Festive Spice Cookies (German Pfeffernusse)
The perfect Christmas Spice Cookie is one packed with warming, delicious spices. Inspired by the famous German Pfeffernusse, these cookies are crumbly and coated with icing sugar. They make a great gourmet gift.
Ingredients 16
150 g butter, softened
180 g rapadura sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
360 g plain flour
50 g almond meal
1 tsp baking powder
1⁄2 tsp peppercorns
1⁄2 tsp cloves
2 star anise
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1⁄2 tsp ground cardamom
1⁄4 tsp ground nutmeg
1⁄4 tsp ground mace
icing sugar, to coat
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Method 10
Pre-heat oven to 180°C. Line a large, rimmed cookie sheet or two with baking paper.
Place , , and in the bowl on an electric mixer. Whisk until pale and creamy.
Add , and to the egg mixture.
Prepare the spice mix by grinding , , , , , , and to a fine powder using a mortar and pestle.
Add the spice mix to the in the bowl. Mix well and knead into a dough.
Roll about a tablespoon and half of the cookie dough into a ball and flatten slightly against your palm to form a cookie with a flat base and a rounded top. Repeat with the remaining dough to get approximately 28 cookies.
Place the cookies 2-inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets.
Bake in the preheated oven for 15-17 minutes until golden and cooked through.
Remove from the oven and cool completely on wire racks.
Fill a small shallow bowl with icing sugar. Dip and swirl the rounded top of each cookie in the icing sugar until fully coated. Store in an air-tight glass container for up to a week in a cool corner of your kitchen.
Sneh Roy / Cook Republic's tips
Spices mellow after baking on the first day but continue to develop in flavour over the next few days.
It is best to pack a good amount of spices in your spice cookies to ensure that the beautiful warmth of the spices comes through after baking.
Spice mix can be made ahead and stored in a small lidded glass jar in your pantry for up to 2 months. It can be easily scaled up.
The cookies come out nice and strong in flavour which deepens as the days go by. If you would like less spice, try adding 2 or 2.5 tablespoons of the mix.
To make these Pfeffernusse cookies more authentic, you can dip them in the glaze instead of powdered icing sugar. To make the glaze, combine a cup of icing sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of hot water in a bowl until smooth. Dip each cookie, rounded side down in the glaze and place on wire racks to drain and harden.
