Peppernuts Pfeffernusse Cookies Recipes

PEPPERNUTS (PFEFFERNUSSE COOKIES)

Steps:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. About 3 minutes.
• Add the eggs, anise extract, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, white pepper, and clove or cardamom into the bowl and mix until everything is incorporated.
• Add the flour into the dough and mix just until it is incorporated. You do not want to mix for a long time, just until the flour is incorporated in.
• Press the dough out to about 1" thick and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.
• Preheat the oven to 350F (177C). Divide your dough into 16 pieces. Press 1 piece of dough into a ball and roll it out between your hands and a clean work surface to form a thin rope, about 1/4" thick. Use a sharp knife (or I like to use a bench scraper) to cut out tiny nut size pieces of dough. Place on a baking sheet. You can completely fill your sheet in a single layer, but you will need to bake these in several batches to get them all baked. It typically works out to be cutting out the next sheet pan of cookies while the one before it bakes.
• Bake at 350F (177C) for 10-14 minutes, until a dark golden brown. Check the cookies at 10 minutes and bake longer if needed. The cookies will be slightly soft when they first come out of the oven but will become very crispy as the cool. Store the completely cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.

PEPPERNUTS COOKIES RECIPE (PFEFFERNüSSE COOKIES RECIPE)

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl (preferably a Kitchenaid stand mixing bowl), add the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, and cream and mix well.
• Add the eggs, salt, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, anise oil, baking soda and baking powder and mix well.
• Add one cup of flour at a time and mix until the flour is absorbed into the dough. You do not have to over mix it. Note that the dough gets very stiff and can easily burn out hand mixer motors. For this reason, you should use a heavy duty stand mixer. In either case, if your mixer is struggling, then stop using the mixer and mix in the rest of the flour by hand. It can be quite a workout!
• Put the bowl of dough into the refrigerator for 30 minutes and allow the dough to get a little stiffer.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. If you have a double oven, then preheat both ovens.
• Lay out aluminum foil for the baked cookies to cool on.
• Tape wax paper to the top of your table, counter, island, or other kitchen work area.
• Scoop out a lemon-sized amount of dough and roll it into a ball in your hands.
• Place the dough ball onto the wax paper and use your palm and fingers to roll it out into a thin rope of dough 1/4 inch in diameter. The key is to be consistent and make these all the same size so they will cook in the same amount of time. If the dough is sticking to the wax paper, then sprinkle a small amount of flour on the wax paper to prevent this.
• Use a knife to cut the rope into small nut sized pieces of dough and place them on a baking sheet where they are not touching and there is room for them to grow as they bake so that the baked cookies won't be touching each other.
• Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-12 minutes until they are a golden brown color. Check them at eight minutes and bake them longer if needed. Make sure that you do not bake them too long or the underside will burn.
• Allow the cookies to cool on the baking pans for 5 minutes, then transfer them to the aluminum foil. The cookies will be a little soft when they first come out of the oven but will become very crunchy as they cool.
• Repeat rolling the dough, cutting the dough, loading the baking sheets and baking the cookies until all of the dough is used. This is a fun activity to get your whole family involved in for baking these holiday cookies.
• After the cookies have completely cooled, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month. If the cookies are not quite crunchy, you can leave the lid off of the container for a few hours and they will get crunchy.

PEPPERNUTS COOKIES (PFEFFERNUSSE)

Steps:

• 1. Cream sugars and shortening well.
• 2. Mix in anise oil and egg.
• 3. Add coffee solution.
• 4. Add salt and spices to 1 cup of flour and sift.
• 5. Mix into batter.
• 6. Add ground pecans and enough of the remaining flour to make a stiff dough. *I've never had to use more than 6 cups of flour.
• 7. Roll into dime-size rolls, place on tray and chill.
• 8. Cut thin, spread on baking sheet and bake at 325° to 350° for 10 minutes or until hard.

PFEFFERNUSSE COOKIES

Steps:

• Stir together the molasses, honey, shortening, and margarine in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until creamy. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in the eggs.
• Combine the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, anise, cinnamon, baking soda, pepper, and salt in a large bowl. Add the molasses mixture and stir until thoroughly combines. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
• Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Roll the dough into acorn-sized balls. Arrange on baking sheets, spacing at least 1 inch apart.
• Bake in preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes. Move to a rack to cool. Dust cooled cookies with confectioners' sugar.

PFEFFERNUSSE (GERMAN PEPPER NUT COOKIES )

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, pepper, aniseeds, cinnamon, baking soda, allspice, nutmeg and cloves.
• In a large bowl, using an electic mixer set on medium speed, beat together the butter, brown sugar and molasses until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
• Beat in the egg.
• Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture.
• Cover and refrigerate for several hours.
• Position a rack in the middle of an oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
• Butter 2 baking sheets, scoop up pieces of dough and roll between your palms into balls 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
• Place the balls on the cookie sheets spacing them about 2 inches apart.
• Bake until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom and firm to the touch, about 14 minutes.
• Transfer the baking sheets to racks and let the cookies cool slightly on the sheets.
• Place the confectioners' sugar in a sturdy paper bag, drop a few cookies into the bag, close the top securely, and shake gently to coat the warm cookies with the sugar.
• Transfer to racks and let cool completely.
• Repeat with the remaining cookies.
• Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.

GERMAN PEPPERNUTS (PFEFFERNUSSE)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
• Beat sugar with eggs for 15 minutes.
• Sift dry ingredients together, and stir into egg-sugar mixture.
• Mix in butter and honey and knead briefly.
• Roll dough into 1/2-inch-diameter snakes. Cut into 1/2-inch segments with floured paring knife. Arrange 1 inch apart on greased cookie sheet.
• Bake 10-15 minutes.
• Cool and store in airtight container in cool place.