I mentioned in my last blog post that my niece Monica and I were making Pfeffernuesse or Peppernuts. There's a bit of history to these tiny spiced cookies. I remember being told that Mennonite grandmothers used to keep a few peppernuts in their purses during church services. When the children would become a bit noisy or restless, they would pop one of these hard nuggets into their mouths and the necessity of sucking the hard cookie and the surprising spiciness would distract the child and silence was achieved.
They are always number one on the list of Christmas favourites at our house and they can become a bit addictive.
There are many recipes for Peffernuesse but this is my favourite. My friend Delores made them and I adjusted the spices to my liking.
It's a big recipe and I usually only make half of it. This year because Monica is staying with us and she was eager to help I decided to mix up the whole amount. When a bowl of Pfeffernuesse are on the table they disappear by the handful and a pretty Christmas tin filled with Pfeffernuesse is always a welcome gift.
- Here is the recipe I use - it is easily halved if the whole amount is intimidating:
- 4 cups Roger's Golden syrup (this is different than corn syrup)
- 4 cups sugar
- 2 cups margarine
- 2 cups milk
- Combine the above ingredients in a large saucepan and bring to a boil.
- Let mixture cool completely before continuing.
- 2 beaten eggs
- 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
- 3 tsp. peppermint extract (use the clear extract not the green tinted one)
- Beat eggs in a small bowl and add extracts. Set aside.
- 8 - 9 cups flour
- 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1 teaspoon nutmeg
- 3/4 teaspoon ground star anise (not anise seed)
- 1/4 teaspoon cloves
- 4 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- Place 7 cups flour in a large mixer bowl.
- Add spices and baking powder and stir until completely blended with flour.
- Add syrup mixture to the flour, stirring well until blended.
- Add beaten egg mixture and continue to stir until blended.
- Continue to add flour until dough thickens but remains sticky. You will still be able to stir it with a wooden spoon however it will take a bit of strength. I use around 8 1/2 cups flour but this may vary depending on your flour. Please note that the dough will harden considerably once it has been refrigerated so be careful not to add too much flour.
- Refrigerate dough overnight or for several days.
- Prepare cookie sheets with parchment paper. These cookies will stick to the pan whereas if you use parchment paper, they will just slide right off and you can reuse the paper.
- Take a tablespoon and spoon out a good handful of the dough.
- Sprinkle a little flour on your counter and roll the dough into a long rope about the thickness of your ring finger.
- Using a bench scraper or pizza cutter, cut the rope into 1/2 inch pieces and place on your prepared pans. (I get 99 cookies on each large cookie sheet)
- Bake at 350ยบ for about 15 minutes or until cookies just begin to brown. This is where having a convection oven comes in handy as you can bake 2 or 3 cookie sheets at a time.
- Remove from pan and cool. Store in ice cream pails in a cool place.
- The Pfeffernuesse will keep for a long time - at least 3 or 4 months.
Monica rolled the dough into long ropes and cut the pieces while placed them on the pans. I had to get out my pizza pans to accomodate the volume of cookies.
This whole recipe makes about 1600 Pfeffernuesse but my prediction is that they will be gone before January is over.
The children get to open one present as the adults vote to determine who gets each "white elephant" gift. I got a HUGE lollipop which made me instantly popular with the children. (Aunt A. smashed it the next day to the delight of the kids and distributed the bits and pieces. Sadly (?) most was delegated to the "round file")
