Pracny cookies are one of the traditional Czech Christmas sweets. They smell wonderfully of spices such as crushed cloves, dark cocoa, cinnamon, and freshly grated lemon zest. Let's bake pracny together according to my grannie's old, handwritten recipe!
➜ What are pracny
The main ingredient in these cookies is groundnuts. The spiced nut dough is pressed into small molds of various shapes (rolls, buns, stars) and then baked. Finished pracny cookies are coated in icing sugar and left to rest for at least a few days.
Pracny cookies are otherwise called "medvědí tlapky" – bear paws (after one of the mold shapes, which resembles the paws).
MY TIP: Here you will find more Czech Christmas cookies
➜ Pronunciation
Wondering how to pronounce the Czech word "pracny"? As a native speaker, I've recorded a short audio clip to give you an idea!
➜ Ingredients
To bake pracny cookies, you'll need:
- Unsalted butter; take it out of the fridge about half an hour beforehand to allow it to soften a little
- Walnuts; my grandmother's recipe calls for almonds; you can also use hazelnuts (all three variants are possible). Instead of whole nuts, buying already ground nuts (nut flour) for baking is also an option.
- Powdered sugar
- All-purpose flour
- Egg yolk
- Lemon zest; freshly grated
- Cinnamon; ground
- Cocoa powder; unsweetened, dark Dutch type
- Cloves; spices. You have to crush them; a mortar and pestle will help, you can also use a clean electric coffee grinder, or smash them inserted into a piece of folded baking paper with a mallet. Learn, how to grind cloves and other spices by hand.
- A little butter and plain flour to grease the molds.
✅ You’ll find the exact amount of ingredients below in the recipe card, which you can also print out.
Next, prepare icing sugar to coat the pracny cookies. Mix it with vanilla for extra flavor.
➤ I use homemade vanilla sugar, which I prepare simply by pouring the icing sugar into a larger container and sticking a vanilla bean in it. I screw the container in, tap it, and in three days, I have luxurious vanilla sugar!
➜ Instructions with Photos
Before you start: First, grind the nuts, finely crush the cloves, and grate the zest of a carefully washed/or organic lemon.
STEP 1: Put the nuts, flour, sugar, spices, butter, and egg yolk in a bowl. Work into a smooth dough. Be patient; it may take a moment. I don't use a kitchen mixer; I work with my own hands because I trust them the most.
STEP 3: Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for at least two hours to rest. If you have time, leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight.
STEP 4: Prepare the pracny molds: grease each with a bit of butter and dust with flour.
STEP 5: Take the rested dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the kitchen counter for about ten minutes. Scoop equally sized pieces of dough and press them into the prepared molds.
STEP 6: Transfer the filled molds to a baking tray and bake in a preheated oven at 350 °F (177 °C) for 10 minutes.
STEP 7: Let the baked pracny cookies cool almost completely before unmolding. Grasp the mold by the edge, turn it upside down and gently tap it on the surface of the kitchen counter.
STEP 8: Coat immediately in vanilla-scented icing sugar.
➜ Storage
Pracny cookies are crispy right after baking. Czech home bakers leave them to rest for several days or weeks to soften. If the pracny are to appear on the Christmas table, they are baked about three weeks before Christmas.
Store the pracny cookies in a sturdy, clean paper box with a lid. Line the bottom with foil and place a paper napkin on it. Use the napkins to line the sides of the box, too. Place in the pracny, and as a final step, cover these with a napkin again.
Store in a cool, dry place.
➜ Pracny Molds
Czech grannies had beautiful molds for baking pracny cookies. The molds were in the shape of rolls, stars, fish, figures, and so on. In the Czech Republic, you can buy modern metal molds of similar shapes. However, I have not seen any like them abroad.
I looked on Amazon in the US; my tip is these small metal molds, for example, might be suitable for baking pracny.
➜ Useful Tips
- I always like to grind my nuts fresh for baking. I use this type of hand grinder to grind nuts.
- You need to let the dough rest for the pracny cookies. If you skip this step, you won’t be able to unmould the cookies; however, they will crumble.
- Grease the pracny molds the first time you bake them. If you press another batch of dough into them, just wipe off the residue from the previous baking with a paper towel.
More sweet Christmas recipes:
- Vanilla crescents – vanilkové rohlíčky
- Linzer cookies – linecké cukroví
- Walnut shaped cookies – orechy
- Almond stuffed prunes – coated in chocolate
Or check the category Czech Christmas cookies
Tried this recipe?
Leave a review down in the comments! ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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Pracny Christmas Cookies
Tap or hover to scale
Ingredients
- 1 Stick unsalted butter
- 1 cup walnuts (or blanched almonds, or haselnuts)
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest freshly ground
- 1 teaspoon dark cocoa powder unsweetened
- 3 cloves spice
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon ground
Miscellaneous:
- fat and flour to grease pracny molds
- ½ cup powdered sugar to coate pracny cookies
Instructions
- Before you start: First, grind 1 cup walnuts, finely crush 3 cloves, and grate 1 teaspoon lemon zest of a carefully washed or organic lemon.
- Put the ground nuts, 1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup powdered sugar, 1 teaspoon dark cocoa powder, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, the rest of prepared spices, 1 Stick unsalted butter cut into small pieces, and 1 egg yolk into a bowl. Work the ingredients into a smooth dough. Be patient; this may take a little time. I prefer to do this by hand, as I trust my hands the most and believe they yield the best dough.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and place it in the fridge for at least two hours to rest. If you have time, it is even better to leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight.
- Prepare the Pracny molds: grease each with a bit of butter and dust with flour. Gently tap the greased mold on the table to remove any excess flour.
- Take the rested dough out of the fridge and let it sit on the kitchen counter for about ten minutes. Scoop equally sized pieces of dough and press them into the prepared molds.
- Transfer the filled molds to a baking sheet and bake them in a preheated oven at
350 °F for 10 minutes. - Let the baked pracny cookies cool almost completely before unmolding. Hold the mold by the edge, turn it upside down, and gently tap it on the surface of the kitchen counter.
- Immediately coat the cookies in ½ cup powdered sugar.
Notes
- The basic recipe makes about 30-35 pracny cookies, depending on the mold size.
- Pracny cookies are crispy right after baking. Czech home bakers leave them to rest for several days or even few weeks to soften. If the Pracny are to be served at Christmas, bake them about three weeks in advance.
- You need to let the dough rest for the Pracny. If you skip this step, you won't be able to unmold the cookies properly, and they will crumble.
- Grease the pracny molds the first time you bake them. For subsequent batches, simply wipe off any residue from the previous baking with a paper towel before pressing in the new dough.
Jim says
hi!
might you know whete I can purchase these molds??
thank you!!
Petra Kupská says
Ahoj Jim, I made a research on Amazon and found these: Mini Tartlet Set. I think they could work well for this pracny recipe.
Betty says
try online Czech or polish stores in your area or in a city like NYC or NJ or Penn. they might have them I'm sure. there are more then you think. I was lucky to inherit mine. good luck
kristena says
Moulds can be found on this site sometimes
https://www.slovczechvar.com/?cat=26&scat=88
Lizzie Bevis says
Hello
I would really love to give these cookies a try but as I live in the United Kingdom I am struggling to find any moulds similar to the ones suggested. I've googled mini tartlet tins and searched Amazon UK. Is anyone familiar with any other places I could try please?
Thank you in advance 🙂
Ken says
Hi Petra,
We used the molds from Amazon you recommended. They were a little difficult to unmold. We couldn't tap them on the counter surface because the pastry rose above the top of the mold after it was baked. A solution was to insert a toothpick between the side of the mold and the baked pastry. The cookie came out of the mold just fine. Our oven doesn't have a setting for 340° F. Most American ovens only allow increments of 25° (i.e., 325°, 350°, etc.) so I changed the oven temperature setting from F to C and was able to bake at 170° C. In step 2 of the recipe card instructions don't forget to include the butter with the rest of the ingredients to be added to the mixing bowl. This cookie is delicious! We are really enjoying your website. Thank you!
Petra Kupská says
Hi Ken, first of all, thank you very much for the helpful insight. I'm glad you got the cookies out of the molds successfully. Before baking, it is essential to grease the molds, especially brand-new ones, and, if necessary, to dust them with a little flour. Also, many thanks for informing me about the issue with setting the temperature in a conventional oven. I'd only converted Celsius to Fahrenheit so far, and it hadn't occurred to me that US ovens can only be set in 15-degree increments. After all, even European ovens with digital controls have 5-degree Celsius increments, so eg. 170, 175, 180, and nothing in between. I will think about this valuable experience when I make new recipes! Best wishes, Petra
Anne says
You can find reasonably similar molds on Amazon searching for “sandkaker mold”, at least when searching from the US.
I use my Babi’s recipe for pracny and her molds. The recipe is different from these in that there no eggs, lemon zest, cloves, or powdered sugar coating, and the dough is pressed into the mold to make a thin (few mm, or ⅛ inch) shell. I love seeing the variations in this and other Czech recipes.
Thank you for your hard work!
clement says
Hi there,
just wanted to let you know i'm very grateful for your website.
My grandma recently passed away, had memory loss, and couldn't remember her recipe, very precious inheritage from Czechia.
I had tears finding out your recipes, which i couldn't find on the web for several years.
kind regards
Anicka Cooklikeczechs.com says
Thank you so much for your heartwarming comment, Clement. I am happy to hear you like the recipes.
Best wishes from the Czech Republic.