Pryaniki - Russian Honey Spice Cookies

Step 1

In a medium saucepan, dissolve the instant coffee in the water.

Step 2

Add the butter, sugar and honey to the dissolved coffee in the saucepan. Bring the mixture to a boil on medium heat and cook, stirring, just until the butter melts and the sugar dissolves and the mixture is homogenous. Take off the heat, pour it into a large bowl. and cool for about 10-15 minutes.

Step 3

Add all the spices – vanilla, allspice, nutmeg and anise. You can also add cinnamon, cardamom, ginger, cloves, mint extract, etc.

Step 4

Whisk in the eggs, the baking soda dissolved in vinegar and baking powder. You will notice that the mixture will fizz a little when it’s all mixed up.

Step 5

Add the flour and mix with a large wooden spoon until all the flour is incorporated.

Step 6

Cover the cookie dough with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel and set aside at room temperature for at least 4 hours or overnight.

Step 7

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper.

Step 8

Shape the cookie dough into approximately 1 Tablespoon balls and place them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving some room around each cookie, since they will expand while baking. I use a 1 Tablespoon measuring scoop to get the cookie dough out of the bowl and then roll it around in my hands. This will make sure that all the cookies are the same size and will bake evenly.

Step 9

Bake in the preheated oven for 20-25 minutes. Do not over bake, or the cookies will be too hard.

Step 10

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and the milk to make a glaze. You can flavor the glaze by adding some kind of extract to it, like vanilla, mint, almond, etc.

Step 11

Dip the cooled cookies into the glaze, letting the excess run off. Set the glazed cookies on a rack or parchment paper to dry. When the glaze is dry, you can flip the cookies over and glaze the other side as well. When glazing the cookies, work fast, since the glaze will be harder to work with when it starts to dry up. You can add a tiny splash more of milk to thin it out if it hardens.

Step 12

Store the cookies at room temperature in a sealed container.