Pfeffernusse cookies
Pfeffernusse is one of the traditional German Christmas cookies. If you are looking for a new Christmas cookie recipe or you are going to bake Christmas cookies for the first time, this is perfect recipe to start with. Dough is easy to handle and there is nothing what can go wrong.
If you have tried store bought pfeffernusse before and you didn’t like them, you should definitely try our home-made recipe. We promise you, that you will change your mind. Home-made pfeffernusse are soft and they melt in your mouth. They are just perfect with Glühwein or a tea and they will fill your home with the Christmas atmosphere.
My (Zuzana´s) two girls - Charlotte and Lily are also great help in the kitchen. Sometimes I call them my little elves (even though they are not little anymore). They are always happy to help with making cookies, rolling pasta or help whenever I need them.
Pfeffernüsse in Germany/ Pepernoten in the Netherlands are eaten in celebration of the arrival of St. Nicholas and are enjoyed throughout the entire Christmas season.
In many European countries, the tradition is that St. Nicholas visits the kids at the beginning of December. Traditionally shoes are left in front of the door and if you’re good they’ll be filled with sweets. If you’re bad, you’ll get shoes full of coal or wooden sticks.
Ingredients
Dry ingredients
270g all purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons gingerbread spices (2 Tb Ground Ginger,2 Tb Ground Cinnamon, 1 Tb Ground Cloves
1/2 tsp Ground Nutmeg)
¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
30g almond flour
Wet ingredients
110g brown sugar
115g honey
75g unsalted butter
3 tablespoons milk
1 large egg – room temperature
Ingredients for glaze
260g powdered sugar
4 tablespoons hot water
Directions
1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, gingerbread spices, white pepper and almond meal. Set aside.
2. Combine the brown sugar, honey, butter, and milk in a medium saucepan and heat, stirring frequently, until melted and the sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and let sit 5 minutes.
3. Stir in the flour mixture.
4. Stir in the egg until thoroughly combined.
5. Put the dough into plastic foil and put it into the fridge for one or two days. At this point the dough will be super sticky. No worries, once you take it our of the fridge, it will be easy to handle and you will not need any extra flour to roll the cookies.
Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
6. Remove the dough from the plastic foil and immediately roll it into two ropes. Each rope should be 2 cm thick. Cut the dough into 2cm thick pieces.
7. Roll each piece into a ball…at this point, help of two elves will useful.
8. Place the cookie balls on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes. Let cool.
To make a glaze
9. Combine the powdered sugar and water until smooth.
10. Dip each cookie in the glaze – only a top part of the cookie. No need to dip a whole cookie in the glaze.
11. Place them on a wire rack and let them sit until the glaze is fully hardened. Glaze will harden within few hours so be patient before putting them off.
Store cookies in airtight container. You can keep pfeffernusse for at least 2 weeks and the flavour only gets better over time.
Gift idea - maybe you can also fill shoes of your loved ones with homemade Pfeffernusse this year 😊
