spice

Pierniki are another of the broad range of sweet spice cookies / biscuits that start appearing all over Europe as the holiday period approaches. The general flavor of pierniki recalls that of gingerbread, but often there's no ginger in them at all. (Nonetheless, they seem to hold something of the same position in Polish life as decorated gingerbreads do in German tradition: you can see some decorated pierniki at their page in the Polish version of Wikipedia.) After baking, they can be dusted with confectioners' / icing sugar, glazed with a sugar glaze, or coated with chocolate.