Mykolaichyky (миколайчики, St Nicholas Honey Cookies)

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •A heavy saucepan
• •A large mixing bowl
• •A rolling pin
• •Cookie cutters shaped as stars, angels, horses, boots, or St Nicholas figures
• •Two parchment-lined baking sheets
• •A piping bag or folded paper cone
• •An airtight cookie tin

Instructions

1. 1

   Warm the honey

   Put the honey, butter, sugar, spices, pepper, and citrus zest into a heavy saucepan over low heat. Stir until the butter melts and the sugar feels less gritty under the spoon. Pull it off the heat when the smell changes: the honey loses its raw edge and the cinnamon starts to bloom. Let it cool until warm, not hot, so the egg doesn't scramble.

   Don't boil the honey hard. A quiet melt gives you a cleaner honey flavor and keeps the dough from turning tough before it even reaches the table.
2. 2

   Mix the dough

   Whisk the egg and smetana into the warm honey mixture. If you're using baker's ammonia, dissolve it in the milk and stir it in now. In a large bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, and salt, then pour in the honey mixture and stir until the flour disappears. Knead it only a few turns in the bowl. The dough should be soft, fragrant, and a little oily, not stiff like clay.

   This is where people panic and add too much flour. Don't chase stickiness. The overnight rest firms the dough, and extra flour makes a dry little brick.
3. 3

   Let it sleep

   Flatten the dough into a thick disc, wrap it well, and refrigerate it overnight. By morning it should feel calm under your hands, firm but not brittle, and the spice should smell deeper. If it cracks at the edges when you roll, let it sit at room temperature until it softens enough to listen.

4. 4

   Cut the figures

   Heat the oven to 175C or 350F and line baking sheets with parchment. Roll the dough on a lightly floured surface to 4 to 5 mm thick. Cut St Nicholas figures, angels, stars, boots, horses, moons, whatever your cutters give you. Lift them to the trays with space between them. If you want ribbon holes, press them in now with a skewer.

   Gather scraps gently and reroll once or twice. After that the dough gets sulky and the shapes lose their clean edges, so bake the last scraps as cook's tax.
5. 5

   Bake until set

   For plain shiny cookies, brush lightly with the egg yolk wash; leave the surface matte if you plan to ice them. Bake one tray at a time until the centers look dry, the edges are a shade darker, and the underside is amber. You are smelling for toasted honey, not dark caramel. The cookies will still feel a little tender when lifted, then firm as they cool.

6. 6

   Make the icing

   Beat the icing sugar with the pasteurized egg white, or with the meringue powder and water, plus the lemon juice. You want a thick white icing that falls from the spoon in a slow ribbon and sits on the surface before melting back in. Divide small spoonfuls into bowls and tint them with beet powder, turmeric, or cocoa if you like.

   If the icing runs, add more sugar. If it breaks instead of flowing, loosen it drop by drop with water. Drop by drop means exactly that; icing can smell fear.
7. 7

   Paint and dry

   Pipe outlines, halos, buttons, little boots, sleepy eyes, or just a few white lines across the cookies. Let them dry uncovered until the icing no longer marks when touched with a careful finger. Don't stack them while the icing is soft, unless you enjoy modern art under the pillow.

8. 8

   Tin and wait

   Layer the dry cookies between parchment in an airtight tin and put them somewhere cool. They are good after a few days and better after a week or two, when the honey and spice have settled. Wrap a few for each child before bed on St Nicholas Eve, then hide the rest from the adults. Adults are worse.

Chef Tips

• •Buckwheat honey gives a darker, more grown-up cookie; acacia or wildflower honey gives a gentler one. Both belong. Use what smells good when you open the jar.
• •The rest is the step that doesn't forgive you. The cutters, colors, and decorations can change; the overnight dough rest and the week in the tin are how the cookie becomes Mykolaichyk.
• •Baker's ammonia is old winter-cookie logic: it helps flat cookies bake dry and keep well. Use it only for thin cookies like these, and keep your face away from the oven door when opening it; the sharp smell bakes off.
• •For egg-free icing, use aquafaba instead of egg white. A bit more modern, yes, and it works.
• •If the cookies become too firm for very small children, put a slice of apple in the tin for one night, then remove it. Don't leave fruit in there for days, or you'll invite trouble.
• •Make a full tin. There is no sensible way to bake only twelve St Nicholas cookies, because someone will remember another child, cousin, neighbor, teacher, or hungry Ukrainian.

Advance Preparation

• •The dough should rest overnight in the fridge, at least 8 hours.
• •Bake the cookies 1 to 3 weeks before St Nicholas Day so they firm, keep, and deepen in spice.
• •Decorated cookies need several hours to dry before stacking; overnight is easiest.
• •Stored airtight between parchment, the cookies keep about a month in a cool room.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 31g)