The Stokes Family Blog: Pfeffernüsse (aka Pepper Nuts)

A German tradition in my family is to make pfeffernüsse during the Holidays (note: link doesn't bring you to our family's recipe, that's a secret!). This was a feat usually tackled by my Grandparents as a team. My Grandma made the dough and my Grandpa helped roll and cut the dime-sized cookies. Since they have both now passed on, my Sister, my Mom and myself have taken on some of the traditional recipes, I chose to do the pfeffernüsse and homemade whole wheat 'coffee can' bread. I haven't yet attempted the bread but I will soon (wish me luck).

The pfeffernüsse process took me from Sunday through Tuesday. The dough has more flour in it than all the other ingredients combined, and took over an hour to incorporate to make, as the recipe says, "as stiff as possible" (it resembled the consistency of concrete). Then the dough is hand rolled into long, skinny logs and left to chill for a couple days. The painstaking part is really the cutting of the tiny, hard cookies and then baking them. By the end I was seeing little round pfeffernüsse when I closed my eyes...it was time for a little help so Chris joined in to help cut and bake the last of the cookies!

I'm happy to say the pfeffernüsse turned out just as I remembered them. I brought them to our Family Christmas this past Saturday and received high marks for their resemblance to my Grandparent's batches.

Most of you know I don't partake in many sweets, but on Saturday I enjoyed some pfeffernüsse. As I dunked the little cookies into my coffee I smiled as I reminisced about the times I shared that ritual with my Grandpa.

He wouldn't taste the dough but he'll stick a whole spoon full of flour in his mouth!