Pfeffernüsse

Filed Under: Food

I went on a Pfeffernüsse baking spree over the holidays. Pfeffernüsse are German spiced cookies made using the same spice mix as Lebkuchen (i.e. Lebkuchengewürz), with a dollop of icing sugar on top.

To me, these dumpy wee guys are inseperable from the winter holidays. I gotta have some, or it just ain’t really the Season. Therefore I was pretty miffed when I couldn’t find any in the shops - even in Lidl!

I was so miffed, in fact, that I decided to try making my own. Here is my own recipe, adapted from another to be dairy- and nut-free, but not completely vegan (sorry!). The ingredients are pretty easy to find in the supermarket, too ¹.

The Lebkuchengewürz

Ingredients:

• 2 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon.
• 2 teaspoons ground cloves.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger.
• 1/2 teaspoon ground star anise.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground mace.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg.

Grind up the spices what need grinding and mix everything together. There: you have your spice mix. Enough for two batches of cookies.

The Dough

Ingredients:

• 110g molasses sugar.
• 110g pure honey.
• 5 tablespoons Trex (vegetable fat).
• 1 tablespoon margarine.
• 280g all-purpose flour.
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda.
• 1/4 teaspoon salt.
• 4 teaspoons Lebkuchengewürz.
• 1/4 teaspoon ground white pepper.
• 1 large egg.

In a small saucepan, gently melt together the molasses, honey, Trex and margarine. Once it’s all one sweet goopy liquid, kill the heat and let it cool for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix together the flour, baking soda, salt, Lebkuchengewürz and white pepper.

Once it’s cooled, add the sweet goop from the saucepan and mix.

Once that’s well mixed, mix in the egg. The dough should be nice and sticky but not too wet. It should want to stick to itself more than it wants to stick to other things.

Wrap your dough up in some plastic, nice and tight so it can’t breathe, and bung it in the fridge overnight.

The Cookies

In the morning, stick the oven on. 180 degrees Celsius (for a fan-assisted oven). Line a baking tray or two.

Take your dough out of the fridge. Roll it into sausages less than an inch wide, then chop up the sausages into segments less than an inch long. (The exact size is up to you really, just bear in mind that an inch-cubed sausage segment will make quite a large pfeffernüsse.)

Roll each segment into a ball and pop it on your baking tray.

Once the oven’s warmed up, stick the baking tray(s) in. Bake for 15 mins, then remove them and let them cool for at least 10 minutes.

The Icing

Ingredients:

• 300g icing sugar.
• Hot water.

To make the icing, mix the icing sugar with hot water: add one tablespoon of hot water at a time until the right consistency is reached. (The ‘right consistency’ is your preference, and something you’ll need to explore).

Dip each cookie in the icing so the top of it is well-covered and place it on a rack (so that runny icing can drip off and through). I use one of the metal racks from my oven, placed above some baking paper for easy cleanup.

After an hour or so, the icing should have hardened. Congratulations! You have made pfeffernüsse. Store them in an airtight container. They should keep for two weeks - I don’t really know, they don’t stick around for very long.