Toruń gingerbread

Toruń Toruń gingerbread or honey cake (Polish Toruńskie Pierniki ) are gingerbread, after their town Thorn in Prussia (Polish Toruń, today in Poland) are named. You can look back on a centuries-old tradition, whose first beginnings in the 13th century are, as Thorn still part of the German Teutonic Order.

The Toruń gingerbread craft was first mentioned in 1380, but probably existed since the 13th century. In 1557 to have originated at the monastery of the Thorn Kathrinchen. Traditionally, on 25 November, started Memorial of Saint Catherine of Alexandria, with the jaws. In the 17th and 18th century figure gingerbread were very common in the form of the kings of Poland. With John Weese began in 1763 in Thorn, an operation to which in the first years of the 20th century, 500 people employed under Gustav Weese. The Lebküchler or pepper Kuchler, as they call the special bakers were united in guild guilds. They held their special recipes secret and gave them only from father to son on. So we can find an Pulsnitzer baker and Küchler named Tobias Thomas, who worked around 1745 in Thorn. Together with the G. Weese factory also a Hermann Thomas worked in the 20th century in Thorn.

Toruń gingerbread comes in many forms, which can vary event-related part. Among the classical variants are the following best known:

• Thorner Kathrinchen ( Katarzynki ) - Simple Gingerbread without filling, with or without chocolate coating. Very widespread they are in a six-petalled form based on a rectangle.

• Thorner paving stones ( Pierniki glazurowane ) - smaller round or angular Gingerbread with or without filling. It is characterized by its white icing.

• Toruń gingerbread figure ( Pierniki figuralne ) - elaborate and sometimes very large Gebildbrote, including in the form of Council and noblemen, carriages, coat of arms, walls and towers or with embossed images.

In addition, the Toruń gingerbread hearts are very popular, often adorning a characteristic lattice pastry.

The Gingerbread of Toruń are widely regarded as a symbol of their town, similar to the Nuremberg gingerbread or Aachener Printe.