Our Christmas Traditional Pfeffernusse Food

TRADITIONAL PFEFFERNUESSE

Steps:

• Combine butter, sugar, brown sugar, and molasses in bowl; beat at medium speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until creamy.
• Combine water and coffee granules in another bowl; stir until dissolved. Add coffee mixture and all remaining ingredients except flour; continue beating until well mixed. Add flour; beat at low speed until well mixed. Cover; refrigerate at least 30 minutes until firm.
• Heat oven to 350°F.
• Divide dough into 10 portions (about 1/4 cup dough each). Roll 1 portion at a time into 18x1/2-inch rope on lightly floured surface. Cut each rope into 1/2-inch pieces with sharp knife. Place pieces 1/2 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-9 minutes or until edges are lightly browned and cookies are set.
• Place waxed paper on top of cooling racks. Loosen cookies with spatula; spread onto waxed paper. Roll warm cookies in powdered sugar or sugar, if desired.

PFEFFERNUSSE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• Combine dry ingredients and set aside.
• In a separate bowl, beat butter and sugar together until light. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.
• Stir in dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time. Add almonds, if desired.
• Roll into one inch balls and arrange 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheet. Bake 11 to 14 minutes.
• Cool and store in airtight containers for 3 days to mellow flavors.

TRADITIONAL PFEFFERNEUSSE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a medium bowl, cream together the shortening and brown sugar until smooth. Mix in molasses, anise oil, and egg. Dissolve baking soda in hot water, and stir into the mixture. Combine the flour, salt, cinnamon, ginger and white pepper; blend into the molasses mixture until uniform. Knead for a minute until easy to work with. Shape dough into 1 inch balls, and place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake for 10 to 12 minutes in the preheated oven, until slightly browned on the bottom. Do not over bake, or they will be very hard. Store cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature.

CHRISTMAS PFEFFERNUSSE COOKIES

Steps:

• In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, salt, baking soda, pepper, aniseeds, cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, and cloves, set aside.
• In a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed cream butter, sugar, and molasses until fluffy. Beat in egg. On low speed gradually add flour mixture and beat just until blended. Cover and chill dough for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees and grease baking sheets. Roll dough into 1 1/2 inch sized balls. Place balls two inches apart onto prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes.
• When cookies are cool enough to handle, but still warm roll in powdered sugar. Transfer cookies to cooling racks to cool completley.

OUR CHRISTMAS TRADITIONAL PFEFFERNUSSE

Steps:

• 1. Traditionally these are started the first week of December and stored until Christmas Eve.
• 2. Add all dry ingredients together, except the brown sugar. Add the orange zest, eggs, chopped nuts and brown sugar to the flour mixture. Mix well with your hands.
• 3. Roll into a long roll on a lightly flours surface. Set in icebox for a couple of houses.
• 4. Sit down and have a nice cup of coffee, tea or hot choocolate, you deserve it. Oh, go on have a cookie too, you know you want one.
• 5. Cut dough..form into balls, with lightly floured hands, to the size of walnuts.
• 6. Place Pfeffernusse on a lightly greased coated cookie sheet.
• 7. Cover balls with a flour towel and let stand till room temp.
• 8. Oh, go on have another cup of coffee, tea, Hot Swiss Miss and a sandwich.
• 9. Bake at 350* in a preheated oven for 20 to 25 minutes.
• 10. Place warm cookies in powered sugar to coat.
• 11. Or let them cool on a rack. And then roll them in the frosting..set them on a rack to drip that has waxpaper underneath.
• 12. Store in cookie tins, glass jar, or coffee cans between waxpaper. Put a right lid on and store till Christmas Eve.

PFEFFERNüSSE (GERMAN "PEPPER-NUT" CHRISTMAS COOKIES)

Steps:

• Combine white and brown sugars in a saucepan with honey, water, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and cayenne pepper. Place over medium heat and whisk until the sugars dissolve and it just starts to simmer, 1 to 2 minutes. Immediately remove from the heat and let cool for 4 to 5 minutes.
• Add salt, baking soda, heavy cream, and egg and whisk until thoroughly combined. Add flour and stir together with a wooden spoon until everything comes together as a dough.
• Transfer dough to a piece of plastic wrap. Press into a ball and wrap tightly. Place in the refrigerator and let rest for 1 to 2 days.
• When ready to bake, preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Remove dough from the refrigerator and scoop into rounded teaspoons. Roll each one into a smooth ball if desired, and place on a prepared baking sheet.
• Bake in the center of the preheated oven until cookies are perfectly dome-shaped with light golden brown bottoms, 9 to 10 minutes; don't overbake. Let cool on the pan all the way down to room temperature, 20 to 30 minutes.
• While the cookies are cooling, repeat Steps 5 and 6 to shape and bake the remaining cookies.
• Make icing by placing powdered sugar in a bowl. Stir in lemon juice, a few teaspoons at a time, until icing is very thick, but still slightly runny.
• Dip the top of each cooled cookie into the icing. Let it drip, then flip it over and place on a wire rack set over a piece of parchment paper and let harden.

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.