I've been making these Mykolai gingerbread cookies for our Ukrainian School Bazaar for a few years now, and I've had some requests for instructions on how to make them. So here goes.
You could use any cut-out cookie recipe here, including Ukrainian medivnychky. I use a good gingerbread cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour, rolled 1/4 inch thick so that it stays soft and tasty to eat (often people roll out dough too thin in order to get more cookies out of a batch, but then the cookies turn out hard instead of soft).
Here's the link to the recipe:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gingerbread-cookies-recipe
This recipe will yield about 25 cookies using the cutter below. If I want double that number, I make the two batches of dough separately, since I have just the standard size KitchenAid mixer.
You could use any cut-out cookie recipe here, including Ukrainian medivnychky. I use a good gingerbread cookie recipe from King Arthur Flour, rolled 1/4 inch thick so that it stays soft and tasty to eat (often people roll out dough too thin in order to get more cookies out of a batch, but then the cookies turn out hard instead of soft).
Here's the link to the recipe:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/gingerbread-cookies-recipe
This recipe will yield about 25 cookies using the cutter below. If I want double that number, I make the two batches of dough separately, since I have just the standard size KitchenAid mixer.
In the photos above, I'm using roller boards, to make it easier to roll an even thickness. You could also use rolling pin rings. Use a small ruler too, to check - it's worth the trouble.
The cookie cutter I use is from a wonderful website called stnicholascenter.org. They have a number of St. Nicholas cookie cutters, but scroll down to the one called "Ukrainian St. Nicholas Byzantine Cookie Cutter" at the bottom of the page. The reason you want this one instead of the others (all of which are lovely) is that Mykolai (the Ukrainian St. Nicholas) wears a rounded mitre, since he was a bishop in the Eastern rite. Western rite bishops, and the Western European St. Nicholas, wear a pointy mitre. Here's the link to the cookie-cutter page:
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/cookie-cutters/
If you don't want to buy a cookie cutter, you can make yourself a stencil out of stiff paper and cut around it with a knife. But a cookie cutter is so much easier.
When using any cookie cutter, you should of course remember to press straight down, without squeezing the cutter, so that you don't distort the cookie's shape. Use a metal spatula or cake server to lift the cookie off your rolling surface onto your cookie sheet, or roll directly onto parchment and remove the excess dough around the cut cookies. Either way, I always use parchment, to prevent sticking or burning.
The cookies do spread a little, so I leave plenty of space - I put 9-12 of these on a standard cookie sheet.
Here they are on the cookie sheet and on the cooling rack.
http://www.stnicholascenter.org/pages/cookie-cutters/
If you don't want to buy a cookie cutter, you can make yourself a stencil out of stiff paper and cut around it with a knife. But a cookie cutter is so much easier.
When using any cookie cutter, you should of course remember to press straight down, without squeezing the cutter, so that you don't distort the cookie's shape. Use a metal spatula or cake server to lift the cookie off your rolling surface onto your cookie sheet, or roll directly onto parchment and remove the excess dough around the cut cookies. Either way, I always use parchment, to prevent sticking or burning.
The cookies do spread a little, so I leave plenty of space - I put 9-12 of these on a standard cookie sheet.
Here they are on the cookie sheet and on the cooling rack.
Once the cookies are cooled, I cover them in a white glaze. You can skip this if you like. The recipe I use is here:
http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipes/hard-glaze-for-cookies-recipe
I like this glaze recipe because you can dip the tops of the cookies into it and smooth with a metal spatula - this helps it go more quickly. The glaze dries smooth and hard enough to provide a good blank 'canvas' for your decorating. But it's soft enough that it's not unpleasant to bite through - this is, after all, a cookie for eating, not just for looking at!
Next, we need to make Royal Icing for the actual decorating. You don't want to use buttercream icing here, because it dries too soft and will easily smudge.
I use Wilton's Royal Icing recipe:
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing
You will need meringue powder, which is available from Wilton (buy online or at Michael's, Joanne etc, some grocery and party stores).
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfmsku=pg_meringuepowder
I use Wilton's Royal Icing recipe:
http://www.wilton.com/recipe/Royal-Icing
You will need meringue powder, which is available from Wilton (buy online or at Michael's, Joanne etc, some grocery and party stores).
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfmsku=pg_meringuepowder
Coloring the icing: set aside a small amount of icing for the brown color. Then divide the rest into thirds: you'll need to leave 1/3 of it white, and you'll need to color 1/3 blue, and 1/3 red.
To color icing, it's better to use a gel or powder rather than the liquid stuff you buy in a grocery store. Michael's and various other stores carry Wilton's icing gel colors, and cake supply stores carry CK, Americolor, and other brands of gel colors too.
http://www.wilton.com/store/?i=1;q1=Shop;q2=Pops;q3=Icing;q4=Icing+Colors+%26+Sets;x1=tab.cat1;x2=tab.cat2;x3=tab.cat3;x4=tab.cat4
Don't bother with toothpicks for coloring your icing - you want fairly deep colors, not pastels, so I use plastic knives to remove a small glob of gel color at a time and mix it into the icing, then use a fresh plastic knife to get another glob etc (you never want to dip a dirty implement back into the gel color container, of course).
-brown: you only need a small amount of this. I use Wilton's Chocolate Brown (see it being mixed in the bowl below).
-white: 1/3 of the remaining icing - just leave it white
-blue: 1/3 - I like Wilton's Sky Blue icing color
-red: 1/3; red is a notoriously difficult color for icing, as every shade out there tends to turn out pink rather than actually red. You'll need a lot of gel color to actually get to red, and the trouble is that the red coloring can have a bitter taste. For this reason, use Wilton's No-Taste Red - a lot of it, and add in some Burgundy to deepen the color. **It will still look somewhat in the pink range, but the color will deepen as it sits.**
To color icing, it's better to use a gel or powder rather than the liquid stuff you buy in a grocery store. Michael's and various other stores carry Wilton's icing gel colors, and cake supply stores carry CK, Americolor, and other brands of gel colors too.
http://www.wilton.com/store/?i=1;q1=Shop;q2=Pops;q3=Icing;q4=Icing+Colors+%26+Sets;x1=tab.cat1;x2=tab.cat2;x3=tab.cat3;x4=tab.cat4
Don't bother with toothpicks for coloring your icing - you want fairly deep colors, not pastels, so I use plastic knives to remove a small glob of gel color at a time and mix it into the icing, then use a fresh plastic knife to get another glob etc (you never want to dip a dirty implement back into the gel color container, of course).
-brown: you only need a small amount of this. I use Wilton's Chocolate Brown (see it being mixed in the bowl below).
-white: 1/3 of the remaining icing - just leave it white
-blue: 1/3 - I like Wilton's Sky Blue icing color
-red: 1/3; red is a notoriously difficult color for icing, as every shade out there tends to turn out pink rather than actually red. You'll need a lot of gel color to actually get to red, and the trouble is that the red coloring can have a bitter taste. For this reason, use Wilton's No-Taste Red - a lot of it, and add in some Burgundy to deepen the color. **It will still look somewhat in the pink range, but the color will deepen as it sits.**
Now for the serious stuff: you will need real decorating equipment. I don't recommend using a plastic bag with a corner cut off for decorating, as you won't have enough control to pipe what you want to pipe. Get these items instead:
-decorating bags: these come in reusable or disposable kinds. I like the clear plastic disposable kind, since you can see the color of your icing, and you can discard the bag when done (I dislike washing out icing bags). Here's a 12-pack, but you can get larger packs too.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E31410F-475A-BAC0-53FC31951015E8CB&killnav=1
-decorating tips: you want some round tips, like Wilton's Tip 5. I recommend getting 4 of the same tip, so that you don't have to switch between colors and wash out tips constantly. Don't worry, you'll use them for another project!
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E311404-475A-BAC0-5BD51B02BF02A8C8&killnav=1
You can also get tips in sets.
-couplers: since you're not switching between different size and shapes of tips for this project, you can skip this element and just drop the decorating tip inside the bag before filling the bag with icing. But normally these couplers are how you attach the tip to the outside of the bag (you drop the coupler inside the bag, trim the tip of the bag to the threads, then put the tip on the outside of the bag, and secure it with the coupler ring).
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30E785-475A-BAC0-5C1DB4FF70303E17&killnav=1
-tip covers: these help keep the icing from drying out in the tip while you're working with another color or take a break. Royal icing dries out much more easily than buttercream icing, so I definitely recommend using these.
Wilton now carries a silicone type of cover, but I have the older hard plastic type in the photo above.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=69172804-1E0B-C910-EAB930A2EF6612C0&killnav=1
There are lots of other fun and useful gadgets once you get into the world of cake and cookie decorating - just browse through the Wilton site or the decorating aisle at your local Michael's or other store. But these are the basics.
Now for the fun part: the actual decorating!
Pick your red or your blue icing color. Put a cookie (or two - I like to work with 2 or even 3 at a time) on a plate, put some clean paper towels to either side of your work space, have a small knife or metal spatula at hand to use as a mistake tool, have a cake tester or bent paper clip at hand to clean your tip out.
-decorating bags: these come in reusable or disposable kinds. I like the clear plastic disposable kind, since you can see the color of your icing, and you can discard the bag when done (I dislike washing out icing bags). Here's a 12-pack, but you can get larger packs too.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E31410F-475A-BAC0-53FC31951015E8CB&killnav=1
-decorating tips: you want some round tips, like Wilton's Tip 5. I recommend getting 4 of the same tip, so that you don't have to switch between colors and wash out tips constantly. Don't worry, you'll use them for another project!
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E311404-475A-BAC0-5BD51B02BF02A8C8&killnav=1
You can also get tips in sets.
-couplers: since you're not switching between different size and shapes of tips for this project, you can skip this element and just drop the decorating tip inside the bag before filling the bag with icing. But normally these couplers are how you attach the tip to the outside of the bag (you drop the coupler inside the bag, trim the tip of the bag to the threads, then put the tip on the outside of the bag, and secure it with the coupler ring).
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=3E30E785-475A-BAC0-5C1DB4FF70303E17&killnav=1
-tip covers: these help keep the icing from drying out in the tip while you're working with another color or take a break. Royal icing dries out much more easily than buttercream icing, so I definitely recommend using these.
Wilton now carries a silicone type of cover, but I have the older hard plastic type in the photo above.
http://www.wilton.com/store/site/product.cfm?id=69172804-1E0B-C910-EAB930A2EF6612C0&killnav=1
There are lots of other fun and useful gadgets once you get into the world of cake and cookie decorating - just browse through the Wilton site or the decorating aisle at your local Michael's or other store. But these are the basics.
Now for the fun part: the actual decorating!
Pick your red or your blue icing color. Put a cookie (or two - I like to work with 2 or even 3 at a time) on a plate, put some clean paper towels to either side of your work space, have a small knife or metal spatula at hand to use as a mistake tool, have a cake tester or bent paper clip at hand to clean your tip out.
You'll be going from the top of the cookie down. While it's tempting to just do all of the red (or blue) icing in one go, I find I mess up my spacing if I don't go top-down.
Mitre: Start by piping a horizontal line fairly low on the head - farther down than you would initially think the mitre needs to start. You can put a bit of curvature in this line if you like. Then in one continuous line, pipe the sides and top of the mitre - try to keep the sides fairly vertical (this helps it look less like a beanie). Pipe a dot at the top of the mitre (I've tried piping that dot so that it hangs off the top edge, and that looks nice initially, but it tends to break off very easily).
Next pipe a small cross in the middle of the mitre.
With a clean fingertip, gently pat down the points on your dot, on joining lines, on the cross tips. You want to do this before the royal icing hardens (which is fairly quickly)
If your royal icing is a bit watery and is sticking to your finger when you try this, the trick is to dip your clean fingertip in cornstarch, tap off the excess on a paper towel, and then try patting down the points on the icing. Don't worry about excess cornstarch - you can gently blow it off, and anything left will be absorbed by the icing. Keep a small bowl of cornstarch and a clean paper towel near your work area.
You can also take this opportunity to gently nudge your lines of icing a little straighter or to adjust symmetry as needed - use a small knife or metal spatula as your 'mistake tool'. Sometimes you can make these adjustments with a fingertip (dip in cornstarch as needed).
Mitre: Start by piping a horizontal line fairly low on the head - farther down than you would initially think the mitre needs to start. You can put a bit of curvature in this line if you like. Then in one continuous line, pipe the sides and top of the mitre - try to keep the sides fairly vertical (this helps it look less like a beanie). Pipe a dot at the top of the mitre (I've tried piping that dot so that it hangs off the top edge, and that looks nice initially, but it tends to break off very easily).
Next pipe a small cross in the middle of the mitre.
With a clean fingertip, gently pat down the points on your dot, on joining lines, on the cross tips. You want to do this before the royal icing hardens (which is fairly quickly)
If your royal icing is a bit watery and is sticking to your finger when you try this, the trick is to dip your clean fingertip in cornstarch, tap off the excess on a paper towel, and then try patting down the points on the icing. Don't worry about excess cornstarch - you can gently blow it off, and anything left will be absorbed by the icing. Keep a small bowl of cornstarch and a clean paper towel near your work area.
You can also take this opportunity to gently nudge your lines of icing a little straighter or to adjust symmetry as needed - use a small knife or metal spatula as your 'mistake tool'. Sometimes you can make these adjustments with a fingertip (dip in cornstarch as needed).
Cap your red (or blue) icing, and pull out your brown icing. Pipe two dots for eyes. Pat the points down with a clean fingertip (dip in cornstarch as needed).
Cap your brown icing, and pull out your white icing next. (In the pictures, I've switched to a blue Mykolai, but you get the idea).
Pipe small white dots in an arc, dipping from one bottom corner of the mitre to the other. Dip down far enough that you'll have room for the mustache later.
When you've finished the first row, pipe in a second, positioning the dots below and in between the dots of the first row.
For the third row, just pipe 3 dots in the center. Follow that by just one dot in the center for the fourth row.
With a clean fingertip, gently press down the tips of the dots, so that now the white icing looks like cotton balls.
Pipe small white dots in an arc, dipping from one bottom corner of the mitre to the other. Dip down far enough that you'll have room for the mustache later.
When you've finished the first row, pipe in a second, positioning the dots below and in between the dots of the first row.
For the third row, just pipe 3 dots in the center. Follow that by just one dot in the center for the fourth row.
With a clean fingertip, gently press down the tips of the dots, so that now the white icing looks like cotton balls.
Now the mustache.You want a kozak-style handlebar or walrus mustache. Starting where the nose would be, pipe out, down, and curl up, so that you make a sort of backwards "S" shape. Then go back to the starting point, and pipe the mirror image in the other direction. Try to make it fairly symmetric; you can try to gently adjust it with the tip of your knife if needed, but be careful.
Cap the white icing, and go back to your blue or red icing - whichever you used for the mitre.
The royal icing probably hardened just a bit inside the tip, even if you had it capped. Insert your cake tester or bent paperclip, wiggle it around to clean out the hard parts, pull it out, and wipe on your paper towel.
The royal icing probably hardened just a bit inside the tip, even if you had it capped. Insert your cake tester or bent paperclip, wiggle it around to clean out the hard parts, pull it out, and wipe on your paper towel.
Now outline the robe. If you like, you can do this in one continuous line, but I find it hard to maintain symmetry that way. I pipe one side, starting from the beard, curving out and in a bit where the arms/elbows would be, and continuing down to the bottom. Then I do the other side, again starting from the beard and moving down, and then I continue across the bottom in a gentle curve. If your cookie icing isn't quite perfect, your robe outline can improve the general appearance.
With a clean fingertip, pat down the join between the icing lines, and also pat down the starting points. Use your small knife or spatula 'mistake tool' to adjust the symmetry of the lines as needed.
With a clean fingertip, pat down the join between the icing lines, and also pat down the starting points. Use your small knife or spatula 'mistake tool' to adjust the symmetry of the lines as needed.
Next we'll pipe the stole (I think it's called the epitrachelion).
Start on one shoulder. Move diagonally below the beard, past the cookie's midpoint (imagine a vertical center line from the mitre's point through the beard's point and continuing down - you want to move past that vertical line, so that the thickness of the stole will be centered).
Now move down towards the bottom of the robe (but not all the way to the bottom). Make a right angle turn (towards the side you started from). Move up and then diagonally, parallel to the stole lines you've already piped. Make sure the stole is wide enough that you'll have room to pipe the crosses.
You can pipe the stole in one continuous piping motion, or in sections. Gently pat with your finger to smooth the joins.
Now pipe the other side of the stole. Start on the opposite shoulder, and pipe diagonally down to meet the already-piped part of the stole, trying to match the angle, more or less. Pipe the lower edge next, parallel to the line you just piped.
Crosses: pipe two crosses in the center, vertical part of the stole, and one cross each on the shoulder parts of the stole. Pat down the tips with your finger. The stole is now done.
All that's left is the bottom row of dots: pipe 5 dots along the bottom hem of the robe. Pat down the points with your finger tip.
Start on one shoulder. Move diagonally below the beard, past the cookie's midpoint (imagine a vertical center line from the mitre's point through the beard's point and continuing down - you want to move past that vertical line, so that the thickness of the stole will be centered).
Now move down towards the bottom of the robe (but not all the way to the bottom). Make a right angle turn (towards the side you started from). Move up and then diagonally, parallel to the stole lines you've already piped. Make sure the stole is wide enough that you'll have room to pipe the crosses.
You can pipe the stole in one continuous piping motion, or in sections. Gently pat with your finger to smooth the joins.
Now pipe the other side of the stole. Start on the opposite shoulder, and pipe diagonally down to meet the already-piped part of the stole, trying to match the angle, more or less. Pipe the lower edge next, parallel to the line you just piped.
Crosses: pipe two crosses in the center, vertical part of the stole, and one cross each on the shoulder parts of the stole. Pat down the tips with your finger. The stole is now done.
All that's left is the bottom row of dots: pipe 5 dots along the bottom hem of the robe. Pat down the points with your finger tip.
In this picture, I'm adjusting the join at a corner of the stole. I have a 'mistake tool' that I purchased at a cake supply store years ago (unfortunately I can't find an online link to a similar tool for you).
Your Mykolai cookies are done!
Notice that these cookies in the picture are far from perfect. But the eye skims over the imperfections, and focuses on the bold details. So don't stress - it's only a cookie!
Let the cookies air-dry for about half an hour or so, to make sure the royal icing hardens completely.
Notice that these cookies in the picture are far from perfect. But the eye skims over the imperfections, and focuses on the bold details. So don't stress - it's only a cookie!
Let the cookies air-dry for about half an hour or so, to make sure the royal icing hardens completely.
Now you can put the cookies in an airtight container (layer with parchment or wax paper), or put them in individual treat bags secured with twisty ties or bands - that makes a lovely presentation for gift-giving or a bake sale.
Enjoy!