Pfeffernüsse

Today’s cookie just screams Christmas to me. These delightful powdered sugar coated or glazed spicy gems are fun to bake and perfect for sharing with family and friends. Pfeffernüsse are a Dutch/German/Danish treat typically associated with the St. Nicholas celebration of bringing gifts to children on December 5th/6th. As you can imagine, St. Nicholas or Sinterklaas is partially the basis for Santa Claus and the association of this cookie with Christmas. With a plethora of spices, including black and white pepper, it is believed this cookie also demonstrated the wealth of the household that could bake celebratory desserts with such luxuries. Thankfully, we have easy access to these spices and they are generally quite affordable. That means we can all enjoy this treat, so shall we get baking?

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Pfeffernüsse

Prep time: 3 hours 30 mins

Cook time: 30 mins

Total time: 4 hours

Ingredients

Dough:

½ cup molasses
¼ cup honey
½ cup unsalted butter
2 eggs
2 tsp anise extract
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ cup light brown sugar
4 cups all purpose flour
1½ tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1½ tsp ground cardamom
1 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground white pepper
½ tsp ground black pepper
½ tsp salt

Garnish

2½ cups powdered sugar for either dusting or glazing
4 tbsp hot water for glaze

Instructions

Prepare the dough

In a small saucepan over Medium heat, stir together the molasses, honey, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and butter.
Cook and stir to a gentle simmer.
Remove from heat and allow to cool for 20 minutes.
Whisk in the eggs and anise extract.
In a large bowl, combine the flour, allspice, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, both peppers, and salt.
Add the molasses mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.
Cover with cling film and refrigerate at least 2 hours to overnight.

Baking the cookies

Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
Split the dough in half and roll into ¾ inch ropes.
Cut the ropes into 1 inch pieces and roll the dough into balls.
Arrange on parchment paper or silicone mat lined baking sheets, spacing at least 1 inch apart.
Parchment makes removal of the cookies easier - simply slide them off the pan to the rack to cool and reline the pan as needed.
Bake in preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes.
Move cookies to a rack to cool.

Finish the cookies

Dust cooled cookies with confectioners' sugar twice, once while warm and again after they have completely cooled.
OR
Whisk together powdered sugar and water in a small bowl.
Dip each cookie top in the glaze and allow to dry on a rack.

Notes

This recipe is based on the popular AllRecipes version with a few tweaks.There are a wide variety of recipes for this cookie, so I am trying one that seems quite popular and highly rated. Next year I will try another variation!

Prepare the dough
In a small saucepan over Medium heat, stir together the molasses, honey, granulated sugar, brown sugar, and butter.

Cook and stir to a gentle simmer.

Remove from heat and allow to cool for 20 minutes. Whisk in the eggs and anise extract.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, allspice, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, both peppers, and salt.

Add the molasses mixture and stir until thoroughly combined.

Wrap tightly in cling film and refrigerate at least 2 hours to overnight.

Baking the cookies
Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. Split the dough in half and roll into 3/4 inch ropes.

Cut the ropes into 1 inch pieces and roll the dough into balls. Arrange on parchment paper or silicone mat lined baking sheets, spacing at least 1 inch apart. Parchment makes removal of the cookies easier – simply slide them off the pan to the rack to cool and reline the pan as needed.