Moms Fabulous Pfeffernuesse Recipes

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.

Steps:

• 1. In medium saucepan, mix glaze ingredients and boil together for 3-5 minutes to dissolve sugar. Remove from heat and set aside to cool.
• 2. Grind fruit and nuts individually in either an old fasioned hand grinder, or food processor, until pieces are larger than rice, but smaller than small peas. Should be fairly evenly sized. Place in Very large bowl as they are ground.
• 3. In the very Large bowl, mix ground fruit, sugar and ground nuts, peels, water and eggs together well.
• 4. Sift all dry ingredients together in a large bowl.
• 5. Mix wet and dry ingredients together well, adding a little more water or flour to adjust the texture if too dry or wet. (Needs to be able to be rolled into balls.) Usually you only need to add a little water if the humidity is low and flour is dry.
• 6. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
• 7. Using a small cookie scoop or tablespoon, measure out and form the dough into small walnut sized balls. Place on greased Baking sheet. (These do not spread, so you can put them close together, about 1/2 inch between cookies) Bake for 10-15 minutes until very light golden brown and set to the touch. They will feel soft, but set. Move to a cooling rack and let cool to room temp.
• 8. Dip cooled cookies into sugar glaze and let dry for 5-10 minutes,
• 9. Toss in powdered sugar to coat. Store in an airtight container for 2-4 weeks with a whole apple to soften. Check periodically to make sure the apple is not molding. If so, replace. It will shrivel as the moisture is drawn out into the cookies.
• 10. Best way to determine if they are softened is to eat one occasionally. LOL Will last almost indefinitely.
• 11. Forgot to note that these will lose their powdered sugar coating as they ripen and soften, so recoat with powdered sugar just before serving. :)

Steps:

• Mix flour and baking soda and set aside.
• Bring butter, dark molasses, sugar, and spices in a pot to a boil and remove from heat.
• Add flour at once and stir in quickly.
• Let dough cool down. Then wrap into cling film and put into the fridge. Leave it there overnight.
• On the next day: The dough should be very firm. Halve it with a knife. Set one half aside for the moment. Divide the halved dough into 8 pieces. Each of the 8 pieces divide into 3 little pieces (they should have almost the size of nuts).
• First knead the little pieces of dough, so that they get a little waxier. Then roll them between your hands to form a little ball. Place them on a plate and put in the fridge. Do the same with the second half of the dough.
• Let the dough balls rest in the fridge for one hour.
• Meanwhile preheat oven (360 F, 180 C). Line out two baking trays with baking paper. Take the dough balls out of the fridge and put them on the baking tray.
• Put baking tray into the lower third of the oven and bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Cookies will flatten a bit and should be golden. They are still soft.
• Put them on a cooling rack and let the them cool completely.
• While the first batch is baking do the same as described above with the second half of dough.
• Mix powdered sugar with as little lime juice as possible to form a glaze. The glaze should be pasty, so use as much lime juice you need to get this consistency. Decorate the Pfeffernüsse with the glaze. I use an icing bag with a very small opening to decorate the Pfeffernüsse with the pasty glaze.
• Store the Pfeffernüsse between layers of parchment paper in an airtight container. You can store them in a dry and not too warm place for about 4 weeks.
• NOTE: I use anise seeds and ground them freshly. The anise flavour will be more intense.
• Cooking time does not include time for cooling (overnight and additional 1 hour). Passive work (baking) time is for 1 baking tray.

Steps:

• 1. In a small saucepan combine molasses and butter. Cook and stir over low heat until butter melts; remove from heat. Pour into a large bowl and cool at room temperature.
• 2. In a medium bowl stir together flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, baking soda, cardamom, allspice, and pepper; set flour mixture aside.
• 3. Stir egg into cool molasses mixture. Gradually stir in flour mixture until combined, kneading in the last of the flour mixture by hand.
• 4. Divide dough into 12 portions. On a lightly floured surface, roll each portion into a rope about 10 inches long. Cut ropes into 1/2 inch pieces. Place pieces 1/2 inch apart in an ungreased shallow baking pan. Bake in a 350 F oven for about 10 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned. Transfer cookies to a wire rack and let cool.

Steps:

• Cream butter, add sugar, cream well.
• Blend in honey (molasses) and 1/2 of water.
• Dissolve soda in remaining water.
• Add with sifted dry ingredients, anise and nuts to creamed mixture.
• Mix well.
• Chill.
• On greased cookie sheets, 10- 12 min, 375F.
• My mother used to make long rolls of dough, 3/4 in.
• thick, and slice'em off.
• Ava has some kind of sausage stuffer- works on same principle.
• I use a melon-baller, which does take some time.
• My batch is usually 26 dozen or so, if I remember right.
• Good luck and enjoy.
• Love, Mom.