Sweet and Spicy Crunchy Peppernuts (Pfeffernusse)

Submitted by mimi5fun

"cunchy fun cookies Kids love them. Take quite a bit of time to make though."

 

• Ready In: 37mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 20

ingredients

• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 4 tablespoons softened butter
• 1 3⁄4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1⁄4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1⁄4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1⁄2 teaspoon ground pepper
• 1 egg

directions

1. In a mixer mix all ingredients until blended.
2. Add water a few drops at a time until mixture forms a ball.
3. Knead the dough ball for a few minutes.
4. Roll out a walnut sized ball of dough into a long rope of dough (little finger width) Cut pieces of the rope and put on baking sheet.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 6-8 minutes.
6. Let cookies cool on sheets.
7. Makes dozens of cookies, peanut sized, nice and crunchy.

Reviews

[cook_by_demand]

Great recipe! My family is German, and there are definitely the secret recipes that get handed down, but this one should be added to the list! I didn't have gloves on hand, so I added a pinch more pepper. Also, I cut the brown sugar down to 1/2 cup and added 1 tbsp honey and 1 1/2 tbsp syrup. They are crunchy and awesome! Thanks so much for posting this recipe! After I'd rolled out the logs, I put them on a cookie sheet and popped them in the freezer for about 45 minutes so they were easier to cut. I found the baking time to be quite accurate for my oven, only if I turned it down to 350, but that's just because my oven in wack. Thanks again!

 

[i_peters]

Just like the nooten we remember as kids in Holland! The taste is fantastic. I did have to bake them quite a bit longer than 6-8 minutes to get them hard and crunchy. Thanks for the recipe!

 

[Debbwl]

Pfeffernusse and Pevermoedder (the Danish version of Pfeffernusse) have been a holiday favorite of mine for many years and this version turned to be very tasty. I did fallow other reviews suggestion and cut the brown sugar down to 1/2 cup and used 1 TBSP of honey and 1 1/2 TBSP corn syrup, also rolled into logs and froze for 45 minutes before rolling into balls and baking. Note to self-next time make the size you would for Pevermoedder as walnut size was a little too large. Thanks for the post.

 

[Kate S.]

Great taste. We make several types of peppernuts each year. The flavor of this one is good, but we found that the dough was very hard to work with. As we rolled it into snakes, they would look great from the outside, but then disintegrate from the middle. The kids gave up and it became mom's job. I think cook_by_demand's idea of adding some honey or corn syrup might fix the problem. Next time I'll try that or else a second egg (we are also high altitude here, so extra liquid is needed).