The decorating process takes seven hours (Anita Kupcis-Clifford)

Anita writes: “After seeing some videos of cookies being decorated I was intrigued. That was seven years ago and since then I have decorated many cookies. My sense of design for my cookies might be attributed to my years of embroidery, specifically Latvian designs.
My piparkukas are different from my mom’s, hers were rolled very thinly and glazed with egg yolk. I recall when my mother would come for visits with a suitcase full of piparkukas, pirags and pounds of butter. I started making both when my mother was no longer able to do it.”

Grandma’s pīrāgi in Rome (Austra Muižniece)

Austra Muižniece tells about baking Oma’s pīŗagi in Rome:
“They turn out quite well, but for me the dough made with Italian tipo 00 flour tastes a bit sweeter. I didn’t have caraway seeds, and pancetta or guanciale are different from our smoked meats. But at least the yeast worked perfectly — the dough rose beautifully, which made me happy. Complete nostalgia, feels like grandma’s food.”

My family pīrāgi recipe – with commentary (Aivars Sinka)

Aivars Sinka: “Quite often my English acquaintances wanted to try baking pīrāgi, so I wrote the recipe in English. I used to bake a lot. It felt important to me that my daughters understood that Latvian food is different from English food. I often put a pīrāgs in their school lunchbox.

I bake my pīrāgi using the same recipe my mother used and, very likely, the one her mother used as well.”

Communal baking in Shanghai (Ilma Wilkinson)

Ilma Wilkinson: “I bake piparkūkas every year — for me, Christmas just isn’t Christmas without “real” Latvian gingerbread. We used to bake together as a family, but when we moved to Shanghai in 2004, we began inviting friends and colleagues to join the tradition — Chinese, Australians, Europeans. In the early years, finding all the necessary spices was more difficult, and some I even had to grind myself.
In 2013, for the first time, the bakers were only Latvians, and the joy of being together was so great that from then on we continued baking gingerbread specifically with the Latvian crowd. We soon added pīrāgi to the tradition as well. Many friends lived in student dorms or apartments without an oven (common in Chinese kitchens), but we were renting a newer apartment and had one available. For those who couldn’t join on the planned baking day, I handed out little portions of piparkūkas dough (which my husband Andrew jokingly called “hashish blocks”) so they could bake at home. By December, our office reception had even gotten used to people dropping by to pick up a lump of dough.
In 2020, we had the largest group ever — because of COVID, many couldn’t travel home for the holidays. That also turned out to be our last Christmas season in Shanghai, as we returned to Australia in October 2021.
To my great joy, I recently received a message from a friend who still lives in China — two years ago, the Latvian Embassy allowed the community to use its kitchen and oven for baking pīrāgi. The new ambassador’s spouse has embraced this as a tradition, and this year, on the first Sunday of Advent, Latvians in Shanghai once again gathered to bake Christmas treats together!”

I remember mountains of piparkūkas! (Māra Goldsmith)

My mother first baked this recipe before 1951. I remember how she and her friend, in the heat of the Australian summer, would spend hours rolling out the dough, cutting it, and baking batch after batch so there would be enough gingerbread for both families to give to colleagues, teachers, and friends. I still recall the enormous mountains of gingerbread that covered almost the entire kitchen counter!

We still bake them every year, though now in smaller quantities—just enough for us to enjoy.
These gingerbread cookies are fragrant, dark brown, and wonderfully crisp.

I wouldn’t offer these to pīrāgi purists! (Maija Hinkle)

The founder of the Latvians Abroad Museum and Research Center museum shares the story of her family’s pīrāgi baking tradition. The Hinkle family includes several vegetarians, so they have had to invent various filling variations that everyone would enjoy. The family’s creative approach to pīrāgi doesn’t stop at the filling – for convenience, they use store-bought bun dough, and a ravioli press is used to shape the pīrāgi!

Pīrāgi as the feeling of home (Līva Ozola)

Līva, a home economics teacher in New Zealand, says that pīrāgi give her a feeling of warmth and home. She has treated her colleagues at school to pīrāgi and has even included making them as an assignment for her students in cooking class…

A Mindful Pīrāgi Making Adventure (Dace Dambergs)

Dace Dambergs has a “”foolproof”” pīrāgi recipe, that she has adapted from Mrs Silmanis’ 1960s recipe for “”Savoury Bacon Rolls””, which she entered in to the iconic Australian women’s magazine “”The Women’s Weekly”” recipe competition, winning a prize. Dace explains: “”The art of making pīrāgi is steeped in Latvian legend and folklore. For centuries grandmothers, mothers and daughters sat around many a table plying their art and chatting about ‘women’s business’. This pīrāgi recipe relies on 21st century ‘mod cons’ making the task somewhat less strenuous and stressful.These include a mixmaster with a dough hook, a microwave, cling wrap, baking paper and an electric blanket. The recipe does however call for a mindful, albeit eastern philosophical approach to the pīrāgi making process.”” The photographs demonstrate step-by-step dough preparation, as prepared by Inga Česlis (Brisbane).

Pīrāgi baking workshop (Brisbane Latvian Community)

PipArkūkas & Pīrāgi DECEMBER 2025 Pīrāgi baking workshop (Brisbane Latvian Community) BrisbANE, Australia The Brisbane Latvian Community reports: “Inhale — can you still smell that fresh batch of pīrāgi straight from the oven? We can, and we’re still smiling! In October 2025 a pīrāgi making workshop was held at the Brisbane Latvian Hall. What a warm, delicious, and joy-filled afternoon it was!The wonderful Dace Dambergs guided us through the entire process — from preparing the dough and savoury filling, to sharing her expert tips on shaping and glazing (plus a few treasured family stories along the way!). Dace was joined in the kitchen by Zile, Jasmine and Inga who added their own flair, tips and stories, and Jasmine demonstrated an alternative shaping technique for that perfect pīrādziņš.Attendees had a hands-on experience on shaping their own pīrāgi, and everyone had lots of fun in the process, especially the tasting (no burnt bottoms there)!” Photo author: Garen Krūmiņš DECEMBER news My family pīrāgi recipe – with commentary (Aivars Sinka) Communal baking in Shanghai (Ilma Wilkinson) I remember mountains of piparkūkas! (Māra Goldsmith) I wouldn’t offer these to pīrāgi purists! (Maija Hinkle) Pīrāgi as the feeling of home (Līva Ozola) A Mindful Pīrāgi Making Adventure (Dace Dambergs) There must be 12 different dishes on the Christmas table! (Inga Čulkstēna) Pīrāgi baking workshop (Brisbane Latvian Community) Even the cat smells like cabbage… (Irene Kreilis) Pīrāgu recipe trials and errors (Amanda Whittaker-Lee) The secret ingredient is faith (Inga Lucāns) Piparkūku camps in Italy (Ilze Atardo) No posts found