stroke with your hand. The dough should not stick to your hands. We wrap the dough in a bag, tie the bag and put the dough in the refrigerator on the bottom shelf. The dough should lie in the cold for 2 weeks. If you did not have time to make the dough in advance, then let it lie in the cold for at least a day.
Small addition: my mother did not have and does not have a clear initially set proportion of products in goat dough - she “felt” it (like my grandmother) and did a lot “by instinct”. For example, sometimes I put not 2 eggs in the dough, but 3 eggs. And soda took 3/4 teaspoon. Flour sometimes took 1.5 kg, sometimes 1.8 kg - this was not measured by weights. and was determined by its consistency. But this is already "aerobatics" for which you need experience in baking roes. On the initial stage it is better to make the dough according to the same recipe many times.
Second phase. We cut out the goats from the dough and bake.
For baking gingerbread you will need: molds or cardboard templates for cutting figures, rolling pin.
65 ready-made templates for gingerbread you can download for free in the article "Stencils for gingerbread" on my website "Native Path" -. And also in this article you can visit the gingerbread ball and see the real northern roes of fabulous beauty.
Step 1. We take out the dough in advance from the cold and put it for 8-12 hours to warm up at room temperature.
Step 2 We cut pieces from the dough and roll them with a rolling pin into layers about 5 mm thick, no more.
Step 3 According to a cardboard template or using ready-made shapes, we cut out the figures. We put large figures in the center of the layer, small ones on the sides. We try to arrange the figures so as to use the entire area of \u200b\u200bthe dough layer.
Step 4 We bake the roes in the oven at a temperature of 180 degrees for about 5 minutes ( exact time depends on your oven.)
How do you know if the gingerbread is baked?
- If the gingerbread after 5 minutes of baking has the color of creamy toffee, then it is not ready yet, and you still need to keep it in the oven for another 2 minutes. If the gingerbread after 5 minutes of baking has a brown color of milk chocolate, then they are already ready and you can take out of the oven.
- It should be noted that the gingerbread cookies that you take out of the oven will be slightly soft, but at the same time ruddy. Gingerbread will still ripen - dried in the air during the day. And then they become more solid. Place the baked gingerbread cookies on a hard surface - let them lie down for a day.
- In my modern oven, it takes 7 minutes to bake at 180 degrees with ventilation, and not 5 minutes - like in my mother's oven. Here you need to try and notice the specific “Your” time and write it down for yourself in the future in the recipe for roes.
- If the gingerbread cookies are overexposed in the oven, then in a day they will become hard as a stone. If they are underexposed in the oven, then the surface of the roe will wrinkle in the future and will look ugly, uneven. Each oven has its own "character" - so be sure to note the time your goats were in the oven when you first baked them. And then for the future, either remember it (if everything works out well), or correct it.
Supplement as an option. In our family, it is customary to bake gingerbread with a matte surface, as I described above. If you want to get gingerbread with a glossy surface, then they must be greased before baking with yolk or yolk, diluted and well mixed with 1 tablespoon of water. My mother sometimes smeared the surface of the gingerbread with one protein. Try different variants and choose the one you like best.
Third stage. Decorate the goats with icing.
For the frosting you will need: 1 protein, 1 lemon, 1 raw beetroot, 1 cup of powdered sugar (pre-sift through a sieve). You can buy powdered sugar or make your own from granulated sugar.
Step 1. Beat with a mixer or whisk one egg white. You need to beat very carefully, as poorly whipped protein will give bubbles when decorating the gingerbread.
Step 2 Add little by little powdered sugar to the protein and continue to beat. It turned out white glaze.
Step 3 Add a few drops of lemon juice to the frosting. Lemon juice is added to give the glaze a shine and a slightly sour taste. White frosting is ready.
Separate ¼ of the icing into a separate bowl and cook the pink icing in it.
Step 4 Preparing pink frosting. To do this, three pieces of raw beets on a fine grater, squeeze out the juice and add a few drops of this juice to the bowl for pink icing. We stir. Add beetroot juice until desired pink color is obtained.
Now food coloring is also added to obtain the most different colors glazes, but we never use them at home and decorate gingerbread cookies only with traditional colors - white and pink - and only with the use of natural natural products.
Step 5 We decorate gingerbread.
Children are traditionally involved in decorating gingerbread - from the smallest to teenagers. This is a very exciting creative process!
In northern gingerbread, they usually do not fill the background with icing with spots, but draw patterns on it - straight lines, wavy lines, curls, dots, crosses, zigzags.
You can paint with icing on the surface of the gingerbread using:
A) sticks (since childhood, I have been drawing with the reverse sharp end of a wooden brush), often dipping it into the glaze and wiping excess glaze from it with a linen napkin while working,
B) a regular brush for painting with natural bristles.
C) you can pour the icing into a small plastic bag, make a hole in the corner and draw with it like a culinary bag,
D) for thin lines, a wooden toothpick is used,
D) using a ready-made pastry bag for decorating cakes and pastries.
These are the methods we use. Even when I was very small, I never painted on goats with my fingers - this is not customary with us. Little roe children decorate with a stick, putting large dots and drawing large lines. If you draw with your finger, then the roe deer will come out clumsy, slovenly, not ours, not northern ones. If you need to correct something, then we moisten the brush for drawing in a glass of water, remove excess water from the brush with a linen napkin. And we correct the contours of the picture with a wet brush.
Little trick: If you want the icing to turn out snowy, then sprinkle the gingerbread with sugar immediately after painting, when the icing has not yet dried. When the icing has hardened, shake off the sugar. It will turn out a shaggy and fluffy pattern like snow on your goats.
Have fun and enjoy your creativity! And at the end of the article - a little about the history of these gingerbreads from the article by Stepan Pisakhov "About goats"
About goats
“The departing old way of life takes with it the mystery of the origin of the Christmas goats. It has long been started to bake roes for Christmas. But why are they baked for Christmas only? And where does this name - goats come from? These are still questions to this day... Our ethnographers ignored them, apparently because they came to Arkhangelsk in the summer, when there is no roe deer. I will try to say a few words about goats. Maybe someone will respond and it will be possible to find out the beginning of the goats.
The most ancient roes - Kholmogory and Mezen - are made of black dough, sometimes colored with white dough. Kholmogory roes look like deer. A figure on four legs, a head, a bush of branched horns, apples on the horns, birds on the apples, or rather bird wings made of white dough (an apple with wings resembles the image of a winged sun) is molded from the dough. And the whole roe seems to have been transferred from a very ancient pagan world. Some kind of occult record seems to be in this strange beautiful figure. The size of such a roe is 5-6 inches. Smaller roe deer are made without apples on their horns, but only with birds (birds resemble hands with spread fingers). Roe deer bake and small size- about an inch, simplified according to the drawing, or they try to make them look like a cow, a horse (sometimes with a rider on a horse). Professor Zelinsky noticed in 1913 that these small roe deer are very similar in shape and size to the figures of the Stone Age.
In the Mezen district, in addition to small ones, similar to those of Kholmogory, flat roe deer are also baked: they roll out the dough into a long ribbon half a pencil thick and roll it up with various patterns, sometimes unexpectedly similar to sacred lotus in an undulating environment resembling a radiance. There are also birds on the nest and others.
In the spring of 1914, at my request, the old woman undertook to cook roe deer. She rolled out the threads from the dough and began to fold the drawing, whispering something. I asked: “What, grandmother, are you whispering?” The old woman stopped and said sternly: “Don’t knock down if you need roes.” Whether the whispering of the old woman had anything to do with goats, I do not know. The old woman did not explain. Others responded with ignorance.
In Arkhangelsk, roes are baked from gingerbread dough, cut with iron molds (gingerbread silhouettes) and decorated (cut) with sugar icing, white and colored (usually pink), richly covered with "gold" and "scattering". Forms made of iron, sometimes quite thick, persist for a long time, passing from generation to generation. Questioning managed to establish the age of the forms up to 200 years, but, undoubtedly, there are forms and much older. At El. Pet. P-howl from her mother, grandmother, etc. Also, other masters of kozul have the most ancient drawings that have come down to us. Goat and goat girls often do not know how to draw with a pencil at all, but they will take a stick or a tube with icing and, following the silhouette of a gingerbread, repeating what they have seen and adopted from their elders, they create drawings of amazing beauty.
In 1913 or 1914 I saw a goat deer imitating an eagle at the market of a roe trader. On his chest he has the letter "A" and one stick (Alexander 1). He asked her: “Why do you have the letter “A” and one stick on your eagle? You need "H" and two sticks. And he heard in response: “But because it is necessary. My mother and my grandmother made the letter "A" and one stick - that means it's necessary. And what kind of pointer were you looking for? Forms in confectionery are subject to changes. There, the masters come up with new forms and refine themselves in the intricacy of cutting, little regard for the established patterns.
Roe deer start baking in October. In early December, roe deer appear in bakeries and confectioneries. In mid-December, they fill all the windows and shelves of bakeries and pastry shops. The size of goats is from one and a half to 10-12 inches. Their cost is from a penny to a ruble, and more elaborate confectioners' products cost up to 10 rubles or more.
Roe deer fill the market before Christmas. Roe deer traders line up in rows and unfold their boxes - they offer buyers wide selection. A huge number of parcels with goats were sent across Russia and abroad.
Much in the Arkhangelsk province has been preserved from a very deep antiquity. It seems to me that both Kholmogory and Mezen roe deer (and in a number of other counties) are the legacy of the local first settlers. It is possible that the Novgorodians and Muscovites who came here brought gingerbread with them. And from the ancient roe from black dough and from the gingerbread our roe could come to light. But, perhaps, the gingerbread was brought to the North by foreigners and adapted instead of pagan cookies for the Christian holiday.
Drawings of the most ancient forms - a star, an angel, a shepherd, a basket (with gifts), birds, animals close to humans, a Christmas tree, grapes, vases with flowers, a deer with a sleigh, a lion (the lion as the king of beasts, or maybe the influence of English or Norwegian). Later roe deer - Amazon, cab driver, dog with booth, cat. And appeared over the past decades - a steamer, a steam locomotive, a cyclist, an airplane. And after 1920 - a sickle and a hammer and a grandfather with the slogan "Proletarians of all countries, unite!". In 1925, I saw a goat with the image of a new eagle on the market: the shape of the gingerbread is the same as before, only on the chest of the eagle there is a hammer and sickle, the cross is cut off, and on the crown - "RSFSR".
Last year, in 1926, I met N. D. Vinogradov in Moscow, who collected a large and, it seems, the only collection of gingerbread in Russia as samples folk art. Seeing how N. D. Vinogradov lovingly and attentively treats this type of folk art, I set myself the task of collecting for him, if possible, complete collection goat. And, perhaps, with the help of N. D. Vinogradov and other efficient people, it will be possible to find out their origin.
From the collection of Pisakhov S.G. Tales, Essays, Letters. / Ser. Russian north. - Arkhangelsk, North-Western book publishing house, 1985.
Another recipe for New Year's gingerbread and gingerbread for the Christmas tree that you can make with your children - you will find in the articles "Gingerbread for the Christmas tree."
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The most ancient pastries are ritual roe gingerbread. That is, initially they were not gingerbread, as they appeared much earlier than spices in Russia. And there used to be roes figurines from unleavened dough who sculpted on New Year, only Slavic, which coincided with the harvest festival and came in September. And only then the roes began to bake in the winter - and these cute gingerbread cookies became a symbol of our Orthodox Christmas. However, first things first.
Why goats?
“Roe deer are different,” tells us master class specialist and guide of the Museum of Russian Dessert, Svetlana Ustyugova. - "The first roes appeared on the Pomeranian land many centuries ago. They are considered the most ancient type of baked curly dough. There is chronicle evidence that back in the 12th century our ancestors sculpted figures of bulls and cows from dough. Gingerbreads were strips of dough woven into fancy For the twisted, serpentine shape, the ancient Pomeranian cookies got their name - kozuli, from the Pomeranian word "roe" - a snake, a curl.
Photo: AiF / Alexey Vissarionov
The image of the roe-snake was associated with the autumn harvest, or rather with its completion - with the autumn New Year or New Year (in September). Later, this tradition was transferred to the winter Christmas and the January New Year. And in the Kargopol region, roes were made in the form of serpentine curls folded into circles called “teterki” and baked in mid-March, which also refers to a very ancient rite dedicated to the spring equinox.
Pomors believed that such roe-snakes would bring wealth and prosperity to the house.
There are three types of roe: Kholmogory voluminous (resembling clay figurines), Kargopol roe-grouse and painted flat roe-gingerbread. The last, Arkhangelsk roes appeared in the Russian North when sugar and spices (cinnamon and cloves) came there, that is, they became available to ordinary people, and not just to the rich and noble. This happened not earlier than the 18th century.
In the old days, the production and painting of roes were largely ritual in nature, our ancestors believed in the protective power of fragrant gingerbread. Roe deer are both a charm and a talisman.Today, Arkhangelsk roes are a beautiful fragrant edible souvenir, a great gift for any holiday or anniversary.
Gingerbread shapes have become diverse. There are houses, and hearts, and even cartoon characters.
Northern gingerbread
In the old days, roes were baked from rye flour to get a characteristic dark color, on which the glaze pattern looks the most advantageous. Later they began to be made from wheat flour, adding burnt sugar. The dough was prepared in advance, it could lie in the cold for weeks, and it only got better. Different figurines were cut out - goat girls had their own molds, which they cherished and passed on by inheritance. Already baked and cooled roes were covered with glaze of two colors: white and pink, obtained with the help of lingonberry or cranberry juice.
Photo: AiF / Alexey Vissarionov
Almost unchanged Pomeranian roes have survived to our time; these traditional small gingerbreads have been baked by the inhabitants of Pomorie for many centuries. It is assumed that the settlement of Bely and Barents Seas fell on the IX-XI centuries, where Pomors as a people were formed for a long time. These “persistent tin soldiers” lived a special way of life and everyday life, retained the pagan faith for a long time, believed in spirits, intrigues of evil spirits .... On Christmas Eve, Pomeranian roe deer, funny little figurines of animals and birds, were baked from rye flour.
Pomeranian roes all year (until the next Christmas) served as a talisman against evil forces, because it was believed that they have a positive effect on people's lives. They contribute to fishing, the well-being of the family, the health of people, livestock, poultry, keep happiness in the house .... Traditionally, unleavened rye dough for gingerbread was kneaded from coarse rye flour and water. Kneaded (rolled) the owner of the house, which had a certain ritual meaning. In addition, the kneading process is long and requires a lot of physical effort. The dough rolled up with a Poleshka had to stand without bending. Incorrect kneading led to cracking of the Pomeranian roe.Men and women participated in the modeling of gingerbread, children learned the art of rolling roes. Entire herds of different animals: deer, cows, hard-horned sheep, seals, elks, birds, went to the Russian stove. Pomeranian roes sculpted with prayers and sentences, people seemed to endow gingerbread animals with the ability to protect and protect. Each small figurine had a certain meaning, for example, a deer with intertwined horns is a symbol of faith, hope, love, a cow brought prosperity, a bird with chicks on its back personified the happiness of motherhood.
Most often, Pomors sculpted deer, which, depending on the shape of the horns, had different semantic meanings. There were deer of friendship, health and longevity, spiritual protectors, deer of love and warmth. Ritual gingerbread cookies were given to relatives, loved ones, neighbors, children played Pomeranian goats, the owners gave gifts to carolers who went from house to house with good wishes. Girls guessed on Pomeranian roes, treated the guys. A few little protectors were left until next Christmas, in order to protect the home and family from misfortune. For a while, Pomeranian roe became members of the family and received names: Chernukha, Belyanka ...
There were bread figurines next to the icons, which proves the importance Pomors attached to ritual baking! Broken and old gingerbread cookies were never thrown away. Bread figurines were fed to cattle, in hungry years they could eat themselves. In each region, different roes were baked, differing in shape, there were Terek, Mezen, Kargopol, Kholmogory. Our Pomeranian roes made from rye dough are peasant ones.
Pomeranian peasant roes
Ingredients:
Rye flour
Water
Salt
Step 1. Gradually adding flour to the water, you need to knead a stiff dough. And salt it.
Step 2. Knead the dough very carefully. Make a sausage out of it.
Step 3. Let the dough rest overnight, you can keep it in the refrigerator for longer.
Step 4. Before sculpting, the dough must be kneaded and cut into small pieces.
Step 5. Blind a roe-deer, gradually pulling out the head, legs, horns from the main piece.
Step 6. Bake in the oven or oven for an hour, then dip in boiling water, then bake for another 20-30 minutes. Repeat scalding and baking until the roes are firm and glossy. Cool down.
The components of the dough also had their own meaning: water - life, strength, purification, rye flour - health, wealth, salt - a talisman against all evil spirits.
How to sculpt
Modeling techniques are the same for all figures. The movements have been honed over the centuries, there are no superfluous ones. Even incisions in the process of roe sculpting should be no more than 17. This requirement was met by all Pomeranian craftsmen and was associated with the ritual nature of the figurines.
A sausage was made from the dough and divided into small pieces. An “egg” was made from a piece, then the sharp part of it was pulled out more strongly and a “pear” was obtained. Pulling 1/3 from the "pear", received a "boot". With the help of a large index finger pulled out the legs of a deer. Then, incisions were made from the side of the abdomen, getting 4 legs. Their remaining top part was made by the head and horns.
Solombala roes
Photo: AiF / Alexey Vissarionov
600 g granulated sugar
500 g margarine
1/2 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 st. l. cinnamon
1 tbsp carnations
2.4 tsp soda (quench with vinegar)
2 kg flour
Before baking, anoint products with yolk diluted with water (1/2 cup of water per yolk).
Ready-made roes are painted with colored glaze.
Glaze
Boil syrup from 1 cup of granulated sugar and 1 cup of water (readiness to check with a ring - bubbles should be blown out of it);
- Pour 2 whipped egg whites into hot syrup and beat this mixture until it cools;
- add 2-3 drops citric acid or vinegar essence and color with food coloring.
Murmansk roes
Dough:
600 g granulated sugar
150 g butter or cream margarine
3 eggs
Cloves, cinnamon, baking soda - 1 teaspoon each
1.2-1.3 kg of flour.
Burn a glass of granulated sugar in an enameled dish. When all the sugar has melted, add 1 cup of hot boiled water (slowly). Mix. Then add 2 more cups of granulated sugar. When everything boils and the sugar melts, turn it off. Add 150 g butter or margarine. When everything cools down a little, add 2 yolks and 1 whole egg, also add spices with water. Add flour (not all). Then pour the flour on the table and knead the dough. Put the dough in a bag and put it in the cold: in the cold outside or in the freezer. Can be stored up to 1 month. Cut the dough from the refrigerator into small pieces and knead well - so that it begins to shine. Do not add flour to this.
Roll out the dough with a thickness of 5 mm, cut out any figures and bake them in the oven. Lubricate the baking sheet not greasy, but a little bit so that the gingerbread cookies do not burn.
Glaze:
To make the frosting, beat 2 egg whites, slowly adding the powdered sugar until the frosting is thick. Put the icing in a bag (paper rolled up into a tube) and paint the gingerbread.
Arkhangelsk roes
Photo: AiF / Alexey Vissarionov
Burn 1 glass of granulated sugar, then dissolve it in a glass hot water. Then add 2 cups of granulated sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Turn off the heat and add 150 g of butter or margarine, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, cloves and soda, cool slightly, add 1 egg and 2 yolks. After that, add about 0.5 kg of flour, knead the dough so that it does not stick to your hands. Keep the dough in a saucepan and cellophane in a cool place for a week. After that, add another 0.5 kg of granulated sugar to the dough and roll it out to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Cut the rolled out dough into shapes from tin or thick paper and put it on a baking sheet, once oiled.
Lubricate the gingerbread with an egg beaten with water in a ratio of 1: 1 and put in the oven. Bake 5 - 7 minutes. Let the finished gingerbread cookies dry, then remove them from the baking sheet and decorate with icing.
Arkhangelsk roes - aristocrats, painted with glaze, white flour, burnt sugar, cinnamon, cloves. Pomors added juices of northern berries to give sugar glaze of different colors. Men also participated in the preparation of the Arkhangelsk ritual gingerbread. They kneaded the dough, bent the contour forms of figures of animals, birds from iron ... Flat Pomeranian deer were cut out of the rolled dough with molds. Decorated fragrant beautiful gingerbread with the whole family. Now Pomeranian roes have lost their ritual magical meaning, although they are still a good gift.
And what is it? Figurines - deer, skates, bulls, cows, goats, birds, seals - made of rye dough - have general meaning, the common name is roe deer.
Roe deer - made of dough, decorated and baked figurines of goats, deer or other animals. The name roe is derived from the word goat. The goat was a symbol of prosperity in the house, and the production of goats symbolized the well-being of the family.
Previously, Pomors baked roes only once a year - at Christmas. Roe deer were then made from rye dough. The made figurines of goats, bagels and cows symbolized heavenly herds - clouds.
Roe deer are made and baked in the form of reindeer, a cat (the cat was also considered a symbol of the house), angels, Christmas trees and houses. Ready-made baked figures decorate the Christmas tree.
Roe deer were originally a national delicacy of Pomors (inhabitants of the Arkhangelsk province), who made them only for Christmas. Roe deer were kept all year until the next Christmas, and then new ones were molded. If they broke, they were not thrown away, but fed to livestock or poultry.
Common to all roes is, perhaps, the addition of the so-called zhzhenka to the dough - sugar syrup, boiled and caramelized to an amber-brown color.
Goat Dough Ingredients:
How to make gingerbread goats:
Mix honey, sugar and water. Boil them "to a brown color" (so it is written in the ancient 
recipes, but I don't understand when the honey color turns brown - so it's up to you).
When the mixture has cooled to 70 degrees, put butter, cinnamon and cloves.
Mix flour there. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
After that, the dough becomes like plasticine. Harnesses are rolled from it and various figures are made of them. All this is laid out on a baking sheet. Bake at 210-220 degrees for 10 minutes to brown.
Cookies are quite soft when warm and harden when cooled. And after a day or two it becomes softer again.
Rye flour dough is more difficult to roll, it is less elastic and sticky to hands. But it does taste better. It is easier with wheat dough, and the cookies swell a little during baking, look more elegant, and the taste is less saturated. 
In the old days, the cooled roes were painted with "paints": white - whipped protein with sugar, green - a drop of brilliant green in white, pink - a drop of raspberry jam, and yellow - yolk with sugar.
You can use natural dyes:
Glaze:
Decorate the baked figures with multi-colored icing. She does it this way. Beat the whites of two eggs with 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar and pour into cups. There should be as many of them as there are colors you will use. Suitable food coloring, but you can use the juice of cranberries, lingonberries, carrots, beets.
Paint the goat with thin sugar streams.
Arkhangelsk roes (recipe)
Burn 1 glass of granulated sugar, then dissolve it in a glass of hot water. Then add 2 cups of granulated sugar and stir until completely dissolved. Turn off the heat and add 150 g of butter or margarine, 1 teaspoon of cinnamon, cloves and soda, cool slightly, add 1 egg and 2 yolks. After that, add about 0.5 kg of flour, knead the dough so that it does not stick to your hands. Keep the dough in a saucepan and cellophane in a cool place for a week. After that, add another 0.5 kg of granulated sugar to the dough and roll it out to a thickness of 0.5 cm. Cut the rolled out dough into shapes from tin or thick paper and put it on a baking sheet, greased once with oil. 
Lubricate the gingerbread cookies with a beaten egg with water in a ratio of 1: 1 and put in the oven. Bake 5 - 7 minutes. Let the finished gingerbread cookies dry, then remove them from the baking sheet and decorate with icing.
Recipe for goats from L. M. Zamyatina from Arkhangelsk:
Dough (for 100 pieces): Burn 3 cups of granulated sugar until brown. Pour 4 cups of boiling water into the burnt sugar. Pour 3 cups of granulated sugar into boiling sugar. Put to cool. Then add 500 g of melted butter or margarine, 50 g of cinnamon, 10 g of cloves, a teaspoon of soda to the resulting mass. Mix well. Pour in 2.5 kg. flour. Knead not very steep dough, it is better to just mash on the board. Roll out the layer and cut out with molds. Before baking, anoint the roes with yolk and water (1 yolk per 1 glass of water). Take out the goats soft.
Decoration: 2 squirrels beat down with a glass of powdered sugar. Add 2 tablespoons of diluted vinegar to the downed protein. If necessary, add a natural dye (for example, for red color - beet juice). Draw with sticks. 
Grandma's recipe:
Burn 3 cups of granulated sugar, pour in 4 cups of boiling water. Then mix with 500 g of margarine. Flour is added by kneading - like pancakes. The next morning, add cinnamon, cloves, 3 teaspoons of soda. Grandmother bakes, guided solely by intuition and skill. She has all the recipes "by eye".
Most important point- when you burn sugar (!). If you survive until dark brown, then when you add flour, the dough will turn out "pale", not brown.
Additional RECIPES
1. 600 g of granulated sugar, 500 g of margarine, 1/2 teaspoon of salt, 4 eggs, 1 tbsp. spoon of cinnamon, 1 tbsp. a spoonful of cloves, 2.5 teaspoons of soda (quench with vinegar), 2 kg of flour. Burn 200 g of granulated sugar, pour 2 cups of boiling water into it slowly and add the rest of the granulated sugar. Remove from heat, mix margarine and salt into the still warm mass, cool. Then add eggs, cinnamon, cloves, soda, quenched with vinegar, last of all - flour. Knead a stiff dough, divide it into parts, roll out the cakes. Cut out the figures with ready-made shapes or with a knife. Before baking, anoint products with yolk diluted with water (for 1 yolk 1/2 cup of water). Bake in a moderately hot oven until done. The cooled roes are painted with colored glaze. 
2. 600 g of granulated sugar, 150 g of butter or butter margarine, 3 eggs, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda - 1 teaspoon each, 1.2-1.3 kg of flour. Burn a glass of granulated sugar in an enameled dish. When all the sugar has melted, add 1 cup of hot boiled water. Mix. Then add 2 more cups of granulated sugar. When everything boils and the sugar melts, turn it off. Mix with 150 g butter or margarine. When everything has cooled down a bit, add 2 yolks and one whole egg, spices with a little water. Pour in the flour. Pour some of the flour on the table and knead the dough. The dough in a plastic bag can be stored in the freezer or on the balcony for up to one month. Cut the dough from the refrigerator into small pieces and knead well - so that it begins to shine. Do not add flour to this. Roll out the dough with a thickness of 5 mm, cut out the figures and bake them in the oven. Grease the baking sheet a little so that the gingerbread cookies do not burn.
GLAZE.
1) To make the frosting, beat 2 squirrels, slowly adding powdered sugar until the glaze becomes thick. 
2) Beat one egg white vigorously. In an enameled bowl, dissolve a glass of granulated sugar in 1/2 cup of water, boil over low heat, stirring constantly, for at least 10 minutes. Willingness to test metal loop- when ready, a film is formed into which, if blown, it inflates with a bubble. Pour the syrup into the protein in a thin stream, stirring constantly. Beat for at least 10 minutes. Cover with a damp cloth and lid to keep from drying out. You can add some water and stir.
Put the icing in a bag (paper rolled up into a tube) and paint the gingerbread. It is better to apply white first. Can be sprinkled with sugar.
Give me a cow
Butterhead!
Don't bite
Don't break!
Don't give me a pie
And then we'll take the cow out of the yard.
Together with roes, they baked grouse (a bird with chicks) and vitushi from wheat dough for Christmas. Teterki were given to especially dear guests. And objectionable guests were given a rye ball. Modeling techniques are the same for all figures. The movements have been honed over the centuries, there are no superfluous ones. No more than seventeen knife cuts. This requirement was fulfilled by all Pomeranian masters and was associated with magical action.
Wish you cows
one hundred and fifty bulls
they would milk a bucket,
All sour cream...
The most ancient roes - Kholmogory and Mezen - made of black dough, sometimes colored with white dough. Kholmogory roes look like deer. A figure on four legs, a head, a bush of branched horns, apples on the horns, birds on the apples, or rather bird wings made of white dough (an apple with wings resembles the image of a winged sun) is molded from the dough. And the whole roe seems to have been transferred from a very ancient pagan world. There seems to be some kind of occult record in this strangely beautiful figure. 
The size of such a roe is 5-6 inches. Smaller roe deer are made without apples on their horns, but only with birds (birds resemble hands with spread fingers). Roe deer are also baked in a small size - about an inch, simplified according to the drawing, or they try to make them look like a cow, a horse (sometimes with a rider on a horse). Professor Zelinsky noticed in 1913 that these small roe deer are very similar in shape and size to the figures of the Stone Age.
In Arkhangelsk, roes are baked from gingerbread dough, cut with iron molds (gingerbread silhouettes) and decorated (cut) with sugar icing, white and colored (usually pink), richly covered with gold and sprinkles. Forms made of iron, sometimes quite thick, persist for a long time, passing from generation to generation. Questioning managed to establish the age of the forms up to 200 years, but, undoubtedly, there are forms and much older. 
Drawings of the most ancient forms - a star, an angel, a shepherd, a basket (with gifts), birds, animals close to humans, a Christmas tree, grapes, vases with flowers, a deer with a sleigh, a lion (the lion as the king of animals, or maybe the influence of English or Norwegian). Later roe deer - Amazon, cab driver, dog with booth, cat. And appeared over the past decades - a steamboat, a steam locomotive, a cyclist, an airplane. And after 1920 - a sickle and a hammer and a grandfather with the slogan Proletarians of all countries, unite! .
There is good book how to make gingerbread goats:
When you first see roe gingerbread, you always ask with admiration: "How can you eat them? These are pictures!" Indeed, beautifully decorated, with soul painted gingerbread cookies look like toys and leave no one indifferent, whether it be a child or an adult. Family celebration, New Year, Easter, party... There is not a single holiday where it would be inappropriate to present these gingerbread cookies or decorate a sweet table with them!
Holding this book in my hands, you yourself will learn how to create amazing gifts without leaving your home. The book presents 11 master classes, different techniques and methods of painting. Everything is simple and very affordable! Good luck to you!
