Glazed Pfeffernuesse Food

PFEFFERNUSSE COOKIES

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.

PFEFFERNUSSE

Steps:

• In a measuring jug, combine flour and baking soda. Set aside.
• In a saucepan, combine butter, honey, brown sugar, cloves, all-spice, cinnamon, and finely ground white pepper. Bring to a boil, then take off the heat and quickly stir flour into the mixture.
• Let the dough cool to room temperature, then form into a ball and wrap with plastic wrap. Let sit in a cool space for at least overnight.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Divide dough into four parts and roll each into a 1/2-inch thick log. Cut each log into 8 pieces and roll them into a small ball. Place balls on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet.
• Bake in the lover half of the oven for 10-12 minutes. Remove the baking sheet from the oven and immediately transfer cookies to a cooling rack. Let cookies cool to room temperature.
• To make the glaze: In a medium bowl, beat egg white with 1 tablespoon of honey. Gradually sift in 1 cup powdered sugar, mixing until smooth. Dip cookies in the glaze then place on a rack set up over a baking sheet until coating hardens.

PFEFFERNüSSE (GERMAN SPICE COOKIES)

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.

GERMAN SPICE COOKIES (PFEFFERNUSSE)

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.

PFEFFERNUESSE (PEPPERY GINGERBREAD)

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.

GLAZED PFEFFERNUESSE

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.

PFEFFERNüSSE

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.

PFEFFERNUSSE (GERMAN PEPPER NUT COOKIES )

Steps:

• In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, salt, pepper, aniseeds, cinnamon, baking soda, allspice, nutmeg and cloves.
• In a large bowl, using an electic mixer set on medium speed, beat together the butter, brown sugar and molasses until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.
• Beat in the egg.
• Reduce the mixer speed to low and beat in the flour mixture.
• Cover and refrigerate for several hours.
• Position a rack in the middle of an oven and preheat to 350 degrees F.
• Butter 2 baking sheets, scoop up pieces of dough and roll between your palms into balls 1 1/2 inches in diameter.
• Place the balls on the cookie sheets spacing them about 2 inches apart.
• Bake until the cookies are golden brown on the bottom and firm to the touch, about 14 minutes.
• Transfer the baking sheets to racks and let the cookies cool slightly on the sheets.
• Place the confectioners' sugar in a sturdy paper bag, drop a few cookies into the bag, close the top securely, and shake gently to coat the warm cookies with the sugar.
• Transfer to racks and let cool completely.
• Repeat with the remaining cookies.
• Store in an air-tight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.