Gingerbread Biscuits of Torun

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Gingerbread Biscuits of Torun
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KATARZYNA
BOGUMIL
MOTHER
BARTLOMIEJ
Once upon a time, in a beautiful town of Torun,
there lived a famous baker, Bartlomiej, known in
the whole neighborhood for his delicious cakes.
The truth, however, was that it was his
apprentice, young and good-looking Bogumil, who
made the tasty delicacies. Bogumil was in love
with Bartlomiejs beautiful daughter Katarzyna.
Katarzynas parents did not want him as a
son-in-law because he was poor. They preferred an
ugly, old but rich widower, Pankracy.
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After work Bogumil liked walking in the forest
and thinking there about his beloved Katarzyna.
One day he was walking along a narrow path and
suddenly saw a small clump of blue forget-me-nots
next to a pond. He bent over to look at them
closer and saw that there was a big bee in the
water. Its wings were wet and it was about to
drown. Bogumil passed a leaf towards the bee and
helped it out of the water. The sun soon dried
the wings and the bee flew away.
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Suddenly, Bogumil heard some strange noise. He
looked around and saw the queen of the dwarfs who
was sitting on a Snowball tree shrub. She spoke
in human voice, thanking Bogumil for saving the
bee queen. The dwarf queen gave him a recipe for
cakes and gingerbread biscuits as delicious as
noone had ever eaten before. The secret lay in
adding honey to the dough, which the bees
promised to provide.
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Bogumil came back to town and saw a big
commotion. it turned out that the king was
supposed to come to Torun the following day. All
bakers started baking gingerbread biscuits.
Bartlomiej was really angry with his apprentice
that he had been missing for such a long time. He
told him to get down to work immediately.
Bogumil, while kneading the dough, remembered the
forest conversation and not telling Bartlomiej
added some honey. Then he put the dough in
baking tins and baked delicious, brown
gingerbread biscuits.
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At around noon the king arrived in the city,
accompanied with the queen and young princes. He
started tasting the bakeries. At one stall the
princes started jumping and screaming that they
had just found the most delicious cakes. The king
and queen rushed to that stall to try for
themselves. The cookies were truly exceptional
and as you probably have guessed these were
Bartlomiejs delicacies.
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The king was delighted and gave the town of Torun
a special privilege, according to which its
bakers could bake gingerbread cakes and cookies
and sell them in different towns, cities and
villages.
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He also allowed Bogumil to marry Katarzyna.
Bogumil was so happy that he made a lot of
heart-shaped biscuits and called them
Katarzynki, to honour his beloved wife. And
until now, Katarzynki gingerbread cookies are
well-known all over Poland and maybe in other
countries, too.