Hello to all the sweet tooth! What goodies do you prefer - airy cakes, cream cakes, crispy cookies, or maybe you're chocolate fans? Of course, salivations already flow from listing all these goodies. However, we completely forgot to name another achievement of confectionery art. We are talking about gingerbread cookies - soft, fragrant, so attractive, especially popular in the New Year.
And although the first gingerbread cookies appeared not in Russia, they so pleased our compatriots that for centuries they have been one of the favorite treats on tea tables. People liked the gingerbread so much that people began to open museums dedicated to this product.
In this article we will talk about the gingerbread museum in Vladimir.
Gingerbread History
Where does the Russian person get such a love of gingerbread from? The fact is that, unlike other ancient treats - pies and cookies - the gingerbread was considered to be exclusively festive, and therefore it was rarely seen on tables. Such a rarity of the product was explained by the fact that for the manufacture of gingerbread, expensive ingredients were used at that time: spices and spices. But they appeared in Russia only in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and then the carrot took on a taste close to modern, and at the same time the name. Until that time, our ancestors were enjoying "honey bread", which was prepared from dough based on honey, berry juice and rye flour. This dish can be called the Russian ancestor of the modern gingerbread.
Do not flirt without gingerbread
Due to its expensive price, uniqueness of taste, unusual shape that can be given to gingerbread, this sweetness has become not only a delicious treat. Gingerbread cookies were given to each other, with the help of them they wanted to show their location, and sometimes they even decorated the house with them (they tried to show their wealth to guests).
Traditional recipe
Over the long history, a special formulation of the Russian gingerbread has developed, which, unfortunately, is less and less popular with modern manufacturers.
But they honor and strive to preserve traditions in the gingerbread house in Vladimir. Museum workers argue that their products are certainly prepared according to the recipe that was established by the state standard in the era of Emperor Alexander II.
Gingerbread cookies in the Vladimir confectionery workshop are prepared exclusively by hand with the help of wooden molds, which give the product a fancy shape. Gingerbread cookies are painted by master chefs with their hands too - no machine intervention. You can be sure that the warmth and care of the manufacturer were invested in each small masterpiece.
Exposition of the Gingerbread Museum in Vladimir
The Gingerbread Museum is one of Vladimir’s youngest cultural complexes, however, as befits a museum, it is located in an old house built in the eighteenth century, the building conveys the historical atmosphere. After all, here you can not only admire the miracles of confectionery, but also learn a lot from the history of gingerbread production, the traditions of cooking and eating gingerbread cookies. Photo of the Vladimir Gingerbread Museum you see below.
As you can see, already at the entrance of visitors a huge gingerbread greets, calling to enter inside.
The museum’s collection is constantly replenished (but it’s strange that it’s not the other way around, because it’s so difficult to refrain from trying each exhibit to the teeth). In the Gingerbread House-Museum in Vladimir, there are a variety of gingerbreads that you can imagine: these are printed, carved, and stucco products, no longer talk about the variety of shapes and silhouettes.
Tour guides, by the way, will tell how all these types of gingerbreads differ, what manufacturing techniques were common in a certain era, and even reveal the gastronomic secrets of noble persons: for example, what kind of ingredients and additives did Russian monarchs prefer to see in gingerbread cookies.
When you visit the museum, you will find out that there were gingerbread cookies for the rich - huge (sometimes reaching a fathom in diameter) and painted and gingerbread cookies for the poor (sometimes reminiscent of a church curd).
Gingerbread games
Who said gingerbread cookies don't fly? Even as they fly if you play an old Russian game. You will also be told about this ancient fun in the Vladimir Gingerbread Museum, but you can test yourself already when you bake your own gingerbread. The rules of the game are simple: everyone wants tosses his gingerbread high above his head, the winner is the one whose product remained unharmed after landing. The winner took the gingerbread cookies of his rivals.
And you can make your "playing" gingerbread here in the museum, because its excursion program involves a master class at which visitors will try themselves in the gingerbread business.
The journey to the gingerbread world ends with a tea-tasting.
Where is the gingerbread house located?
Remember the tale where Hansel and Grettel discovered a wonderful gingerbread house on the edge of a forest? To find our gingerbread house museum, you don’t need to climb deep into the thicket.
It is enough to come to the glorious city of Vladimir (by the way, it is included in one of the most famous tourist routes - the Golden Ring of Russia), walk along Bolshaya Moskovskaya Street to house number forty and buy an entrance ticket.
Ticket prices
To visit the Vladimir Gingerbread Museum, you need to pay 100 rubles - this amount includes, in addition to the entrance, a tasting of goodies. If you want to not only examine the exposition and taste the confectionery, but also listen to a fascinating and informative tour, then the ticket will already be more expensive, though not very much - 150 rubles.
Skillful pens
In addition, in the museum you yourself can try yourself as a real pastry chef. To attend a master class on painting printed gingerbread, you will have to give 300 rubles if you arrive on a weekday, and 350 on a weekend (Saturday, Sunday, or any holiday). The same price must be paid if you want to learn how to sculpt (and, perhaps, first, find out what it is) Pomeranian roe. But a master class on assembling and painting a gingerbread house will cost more - those who wish to go through it will need to leave 450 or 500 rubles on weekdays and weekends, respectively.
All inclusive
Do not want to deny yourself anything? Then buy a full ticket to the gingerbread museum in Vladimir, which will include an excursion, a tasting, and a master class of your choice. The cost of such pleasure varies from 380 to 550 rubles, depending on what day (weekday or weekend) you will come, as well as from the master class that you prefer.
By the way, families with many children receive a ten percent discount on any museum program. Do not forget to present a document confirming the right to benefit.
