Pfeffernuesse are a traditional German Christmas cookie with a unique flavor that combines sweet and spicy notes. With their crisp exterior and soft, chewy interior, these cookies are sure to be a hit at your next holiday gathering. The glaze adds an extra touch of sweetness and shine, making them even more irresistible. If you're looking for a delicious and festive treat to enjoy during the holiday season, look no further than glazed pfeffernuesse.
Here are our top 8 tried and tested recipes!
GERMAN SPICE COOKIES (PFEFFERNUSSE)
German for "pepper nut," pfeffernusse cookies are named for the pinch of pepper added to the dough before baking. It joins a quartet of warm spices -- cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves.
Provided by Martha Stewart
Categories Food & Cooking Dessert & Treats Recipes Cookie Recipes
Yield Makes about 60
Number Of Ingredients 18
Steps:
- Cookies: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line three baking sheets with parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, combine flour, baking soda, and spices. Set aside.
- In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter, brown sugar, and molasses on medium speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in egg and vanilla. With mixer on low speed, add flour mixture; beat until just combined. Pinch off a heaping teaspoon of dough, roll into a ball, and place on a prepared baking sheet. Repeat process with remaining dough, spacing balls 1 1/2 inches apart. (Dough can be frozen at this point, covered tightly with plastic wrap, up to 1 month.)
- Bake, rotating sheets halfway through, until cookies are golden and firm to the touch with slight cracking, about 15 minutes. Transfer sheets to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Glaze: Fit a rimmed baking sheet with a wire rack. In a medium bowl, whisk together confectioners' sugar, milk, and kirsch, if desired. Using a fork, dip each cookie in glaze to coat. Tap to remove excess glaze and place on wire rack to dry. Repeat with remaining cookies.
- To decorate: While the glaze is still wet, top cookies with a small pinch of peppercorns, if desired. Alternatively, let glaze dry completely before mixing together luster dust and kirsch with a small paintbrush. Lightly brush tops of cookies with luster dust mixture, if desired. Let dry before serving. Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 weeks.
PFEFFERNUSSE COOKIES
I have searched far and wide for a recipe that mimics my favorite, store-bought version of these cookies. I think, after days of thrown-out cookies, I have come as close as I can get.
Provided by Thebeansma
Categories World Cuisine Recipes European German
Time 3h
Yield 18
Number Of Ingredients 18
Steps:
- Stir together the molasses, honey, shortening, and margarine in a saucepan over medium heat; cook and stir until creamy. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Stir in the eggs.
- Combine the flour, white sugar, brown sugar, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, anise, cinnamon, baking soda, pepper, and salt in a large bowl. Add the molasses mixture and stir until thoroughly combines. Refrigerate at least 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Roll the dough into acorn-sized balls. Arrange on baking sheets, spacing at least 1 inch apart.
- Bake in preheated oven 10 to 15 minutes. Move to a rack to cool. Dust cooled cookies with confectioners' sugar.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 284 calories, Carbohydrate 53.9 g, Cholesterol 20.7 mg, Fat 6.3 g, Fiber 1.1 g, Protein 3.7 g, SaturatedFat 1.4 g, Sodium 212.8 mg, Sugar 30.2 g
PFEFFERNüSSE (GERMAN SPICE COOKIES)
Pfeffernüsse - or German Spice Cookies - are a classic holiday cookie. These delicious cookies are made with a number of fragrant spices like cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and ground pepper. Glazed with a simple icing, these bite-sized cookies make a great addition to any holiday cookie plate.
Provided by Recipes From Europe
Categories Desserts
Time 40m
Number Of Ingredients 14
Steps:
- Melt the butter and the honey on low heat in a small pot on the stove. Stir constantly and remove the pot from the stove as soon as the honey and butter are melted. Set aside.
- In a large bowl, mix the egg and the sugar with the normal beater attachment of your electric mixer until they have a creamy consistency. Add the butter-honey mixture and mix again until everything is combined.
- In a separate bowl, combine flour, ground almonds, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg, pepper, clove spice, and a pinch of salt. Use a spoon to stir everything around.
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the large bowl with the wet ingredients while using your electric mixer on the lowest setting. The mixture will be slightly crumbly at first. Set your mixer aside and use your hands to form a ball of dough - make sure everything is well combined.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and line your baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Use a small teaspoon to separate a bit of the dough and use the palm of your hands to form a small ball. The ball should have a diameter of just under 1-inch since it will get slightly bigger in the oven. Form balls of roughly the same size with all of the dough and place them on the parchment paper with some space in between.
- Bake the Pfeffernüsse in the oven for approximately 15 minutes. Ours were done at exactly 15 minutes, but since every oven is different your baking time might be slightly shorter or longer.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and transfer them to a cooling rack to fully cool.
- Once the Pfeffernüsse have cooled sufficiently, prepare the glaze by whisking powdered sugar and lemon juice or water together. You can either dip the top of the cookies into the glaze or brush the glaze onto the top of the cookies. Let the glaze harden. You can also leave some of the cookies without a glaze.
Nutrition Facts : ServingSize 1 g, Calories 47 kcal, Carbohydrate 7 g, Protein 1 g, Fat 2 g, SaturatedFat 1 g, Cholesterol 6 mg, Sodium 26 mg, Sugar 4 g, UnsaturatedFat 1 g
PFEFFERNüSSE
Softly crunchy on the outside and fudgy on the inside, this pfeffernüsse calls for a thick cardamom-flavored glaze that hardens into a candylike shell.
Categories Christmas baking dessert vegetarian winter
Time 1h15m
Yield 3 dozen
Number Of Ingredients 25
Steps:
- In a large bowl using a whisk, beat butter, sugar, and molasses just until smooth. Add grated ginger, orange zest, rum, and egg and beat until combined.
- In a medium bowl, whisk flours, baking soda, salt, and spices until combined. Gradually fold dry ingredients into wet ingredients, until dough just comes together.
- Preheat oven to 350° and line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper. Using a tablespoon and dampened hands, portion dough into 1 ½" balls and place 2" apart on prepared sheets.
- Bake until puffed and set, 12 to 14 minutes.
- Meanwhile, make glaze: In a medium bowl, whisk powdered sugar, cardamom, and cream until smooth, adding more cream to loosen, if necessary.
- Let cookies cool for 10 minutes then dip the tops of each cookie in the glaze. Let glaze harden before eating.
GLAZED PFEFFERNUESSE
Our version of the classic German cookie is nice to have on hand throughout the holiday season. They stay fresh-and become more intense in flavor-when stored in an airtight container for weeks. -Taste of Home Test Kitchen
Provided by Taste of Home
Categories Desserts
Time 1h25m
Yield about 10 dozen.
Number Of Ingredients 21
Steps:
- In a large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the molasses, water and extract. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt and spices; gradually add to creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in nuts. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. , Roll dough into 1-in. balls. Place 2 in. apart on greased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 10-12 minutes or until golden brown. , Meanwhile, in a shallow bowl, combine the confectioners' sugar, milk and vanilla. Place additional confectioners' sugar in another shallow bowl. Remove cookies to wire racks; cool 5 minutes. Dip tops of warm cookies in glaze and allow excess to drip off; dip in confectioners' sugar. Cool completely on wire racks. Store in an airtight container.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 74 calories, Fat 3g fat (1g saturated fat), Cholesterol 5mg cholesterol, Sodium 32mg sodium, Carbohydrate 10g carbohydrate (5g sugars, Fiber 0 fiber), Protein 1g protein.
PFEFFERNUESSE IV
A traditional German holiday cookie.
Provided by Denise
Categories World Cuisine Recipes European German
Time 5h
Yield 60
Number Of Ingredients 12
Steps:
- In a large bowl, stir together the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and allspice. In a medium saucepan over medium heat, combine molasses and butter. Heat, stirring occasionally, until the butter is melted. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. When the mixture has cooled, beat in the eggs. Blend the molasses mixture into the dry ingredients until evenly mixed. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 to 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and place them 2 inches apart onto the cookie sheets.
- Bake for 12 to 14 minutes in the preheated oven, or until firm. While cookies are still warm, toss them in a bag with confectioners' sugar and toss to coat. When cool, toss with sugar again.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 76.9 calories, Carbohydrate 14.2 g, Cholesterol 10.3 mg, Fat 1.8 g, Fiber 0.3 g, Protein 1.1 g, SaturatedFat 1.1 g, Sodium 41.3 mg, Sugar 6.9 g
PFEFFERNUESSE (PEPPERY GINGERBREAD)
These little spicy gingerbreads bring out the wonderful flavours of pepper, ginger, and anise. Soft inside and crunchy outside with a touch of lemon glaze. Pfeffernüsse contain much freshly ground pepper, but don't reduce the amount, because the pepperiness makes the difference. In the past pepper was one of the most expensive spices and to use much pepper was a sign of wealth. Nowadays pepper is often used in advent and Christmas bakery throughout Europe. Pfeffernüsse are so easy to make, yet so tasty, and are a typical German christmas cookie.
Provided by Thorsten
Categories Dessert
Time 1h15m
Yield 48 cookies
Number Of Ingredients 10
Steps:
- Mix flour and baking soda and set aside.
- Bring butter, dark molasses, sugar, and spices in a pot to a boil and remove from heat.
- Add flour at once and stir in quickly.
- Let dough cool down. Then wrap into cling film and put into the fridge. Leave it there overnight.
- On the next day: The dough should be very firm. Halve it with a knife. Set one half aside for the moment. Divide the halved dough into 8 pieces. Each of the 8 pieces divide into 3 little pieces (they should have almost the size of nuts).
- First knead the little pieces of dough, so that they get a little waxier. Then roll them between your hands to form a little ball. Place them on a plate and put in the fridge. Do the same with the second half of the dough.
- Let the dough balls rest in the fridge for one hour.
- Meanwhile preheat oven (360 F, 180 C). Line out two baking trays with baking paper. Take the dough balls out of the fridge and put them on the baking tray.
- Put baking tray into the lower third of the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cookies will flatten a bit and should be golden. They are still soft.
- Put them on a cooling rack and let the them cool completely.
- While the first batch is baking do the same as described above with the second half of dough.
- Mix powdered sugar with as little lime juice as possible to form a glaze. The glaze should be pasty, so use as much lime juice you need to get this consistency. Decorate the Pfeffernüsse with the glaze. I use an icing bag with a very small opening to decorate the Pfeffernüsse with the pasty glaze.
- Store the Pfeffernüsse between layers of parchment paper in an airtight container. You can store them in a dry and not too warm place for about 4 weeks.
- NOTE: I use anise seeds and ground them freshly. The anise flavour will be more intense.
- Cooking time does not include time for cooling (overnight and additional 1 hour). Passive work (baking) time is for 1 baking tray.
GERMAN PFEFFERNUSSE WITH FROSTING (PEPPER NUTS)
Make and share this German Pfeffernusse With Frosting (Pepper Nuts) recipe from Food.com.
Provided by Olha7397
Categories Dessert
Time 35m
Yield 100 cookies
Number Of Ingredients 17
Steps:
- FOR THE COOKIES: Heat honey (do not boil) in a 4 quart sauce pan. Add shortening and cool. Beat in egg.
- Sift dry ingredients together; gradually stir into the honey mixture. Knead dough slightly in bowl or on a board. Let dough stand 30 to 40 minutes.
- Shape dough into 1 inch balls and place on lightly greased baking sheets. Bake in a preheated 350°F oven for 13 to 15 minutes. Yield: 96 to 108 cookies.
- FOR THE FROSTING: Combine egg whites, honey and spices in a 1 quart bowl. Gradually beat in icing sugar, using a beater or mixer.
- Place 12 to 14 Pfeffernusse in a bowl with 2 tablespoons of frosting. Stir gently to coat all sides. Place on a wire rack for frosting to harden. Store in a tightly closed container.
- Wheatland Bounty.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 49.6, Fat 0.6, SaturatedFat 0.2, Cholesterol 2.1, Sodium 41.6, Carbohydrate 10.6, Fiber 0.2, Sugar 6.7, Protein 0.7
Tips:
- Use fresh, high-quality ingredients. This will make a big difference in the flavor of your pfeffernüsse.
- Chill the dough before baking. This will help the cookies hold their shape and prevent them from spreading too much.
- Bake the cookies until they are just set. Overbaking will make them dry and crumbly.
- Let the cookies cool completely before glazing them. This will help the glaze set properly.
- Store the cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks.
Conclusion:
Pfeffernüsse are a delicious and festive holiday cookie that is easy to make. With a few simple tips, you can make perfect pfeffernüsse that your family and friends will love. So get baking!
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