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Pebernødder (peppernuts)

A traditional Danish (and German) Christmas cookie that dates back at least to the renaissance. This is not the old recipe though but the modern one we tend to bake for Christmas in my family. This is a large portion, but you can make a smaller portion if you really want to.
Course Cookies, Desert
Cuisine Christmas, Danish, Historical cooking, Holiday Food, Renaissance
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 8 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 23 minutes
Servings 1 kilo cookies

Ingredients

  • 375 grams butter
  • 375 grams sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 850 grams plain wheat flour
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoons cardamom
  • 1,5 teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda bicarbonate
  • 3 pinches of white pepper

Instructions

  1. Knead sugar and butter together.
  2. Add the eggs.
  3. Mix the flour with the spices and baking soda. Add in the flour little by little till the dough combines into a thick slightly sticky dough. Normally uses all of the flour.
  4. Set the dough aside in the fridge until it is cold and firm – that should take at least an hour.
  5. Once the dough is firm and cold take it out of the fridge and preheat the oven to 200 C.
  6. Then you divide it into smaller pieces and roll the dough into a sausage that is about 1 cm in diameter and cut 1 cm pieces of dough.
  7. Roll each piece into a small ball and place on a baking tray covered with baking paper. This is quite a large portion so you will fill quite a few trays with peppernuts.
  8. Bake each tray at 200 degrees Celsius for 6 to 8 minutes - or until they are golden around the edges.