Janina's Piernik (Polish Honey Spice Cakes)
Imagine baking this piernik on a day when fasting and abstinence was the order of the day just as it had been for many days before, and for more to come. The tantalizing aroma of its baking was so tempting that it was indeed a punishment not even to be able to lick the spoon or the bowl! Grandmother was there! She sat fingering her rosary watching every move one might make.

    5 cups flour
    2 cups sugar
    1 cup honey
    ½ cup butter
    2 eggs
    1 teaspoon baking soda
    ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
    ½ teaspoon cloves
    ¼ teaspoon cinnamon
    ¼ teaspoon nutmeg

Melt one tablespoon sugar in large skillet and allow to caramelize. Pour in one fourth cup water, allow to boil. Add rest of sugar. When sugar has dissolved, add honey and spices. Allow to come to boil. Let cool. Sift flour. Put aside one cup with which to flour the board. Add to the caramelized sugar, butter, the eggs, flour, baking soda and cream of tartar. Knead very well, adding more flour to make elastic dough. Refrigerate dough for thirty minutes. Roll out on floured board and make favorite cut outs. Bake at 350º for 15 minutes. Cool, frost and add Paper Prints.

St. Nikolaus Speculatius (Kris Kringle) Cookies (German Spice Cookies)
Here is another variation of the European spice cookies so popular for St. Nicholas Day—this one has sour cream and finely chopped walnuts. This recipe is also given by Maria Trapp, of the Trapp Family Singers, in Around the Year with the Trapp Family. Makes a tasty thin, crisp cookie.

    1 cup butter
    1 cup shortening
    2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
    ½ cup dairy sour cream
    4½ cups sifted all-purpose flour
    ½ teaspoon baking soda
    3 teaspoons cinnamon
    1 teaspoon allspice
    ½ teaspoon cloves
    ½ teaspoon nutmeg
    ½ cup finely chopped walnuts

Cream shortening and sugar; blend in sour cream. Mix and sift dry ingredients; add slowly to creamed mixture. (Do not use electric mixer if dough is too stiff.) Stir in walnuts. Divide into 4 portions; wrap each portion in aluminum foil; chill several hours or overnight. Work with one portion of dough at a time, leaving the others in the refrigerator. Roll out very thin, cut with St. Nicholas cutters. Bake at 350º for 10 minutes. (Roll scraps into a ball; refrigerate briefly before re-rolling.) Cool, frost and add Paper Prints.