Pfeffernusse Cookies Recipe

My only suggestions to make this recipe closer to Pfeffernusse made in Germany, are: Use more pepper, and use white instead of black. One and a half to twice the amount of pepper will give the "nuts" a real peppery zing. Also, don't spare the XXXX sugar coating.

In step 1, it doesn't become "creamy"; expect "liquid". Beat in eggs with beater. In step 2, expect a crumby mixture. In step 4, you will be packing into balls, not rolling, approximately 7/8" diameter sphere, for those who have never seen an acorn. Ungreased cookie sheet. I had to go 20 minutes at 325. This is an excellent array of spices. It will reward you for using fresh stock. I agree with double the pepper, and use mostly white pepper. I recommend a double batch, and prepare yourself with a mug of milk handy when sampling.

The flavor is very good, but I have to say the recipe has to be inaccurate. I followed it precisely, and my dough was crumbly and powdery. I had to add a 1/2 cup of water to get the dough to the right consistency to roll into balls. It turned out well, but I would either reduce the flour by a cup, or plan to add at least a 1/2 cup of water.

Excellent. As good as what my mother used to make. Unfortunately her recipe is long gone. I will be making these again. I added the spices to the warm molasses mixture to allow them to "bloom" thus enhancing their flavors.

These are great. I do not eat gluten or vegetable oils, so I used a gluten free baking blend and grass-fed kerrygold butter in place of both the shortening and the margarine. I just melted the molasses, honey, and butter together because I didn't know what the recipe meant by "creamy", Anyway, I had ground anise seed on hand, but no extract, so I just used 1 Tbs. ground anise instead of the extract, and I used fresh grated ginger instead of ground. I noticed as I began rolling little balls of dough that it was quite dry, so I added a little avocado oil to moisten the dough as my balls were crumbling apart. It may have something to do with the gluten free flour blend absorbing more moisture than regular flour, but I've used it in other cookie recipies with no problems. Instead of dusting the cookies with powdered sugar, I rolled and coated them in it while they were hot out of the oven, then let them cool, then coated a second time as another recipe I saw suggested. The first coating while the cookies are hot kind of melts into the surface of the cookie. They are quite delicious.

What I really like about these is that you can taste each individual spice, but no individual flavour dominates. Rolling out tip - use icing sugar (powdered confectioner's sugar) to coat liberally and roll into a long sausage. Cut into small chunks and roll in hands to make each into a ball, using more icing sugar to stop it sticking. If you are British like me, the conversions I used are - 6oz molasses, 3 oz honey, 4 oz butter (this amount is for both the margerine and the shortening), 17.5 oz plain white flour, 6oz white sugar and 3.5 oz brown sugar. British and American teaspoons are virtually the same. I bought Anise seeds from Fox's Spices in the UK.

This recipe was fantastisch overall. I agree with others that the dough was too dry. I subtracted 1/3 cup flour and still found the dough to be too crumbly so I added 2 tbs melted butter and that seemed to do the trick. I also added the anise extract to the molasses mix directly after the eggs. Here at sea level I kept them in the oven for 19 minutes.

My heritage is Dutch/German. I tried this, but instead of shortening/ margarine mix, I used butter-flavor Crisco shortening. I doubled the recipe, used 4 teaspoons white pepper, and jumbo-sized eggs. 2 quarts of flour in cups is somewhere between 9 2/3 cups and 9 3/4 cups flour. Erred on the lesser side, so not to be crumbly. Covered bowl with tight wrap and let meld for two days before baking. Rolled in confectioners while still slightly warm. Very good!

I made these with King Arthur gluten free flour. The addition of a liquid to the dry ingredients gave me pause, so I ground up two anise seed pods instead of using anise extract. These are warm and spicy and delicious!

I had to substitute ginger for the Cardamom because we have lame grocery stores where I live. They still turned out perfect. These are the same taste as what my German great grandmother made. I made some into cut out shapes for gingerbread boys, then I rolled the dough into "snakes" and cut them about every 1/2" to make tiny teaspoon size balls. One bite each. Instead of powdered sugar, I made a recipe called One Cup Royal Icing and coated them. These are going places where no one wants powdered sugar on them or their surroundings, LOL. Use Meringue powder in place of egg whites in royal icing to make it safe to leave at room temperature. Marbleized some of them by swirling color in the royal icing and dipping. Excellent recipe, but I will have to order Cardamom for next year. (Christmas)

Love this recipe and I make it every year to rave reviews. I use dried ground anise in place of anise extract and white pepper instead of black. I don’t refrigerate the dough. I use a measuring tablespoon to make the dough into perfect round domes which hold their shape during baking. I make a glaze with icing sugar, dried anise and enough milk to make it drippy but not runny and I dip each cookie top. These remind me of my childhood.

This was amazing. I used white pepper and butter instead of margarine and shortening. Baked at 350 for 10 minutes. Intense doesn't describe the flavor of these.

Me and my family use this recipe and it is a tradition that we make Pfeffernusse and we all love it.

We're awesome making more today.

Stellar recipe! After TJs stopped selling them, I decided to make them instead. Only change I made was to use only butter, used a little less flour than what was called for, raised the temp closer to 350 and threw powdered sugar in a bag to coat the cookies. Getting raves from family and friends.

I have been making this recipe for years, it is a Christmas staple in my home. I made mistakes the first time I made them and have kept them because they came out perfect. I used butter rather than margarine and shortening. I didn't melt the butter on the stove top, but creamed all the sweeteners with the eggs and extract. Also accidentally added 1 teaspoon vanilla to a doubled recipe before I realized I did. It worked, so I kept it. I mix a double batch, put half in the fridge to bake the next night, and the other half in the freezer so we can have these with little to no effort in the spring.

It's a no. Dough is very hard and scooping balls was hard, baked 12 min. Outer surface was too hard, inner 'crumb' was ok. Close in taste based on spice mix, but this recipe needs more work. *Btw: Do not put your extract into the flour... put it in your wet ingredients after it's cooled off. My dough was much darker than the pic. I used a dark molasses as the recipe didn't specify. I followed this recipe to a T and I do not recommend. Also found it word-for-word on someones website.

Can’t stop thinking about how good it was.

This tastes like I actually know what I’m doing.

I added ground allspice 1tsp. Loved these cookies and make them for Christmas presents