Pfeffernusse Recipe

By Claudia Anton

Literally translated as ‘pepper nuts’ these are a traditional German Christmas treat, a little like a round gingerbread and laden with spices and chewy biscuit with a good grinding of white pepper. The top of white royal icing gives such a lovely crunch.

These are so much better than the bags of pfeffernusse that make their way to the store each Christmas, not as sweet and packed with flavour.

Bake a batch and your kitchen is bound to smell like Christmas is around the corner.

Kitchen Tools Needed:

• One baking tray
• A cooling rack
• Cole and Mason pepper mill – London mill in red gloss finish is particularly festive

Makes 25 biscuits

Prep and baking – 1.5 hours

Difficulty - easy

Ingredients

• 50ml molasses
• 200g brown sugar
• 50g unsalted butter
• 20ml milk
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 good pinch of salt
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ¼ teaspoon white pepper ground
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground cardamon
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• A good pinch of ground cloves
• ½ teaspoon ground star anise
• 300g plain flour

Royal Icing

• 1 egg white
• 150g pure icing sugar- sifted
• ½ teaspoon lemon juice
• Extra water for thinning

Method:

1. In a small saucepan, heat together the molasses, brown sugar, butter and milk until the butter has melted and the ingredients are well combined
2. Allow the mixture to cool
3. Sift together the spices, salt, baking soda and flour
4. Make a well and add the sugar mixture together with the egg.
5. Mix to form a firm dough and rest wrapped in cling film or a baking paper for 30 minutes.
6. Roll 25g pieces of the dough into balls.
7. Space the balls on a greased oven tray or two, then press very slightly to flatten a little.
8. Bake for 12 minutes at 170 degrees Celsius (fan forced)
9. Cool the biscuits on a wire rack.

For the icing:

1. Using a stand mixer or hand beater, whisk the egg white until soft peaks form.
2. Whisk in the sifted icing sugar a little at time
3. Continue to whisk until white and fluffy then beat in the lemon juice
4. Add enough cold water to create a dippable consistency and dip the top of each cooled biscuit into the icing. Jiggle and hold the biscuits upside down so the any excess icing can drip into the bowl. Allow to dry, right side up, on a rack and store once dry in an airtight container.

Tips:

• These biscuits become softer and more intensely spicy if stored for a week or two.
• If you like, a little vanilla in the royal icing adds another dimension of flavour.
• Freshly ground spices create another level of intense flavour, so if you have a spice grinder or mortar and pestle, I highly recommend grinding your own as needed.