Holiday Peppernuts Recipes

GROSSMUTTER'S PEPPERNUTS

Steps:

• Beat eggs and sugar at medium speed for 15 minutes. Reduce speed; gradually add flour and anise. Beat until well combined. On a lightly floured surface, shape dough into 1/2-in.-thick ropes. Refrigerate, covered, for 1 hour., Preheat oven to 350°. Cut ropes into 1/2-in. pieces; place on greased baking sheets. Bake until set, 6-8 minutes. Cool completely on baking sheets on wire racks. Cookies will harden upon standing. Store in airtight containers.

PEPPERNUTS COOKIES RECIPE (PFEFFERNüSSE COOKIES RECIPE)

Steps:

• In a large mixing bowl (preferably a Kitchenaid stand mixing bowl), add the butter, brown sugar, white sugar, molasses, and cream and mix well.
• Add the eggs, salt, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, anise oil, baking soda and baking powder and mix well.
• Add one cup of flour at a time and mix until the flour is absorbed into the dough. You do not have to over mix it. Note that the dough gets very stiff and can easily burn out hand mixer motors. For this reason, you should use a heavy duty stand mixer. In either case, if your mixer is struggling, then stop using the mixer and mix in the rest of the flour by hand. It can be quite a workout!
• Put the bowl of dough into the refrigerator for 30 minutes and allow the dough to get a little stiffer.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. If you have a double oven, then preheat both ovens.
• Lay out aluminum foil for the baked cookies to cool on.
• Tape wax paper to the top of your table, counter, island, or other kitchen work area.
• Scoop out a lemon-sized amount of dough and roll it into a ball in your hands.
• Place the dough ball onto the wax paper and use your palm and fingers to roll it out into a thin rope of dough 1/4 inch in diameter. The key is to be consistent and make these all the same size so they will cook in the same amount of time. If the dough is sticking to the wax paper, then sprinkle a small amount of flour on the wax paper to prevent this.
• Use a knife to cut the rope into small nut sized pieces of dough and place them on a baking sheet where they are not touching and there is room for them to grow as they bake so that the baked cookies won't be touching each other.
• Bake at 375 degrees F for 8-12 minutes until they are a golden brown color. Check them at eight minutes and bake them longer if needed. Make sure that you do not bake them too long or the underside will burn.
• Allow the cookies to cool on the baking pans for 5 minutes, then transfer them to the aluminum foil. The cookies will be a little soft when they first come out of the oven but will become very crunchy as they cool.
• Repeat rolling the dough, cutting the dough, loading the baking sheets and baking the cookies until all of the dough is used. This is a fun activity to get your whole family involved in for baking these holiday cookies.
• After the cookies have completely cooled, store them in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month. If the cookies are not quite crunchy, you can leave the lid off of the container for a few hours and they will get crunchy.

PEPPERNUTS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In the large bowl, cream the butter with the sugar using an electric mixer. Add the egg and ground nuts. In another bowl, mix the flour with the baking powder, soda, cardamom, cinnamon, cloves, allspice and nutmeg. Blend the dry ingredients into the creamed mixture until a stiff dough forms. Shape the dough into a ball. (At this point, you can wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate it to develop the flavor, for up to a week). Cut off a portion of the dough at a time and roll between your hands and a lightly floured work surface to make slim, ropes about 1/2-inch thick. Place 4 or 5 ropes on an ungreased cookie sheet. Cut ropes into 1/2-inch pieces using a sharp, small knife. Separate the pieces. Bake for 8 minutes or until the cookies are lightly browned and dry. Remove from the oven; cool on the baking sheet.

PEPPERNUTS (PFEFFERNUSSE COOKIES)

Steps:

• In the bowl of a stand mixer fit with a paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy. About 3 minutes.
• Add the eggs, anise extract, salt, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, white pepper, and clove or cardamom into the bowl and mix until everything is incorporated.
• Add the flour into the dough and mix just until it is incorporated. You do not want to mix for a long time, just until the flour is incorporated in.
• Press the dough out to about 1" thick and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes and up to 3 days.
• Preheat the oven to 350F (177C). Divide your dough into 16 pieces. Press 1 piece of dough into a ball and roll it out between your hands and a clean work surface to form a thin rope, about 1/4" thick. Use a sharp knife (or I like to use a bench scraper) to cut out tiny nut size pieces of dough. Place on a baking sheet. You can completely fill your sheet in a single layer, but you will need to bake these in several batches to get them all baked. It typically works out to be cutting out the next sheet pan of cookies while the one before it bakes.
• Bake at 350F (177C) for 10-14 minutes, until a dark golden brown. Check the cookies at 10 minutes and bake longer if needed. The cookies will be slightly soft when they first come out of the oven but will become very crispy as the cool. Store the completely cooled cookies in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 month.