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Tula pryanik (russian: тульский пряник, ''tulskiy pryanik'') is a famous type of imprinted Russian 
In 1996 Tula opened a museum dedicated to its pryaniki.
pryanik
Pryanik (Russian and uk, пряник, be, пернік, Czech and Slovak: perník, Polish: piernik, Croatian: papernjak ) refers to a range of traditional sweet baked goods in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and some neighboring countries such as Polan ...
from the city of Tula
Tula may refer to:
Geography
Antarctica
*Tula Mountains
*Tula Point
India
*Tulā, a solar month in the traditional Indian calendar
Iran
* Tula, Iran, a village in Hormozgan Province
Italy
* Tula, Sardinia, municipality (''comune'') in the pr ...
. Usually, Tula pryanik looks like a rectangular tile or a flat figure. Making stamped pryanik is considered an art form. The imprints could include different patterns, symbols, images of the Tula Kremlin, names, congratulations.
The cooking of the Tula pryanik starts with preparation of the dough. The dough is made from rye flour, honey, eggs, water and spices. Next the dough is cut into pieces and rolled out. Each piece is placed on a special board with a carved pattern to give the dough its intended form. The first layer of the dough is covered with a second one with a filling in between. To make the two layers stay in place the edges are pressed together. Then the cake is turned over so that the stamped image is on top and the surface is glazed with sugar syrup. The syrup covers the picture to make it more visible after baking. Historically, each carved board is used to create just one design for pryanik. A new board is made specifically for each design. In the past, pryanik boards were made by craftsmen and nowadays new designs are created mostly by professional artists.
Modern Tula pryaniki typically have a jam or condensed milk
Condensed milk is cow's milk from which water has been removed (roughly 60% of it). It is most often found with sugar added, in the form of ''sweetened condensed milk'' (SCM), to the extent that the terms "condensed milk" and "sweetened condens ...
filling, while the traditional ingredient in the dough is honey
Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...
which is sometimes replaced with sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
.
Pryaniki have been made in Tula since the 17th century. The first mention of Tula pryanik is in the Tula census book of 1685. Today, Tula pryaniki are made at the confectionery factories of Staraya Tula (Russian for "Old Tula") and Yasnaya Polyana and by several smaller companies.
In 1996 Tula opened a museum dedicated to its pryaniki.
See also
* Vyazma pryanikReferences