Tere and G’Day!
It’s that time of year again: the temperature is rising, the shops are chaos, and plastic fir trees adorned with baubles are being arranged in the living rooms of millions of Australians.
Christmas is an odd time in Australia, when Northern Hemisphere cultural traditions combine with the sweltering Southern Hemisphere to result in one joyous, exhausting event. It must have been particularly confusing for my grandparents, who migrated here from Estonia after WWII and fully expected sunny skies and warm beaches in July, but instead got the damp, freezing conditions of the Bonegilla migrant camp in rural Victoria. And when summer finally rolled around? That’s when Aussies fired up the ovens and started baking ham! So bizarre.
Still, many of my grandparents’ Christmas traditions from Estonia persisted: Christmas Eve, not Christmas Day, was the time to open presents, and a plastic tree never set foot in their house – only a real pine would do! But the best one? It’s a tough choice, but I’m going to go with homemade piparkoogid.
My grandparents may be long gone, but I still eat these piparkoogid every year. They’re a classic Estonian Christmas treat, and if you’re “Austonian” (Australian-Estonian!) chances are you’ve eaten your weight’s worth of them. The taste and texture are quite similar to gingerbread, but the combination of cloves, ginger and cinnamon with blackstrap molasses makes them far more fragrant and robust. Best of all, they’re easy to make, light, and don’t take too much time to bake in the oven, so they’re very compatible with the Aussie heat!
Here’s my recipe for piparkoogid. I’m making them with my Australian mum, so it probably won’t be the same as your grandma’s recipe (please share your own recipes in the comments on social media)! I have a wheat and dairy allergy, so this version is gluten and dairy-free. You can also make it vegan by swapping egg for a plant-based egg replacer powder. If using wheat flour, reduce the quantity to one and a half cups.
Watch the video below to learn how to make piparkoogid!
How to make piparkoogid video by Silvi Vann-Wall.
One more thing: the dough needs time to chill in the fridgee (that’s how my grandpa would pronounce “fridge”), so start the recipe at least one day ahead!
Ingredients
- 2 cups of gluten free all-purpose flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon of sea salt
- 6 tablespoons of blackstrap molasses
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 cup of butter or margarine
- 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon of ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon of ground ginger
- And 1 whole egg, whisked
Start by adding the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves and ginger into a medium-sized mixing bowl, and use a whisk to stir until everything is combined.
Next, put a saucepan on the stove and add the blackstrap molasses, brown sugar and margarine together. On a medium heat, stir until the mixture starts to bubble, then turn the heat off and set it aside.
After the wet mixture has cooled slightly, add in the whisked egg and move everything to a kitchen mixer. Beat until light and fluffy. You can also use a hand mixer, or good old-fashioned elbow grease for this part!
Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture and beat again to combine. You should see a brown dough forming. It’s ready when there is no more white flour visible.
Let the dough sit for about five minutes, before transferring it to a clean bench (lightly dusted with flour) and forming a ball with your hands. If the dough sticks to your hands, add a bit more flour. Cover the ball in kitchen wrap and let it chill in the fridge overnight.
When you’re ready to cut your cookie shapes, preheat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius, and start rolling the dough ball out until it’s flat. You can use flour and parchment paper so that the dough doesn’t stick to the rolling pin.
When you’ve rolled it out as thin as possible (but not too thin!), you can start cutting out your desired cookie shapes – I’ve got friends who always make them wombat-shaped, which is a cute “Austonian” touch!
Line a tray with parchment paper and grease it with a cooking spray. Put the raw piparkoogid on the tray, then pop them in the oven for 6-8 minutes, keeping an eye on them so it doesn’t burn. By now you should be able to smell the amazing fragrance!
When they’re done, take the tray out and place the piparkoogid on a cooling rack straight away – that way you can eat them as soon as possible.
Eat them with tea or coffee, or wait until dessert, or wrap them up for Christmas gifts. Either way: enjoy, and häid jõule (Merry Christmas)!
Silvi Vann-Wall is a Melbourne-based journalist and film critic with Estonian heritage. You can find more of their work at silvireports.com
