Dutch Pepernoten

kiwidutch's Note:

Taken from a little community cookbook "Cooking on Clogs" that has some great family recipes compiled by Dutch ladies especially for when they pined for typical Dutch recipes and treats that were not available to them shop-bought when they emmigrated to other countries. These should be little tiny balls... about the size of the top joint of your little finger.. and when cooled you mix them with sweets (candy) that is hard and very sugary and THIS mix is what Sint Nicolas's helpers Zwarte Piet(s) throw at children when they make their "surprise" visit to families with the Big Red Book on the 5th of December. NOTE: If you have access to commercially mixed Speculaas kruiden (spices) then you could use 2 3/4 teaspoons of that instead of the individual spices listed. ZWT REGION: The Netherlands.

• Total Time: 1 hrs
• Prep Time: 30 mins
• Cook Time: 30 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 50 peperno ...

• 50 g butter (1 3/4 oz)
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 tablespoon milk
• 1 cup self raising flour

Speculaas spices

• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon ground aniseed
• ½ teaspoon ground ginger

Directions:

1. Cream the butter and sugar, then add spice mix (or spices).
2. Add the flour and milk and make very very small marble sized balls.
3. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 160 C (320 F) until golden.

Reviews

[Peggy15754]

to Andypandy: the texture should be hard, like little rocks. Dutch translation: peppernuts. This recipe is excellent. Very spicy, so it burns the tongue a little. I think they taste better than the ones we purchased from The Netherlands. I used my coffee grinder to grind anise seed, and it worked well. I also added a teaspoon of chinese five spice powder. Addictive!

[andypandy]

the spices are perfect in this recipe as is. I baked them in tiny balls 12 minutes came out hard bottoms and chewy top, a little longer baked came out hard rocks, so they must be tea dunkers. I wish I knew what the finished texture should be chewy or rock hard. Did give them a five star as easy and simple, and taste is great.

[Aaliyah's&Aaron's mum]

These are absolutely wonderful! DH took half the batch for his class and dept and it was enjoyed by all! The only thing was the mixture was a bit dry for me with just 1 tbsp of milk and so I'd to add a little extra. And I think I shaped the balls a bit too small since I got over 100 cookies but that meant more to share! So the only tedious bit for me was shaping. Thank you, Kiwidutch, for sharing this wonderful recipe, definitely will be making it again!