December 17th
2007
What is it that attracts your initial interest in a new recipe? Way before your final verdict on the results, what triggers your culinary hunting skills? I can't quite pin point it down, no rule of thumb, no blanket conclusion. What sometimes does it for me is an unusual pairing of ingredients, or perhaps the author's captivating writing style. Rave reviews can also subserve to achieve the benefit of a doubt and make me head into the kitchen and just do it. But above all that, a nice picture never fails to seduce me!
Spotting Mav's cookie recipe (herself inspired by Camilla), the sloppy piles on my desktop all of sudden became less important... Christmas cookie baking was overdue! Totally overdue. My annual routine has already been messed up, for the first time really - no curd stollen, no chocolate coconut cubes, no blackberry smacks, no vanilla crescents started off this years' baking marathon, instead the Pepparkakor (Swedish Christmas Ginger Cookies) rang in the season.
And what a worthy choice! Not only did I work with molasses dough for the first time, but my kitchen was infused with wonderful fragrant spices - can you get high on cloves and ginger? I bet you can. Like Mav, I substituted the white sugar with brown one (demerara sugar) and for the molasses I used sugar beet molasses for my first batch and date syrup (Silan) for my second. Pepparkakor - definitely a keeper!
In a small pan heat molasses, butter and sugar, stirring every now and then. Let it boil moderately until all sugar crystals have dissolved (I failed to do it with my first batch, therefor little crystals have manifested on the cookies' surface, but these do neither diminish their taste nor the cookies' look). Let cool off for at least half an hour - if you're impatient like I am, luke-warm is cool, pun intended.
In a large bowl sieve the flour together with baking soda, spices and salt. Form a hole in the middle and add the egg as well as the molasses mixture and knead together with your food processor - kneading by hand may be a very sticky experience. Add a little more flour if the dough appears too sticky, you should be able to shape it into a ball. Tightly cover it with cling film and let rest in the fridge until firm, mine took two hours.
Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F). Cut off smaller portions of the dough and roll it out (the thinner the better) on a slightly floured wooden board or nonstick silicone baking mat, then stamp out your desired cookie shapes. Bake on a parchment paper or baking mat lined tray for 8 to 10 minutes or until they just start to get some color on the very edges. Be careful, the thinner they are, the faster they burn! The ones where I used sugar beet syrup overall had a nicer darker color, while the date syrup ones turned out brighter and a little softer in consistency. Keep in an air-tight container for as long as you can resist, they get better day by day.
Pepparkakor
Recipe source, adapted
Prep time: 15min. (plus chilling), baking: 8-10min.
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Ingredients (yield: ~4 trays):
150g molasses (or sugar beet syrup, date syrup)
110g butter
100g brown sugar (e.g. demerara)
375g flour
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
1 large egg
So cute, gonna make them today. I haven't done much Christmas baking this year and there are still some cookie boxes to fill! Thanks for sharing.
Nicky, your timing couldn't have been better - here was I scouring the net for a good recipe for Christmas cookies, and your RSS feed brought it straight to me :)
Thank you!
They sound Delicious will have to give them a try for Christmas day!
Good morning Nicky,
I want to know how many cookies come out from this recipe.
Bye,
Ginger ~♥
EDIT Nicky: I only wrote down this recipe's yield (~4 trays), because I used small cookie cutters as well as large ones and therefor cannot give a reliable amount. But if you use small cookie cutters, you will definitely get more than 100 cookies out of this recipe...
Fully agreed. Difficult for me to read a Cooking book without any picture. Have a nice day!
Those cookies look beautiful! I love Pepparkakors...
Cheers,
Rosa
Und wie das duftet...
Als Finnin kenne ich diese skandinavischen Pfefferkuchen schon seit meiner frühen Kindheit. Für mich ist Weihnachten nicht Weihnachten, falls ich keine Pfefferkuchen und Glögi (skandinavischer Glühwein) bekomme. Die kleinen Sachen machen's halt ;)
Schöne Weihnachten allerseits!
Merry Christmas!
They looks beautiful!
Try substituting the molasses with honey and maple syrup, adds a different note. Beautiful photography!
Great pictures and wonderful recipe!!! Do you think that I could use maple syrup instead of molasses???
I love these cookies...it's the spice that wins me over. Such lovely snowflakes you have created!
My sister bakes a similar recipe and it is one of my favorite cookies each year. She sometimes adds a little black pepper, which I think gives an extra kick! Try it!
We use them for Christmas tree decoration, just make a hole through them before baking, tie a bow and hang them on your tree. Very pretty!
WOW, they look unbeliavable nice! Maybe this photo could also seduce you, Nicky......
http://berlinkitchen.com/berlinkitchen/BerlinKitchen/Entries/2007/10/9_Apfelstrudel_.html
All the best,
Martin
Any volumetric conversions on the first four ingredients for us Imperial types?
Thanks!
EDIT Nicky: The original recipe uses imperial measurements and can either be found in my post above or here.
I think we have the same cookie cutters!!
Thanks so much for this! Your photos are beautiful. I've been looking for a well-tested recipe for these treats. Now I know what I'm baking this weekend!
Gorgeous shapes too . . .
great cookie(s) 'n a nice site (absolutely for CSS) ... [OOT] Sorry, but would you like to share the CSS/Theme from this site ? :-D (just email to me). Danke ...
My father bakes similar cookies every year (danish version: brunkager) which has almond slices and orange peels in it as well. No matter your choice of variation over these lovely spicy cookies the truely fantastic thing is that you can make a huge batch and just keep it in the fridge, thightly wrapped in clingfilm, and bake a tray or two when you need the house to be filled with the fragrance of cinamon, cloves and ginger! Ahh. Yes, you can surely get high on this stuf!
Hi, these are beautiful. I've had an imported version of these and wondered if I could find a similar recipe. Can you tell me - do you use a cookie press? I've only just discovered they exist. They look like they're easier than using a cutter but I'd like to talk to someone who's used one. I can't even find a supplier in Australia so I'd have to order one in (hooray amazon).
Lovely! I like the shape!
Karolina, Another reader (Kyra) suggested using maple syrup instead, I don't see a reason why it shouldn't work just as well.
Martin, Apfelstrudel always can, although I would most certainly skip the raisins ;)
Hi Helen, No, I used regular cookie cutters (worked like a charm) and don't have any experience with a cookie press so far ;(
Ah, too bad I didn't see this before Christmas :(. I guess I'll make next week-end all the good recipes I missed for Christmas. Thanks for a yum idea!
These are my absolute favorite christmas cookies. My mom has a great recipe, which I think is similar to this one. Once she accidentally used cayenne pepper instead of cinnamon! It actually wasn't so bad- they tasted the same, but had a little kick to them.