Polish Gingerbread Cookies with Honey and Rye (Pierniki)

Pierniki, Poland’s honey-based gingerbread cookie, is heavily spiced. To replicate that and get the most flavor from our spices, we infuse them into the honey. This both draws out their flavors and distributes them more evenly through the cookies. A dark, robust honey stands up nicely to the intensity of the spices and the nuttiness of the rye flour. Our favorite is buckwheat honey, which has notes of molasses. Clover honey works well, too, but avoid honeys with a distinct floral sweetness, such as orange blossom and wildflower. Traditional pierniki dough is aged for days or even weeks, but we opted to chill the dough for only two hours or up to overnight; if time allows, bake the cookies the day before serving, as their flavor improves with resting. These can be decorated in a couple different ways. Rolling the dough balls in turbinado sugar before baking creates a pretty, crackled appearance. Alternatively, you can drizzle the baked and cooled cookies with an espresso glaze that pairs well with the spices.