PAGE TWO

BAKERY
JÁN JANÍK, Liptovská Teplička 88, Born: February 6, 1959  

Ján Janík is a former mayor of Liptovská Teplička and for a long time, the owner of Teplička’s bakery where they bake potato sour dough bread in wood burning oven. First they make the dough from flour and water and they let it rise. Then they mix in cooked potatoes and let it rise again. 

When the dough has raised enough, then they weigh each loaf, form it and put it into ošatka 9 straw basket) and let it rise some more. When the wood oven is warm enough, they clean out all the ashes. Each loaf is then brushed with water and it is placed into the oven on a wooden shovel. 

The temperature in the oven is between 320 and 340 degrees Celsius. During the baking process the temperature drops to 200 degrees Celsius. Baking usually takes 40 minutes, the breads are taken out of the oven one by one again with the help of the wooden shovel and each one of them is brushed with water again. The capacity of this wooden oven is 120 loafs of bread. 

The whole production process takes about two hours. Baking bread in wood burning oven is very rear in Slovakia and this is probably the only bakery in Slovakia that bakes bread this way. The bakery was first built and opened in the fifties, but it disappeared and they made a storage out of her. Ten years ago it was rebuild and opened by Ján Janík. The master baker when I did these pictures was Ján Kondula and his helper was Ján Kiovský. In this bakery they also bake bread rolls, brioškas, poppy seed buns and poppy seed rolls.
For illustration their prices are: loaf of bread 18.00Sk, bread roll 1.60Sk, brioška 2.80Sk, poppy seed bun 4.50Sk. Keep in mind that the exchange rate is about 46.00Sk=US$1.00

HONEY COOKIES MAKER
HANKA MEZOVSKÁ, Liptovská Teplička 549, Born: June 14,1964

Hanka Mezovská is producing Medovníčky-Honey cookies. Honey cookies aren’t a tradition in Liptovská Teplička. Mrs. Mezovská started to make honey cookies on her own about ten years ago and now her 17-year-old daughter and even her youngest 6 years old daughter Victoria are making and decorating them. They enjoy helping their mother and are on hand whenever she decides to make them. She makes Honey cookies for family members and for happiness of all and now for five years she makes them as well for the annual parent’s ball in Liptovská Teplička and for different village occasions.

Her advice for potential Honey cookie makers is to try many recipes and chose the one you like the best and also spice it up to your liking.

Hanka’s honey cookies recipe:
½  kilo of pre sifted flour
250 grams of icing sugar
2 whole eggs
2 tablespoons of honey
½ teaspoon of baking soda
½ teaspoon of all spice
½ teaspoon of anise
½ teaspoon of cinnamon
Last three ingredients may be substituted by honey cookies spice mix, available in Slovakia (perníkové korenie).
1 tablespoon of dark rum
65 grams of margarine

Sift flour and sugar and mix together all dry ingredients
In water bath (fill one pot with water and place smaller pot into it so it sits in water on the edge of the other pot on its handles) put margarine, eggs, rum, and honey into the smaller pot and mix together until melted.

Empty the mixture into the dry ingredients and mix together until you have smooth dough. Put the mixture into a dish and cover it with saran wrap and leave in the fridge over night.
Next day, butter and cover with flour baking pan and preheat the oven to medium heat. Roll out the dough to about a quarter inch thickness and cut out with cookie forms making different shapes. Place cookies on the buttered and floured sheet and bake until golden. When you take the cookies out of the oven, brush them with beaten egg while they are still hot. 

After they cool off you can start decorating them to your liking. Mrs. Mezovská decorates her cookies with mixture of pre sifted icing sugar and egg white mixed together with lemon juice. She then puts the mixture into a plastic bag and makes pinhole in one of the corners and stars decorating them. Results you see on the pictures.

MANGER MAKER
PETER MICHALICA, Liptovská Teplička 171, Born: March 26, 1931  

Peter Michalica makes wooden mangers from his childhood. He learned everything from his dad. He makes them all to order for the people in the village and he is very proud to say that tourists purchased his products from France and England. It takes two and half days to make a large wooden manger that is used when the villagers kill a pig, so the pig fits in while it is been cleaned. 

For mangers he uses poplar, linden or fir. He also carves wooden spoons, spatulas, rakes, and scythes and makes them from maple. He can produce two to three rakes a day. He inherited all his tools from his father. He also has one special plane, his favorite, from America. He worked all his life in forests and even now, almost 70 years old and a pensioner, he still works there sometime. He started to work in the forests as 14 years old, after finishing grade 8.
Every year he goes to sell his products to Kežmarok folk crafts Jarmok (fair).

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GO TO LIPTOVSKÁ TEPLIČKA SPRING 2003

GO TO PENSION DOLINKA

GO TO LIPTOVSKÁ TEPLIČKA 1997

GO TO LIPTOVSKÁ TEPLIČKA 1999

Take a VIRTUAL TOUR of
Vladimir Linder's Photo Exhibit
SOUL SEARCHING IN LIPTOVSKÁ TEPLIČKA  
SLOVAK HERITAGE LIVE II

SEE LIPTOVSKÁ TEPLIČKA WINTER 2001