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Danish pepper spiced Christmas cookies in a cookie tin.

Pebernødder (Peppernut Cookies)

4.41 from 15 votes
These small, round cookies are deliciously spiced with a great crunch, making them perfect for the winter and Christmastime. Beware, though, they are highly addicting!
Servings 150 cookies
Prep Time 2 hours
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes

Ingredients

  • 350 grams all-purpose flour
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp white pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground ginger
  • 1/2 tsp cloves
  • Pinch of salt
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 113 grams unsalted butter, cold
  • 150 grams brown sugar
  • 100 ml milk or water

Instructions

  • Preheat your oven to 350 F (175 C).
  • Mix together your flour, cinnamon, white pepper, ginger, cloves, salt, and baking powder.
    Mixing together dry ingredients.
  • Cube your cold butter and start to crumble together with the flour (like you would with pie dough). You can also do this in a food processor or using a pastry cutter!
    Mixing butter into the cookie dough.
  • Once your mixture starts to resemble sand, you are ready for the next step.
    Mixing butter into the cookie dough.
  • Add the brown sugar, breaking up the big clumps and incorporating it evenly into the mixture.
    Adding sugar to the cookie dough.
  • Add in the milk/water and start kneading by hand until just combined.
    Mixing ingredients together for cookie dough.
  • Note: it may seem very dry and crumbly to start. If you absolutely need to, you can add a little bit more milk or water for it to come together! By the end it should come together into one cohesive dough.
    Dough after mixing it together.
  • Break off a large piece of the dough (probably about a quarter of the dough) and start to roll into a log, about 1cm or half an inch wide.
    Rolling out a log of dough for cookies.
  • Cut your log into small pieces, about 1-1.5cm in size. It helps to pinch the end of the log between the fingertips of your thumb and index finger and then cut at the end, then keep repeating to help keep the cuts even by using your fingers to measure.
    Cutting up a dough log into small pieces for cookies.
  • Start rolling your pieces into little balls. The key here is to try to keep all of them a consistent size! It can be tricky to do so in the beginning.
    Round pepper cookies.
  • Once your balls are rolled, place them on a parchment lined baking sheet with a bit of space between. They will puff up slightly.
    Rolling out pepper cookies and placing them on a baking sheet.
  • Bake for 10-15 minutes until golden brown around the edges and crunchy! Place on a cooling rack to fully cool down.
    Letting pepper cookies cool on a wire rack.
  • Repeat with the remaining dough until you've used it all! You can bake multiple baking sheets at once if you like, but we find that in the time it takes for one batch to bake, you'll only just have prepared the next baking sheet for the oven anyway.
  • Once cooled down, store in a cookie tin. Enjoy throughout the holiday season!
    Putting pepper cookies in a cookie tin.

Video

Course: Dessert, Snack
Cuisine: Danish
Keyword: cinnamon, december, festive, ginger, holiday, traditions, warm spices, white pepper, winter
Difficulty: Beginner