Recipe for peppernuts – danish christmas cookie
If there is something we should be really proud of here at home, it is our contribution to the sweet kitchen. Here in Denmark, we are just good at making cakes, and we are even famous for our many cream cakes and various types of Danish pastries. The German soldiers were absolutely crazy about our cream cakes during the war, and Danish pastries are known all the way over on the other side of the Atlantic.
We are also good at making cookies and biscuits. Just think of Napoleon’s hats, raspberry slices, klejner, pepper nuts… Klejner is one of the oldest Danish Christmas cookies, and the pepper nuts actually date back to the Middle Ages! They are one of the first cookies that were baked here at home. Back in the Middle Ages, however, pepper nuts were made from rye bread dough mixed with honey and various spices. Because spices were an expensive and refined thing, pepper nuts were only for the festive Christmas season.
And that tradition has stuck! For me, the Christmas season is definitely synonymous with baking time and cozy time with the family. Many families have their very own recipe for pepper nuts, and this particular recipe is the family’s favorite. We usually bake them a couple of times even before we reach the Christmas days – and yes, we could just bake a double batch, but the truth is that freshly baked is just best! 😉
Peppernuts – Danish Christmas Cookie
Ingredients
- 250 gram Butter room temperature
- 250 gram Sugar
- 100 gram Whipping Cream
- 4.8 gram Baking Soda
- 2 gram Cardamom
- 4.6 gram White pepper
- 2.6 gram Cinnamon
- 1.8 gram Ground ginger
- 500 gram Wheat Flour
Instructions
- Put butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and beat the butter and sugar well together.
- Then the cream should be whipped in at a low speed so that there is no cream all over the kitchen.
- Mix the other dry ingredients together in a bowl before folding them into the dough.
- Knead the dough with your hands until a firm dough is formed.
- Roll the dough into logs the thickness of a pinky and cut into 1-centimeter pieces.
- Place the pepper nuts on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Use a damp finger to smooth the tops.
- Bake the pepper nuts in a preheated oven at 200 degrees Celsius (390 degrees Fahrenheit) for 7 to 10 minutes. Baking time may vary from oven to oven, so check the pepper nuts after 5 minutes.
- Let the baked pepper nuts cool on a wire rack before placing them in cookie tins. However, it is important to taste the pepper nuts while they are still warm! This is one of our fixed traditions and cannot be skipped.