The Medovníky are traditional Slovak honey cookies, renowned for their soft texture, spicy flavor, and intricate royal icing decorations. In Czech, they are called perníky.
Very similar to gingerbread. They are made with honey and spices like cinnamon and cloves.
They are a typical festive sweet, especially at Christmas.
Traditionally, Medovníky are decorated with white icing in a very fine and delicate manner, similar to filigree.
My version of gluten-free Medovníky, uses rice and almond flour instead of all-purpose flour.
Do not confuse with medovik, a dessert popular in Russia and former Soviet countries, whose main ingredients are honey and condensed milk.
- Difficulty: Medium
- Cost: Cheap
- Rest time: 2 Hours
- Preparation time: 15 Minutes
- Portions: 40 Pieces
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: European
- Seasonality: Christmas
Ingredients
- 2 1/2 cups rice flour
- 1 cup almond flour
- 2/3 cup honey
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup gluten-free cornstarch
- 1 tsp baking soda
- to taste ground cinnamon
- to taste ground cloves
- to taste orange zest
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg white
- 1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
- 2 tbsps lemon juice
Tools
- 1
Steps
1. Preheat the oven to 350 °F.
2. In a saucepan, slowly melt honey, sugar, and butter. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.
3. In a bowl, sift gluten-free flour, almond flour, cornstarch, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
4. Add the citrus zest to the flour mixture.
5. Pour in the honey-butter mixture, add the eggs one by one, and knead until a homogeneous dough is obtained.
6. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the fridge for 2 hours.
7. Roll out the dough on a floured surface with cornstarch to about 1/6 inch thick and cut into desired shapes. Arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
8. Bake for about 10 minutes until the edges begin to turn golden.
9. Prepare the icing by mixing egg white, powdered sugar, and lemon juice until a smooth consistency is achieved.
10. Transfer the icing to a parchment paper cone or piping bag with a thin nozzle (like 1 mm or 1.5 mm).
Alternatively, you can use a freezer bag with a tiny hole in one corner.
Traditional designs:
Borders: outline the cookie with a thin line.
Floral motifs, snowflakes, dots, hearts, stars, or lace patterns.
Often leave empty spaces to create contrast.
11. Drying: Let the decorated cookies air dry for at least 6-8 hours (better overnight), until the icing is completely hardened.Extra tip:
You can use a toothpick for small details or correct imperfections while the icing is still fresh.
I recommend Medovníky next to the Evening Caress cocktail, whose recipe you can find in Ottavia Castellaro’s book “Aromatiche da bere”
