One of the most fundamental traditions of the Norwegian Yule Tide celebration (the festive season still has the traditional name “Jul” rather than the christian “Christmas”) is the baking of pepperkaker or pepper cakes, arguably the best Christmas cookies around. So much so in fact that there is even a beloved children’s song based on the cookie recipe! This last weekend, Angela and I baked an insane pile of these delicious holiday treats and we figured it would be nice to share some holiday cheer with the world by offering up our fantastic recipe. I will not take credit for this particular recipe – I have no clue where I got it from – but it is exquisite in taste and fairly easy to make.

Pepperkaker or pepper cakes or cookies or crisps or snaps or whatever you want to call them are somewhat like a spicy and crispy version of ginger bread. They are very tasty and have a nice smell of Christmas.

Pepperkaker (Norwegian Christmas Cookies)

NB: This recipe is very large and is enough for a huge pile of cookies as well as a couple of houses so I suggest you reduce it to half the first time you try it.

Ingredients:

• 500 g (17.6 oz) butter
• 3 dl (1.26 cups) fancy molasses
• 6 dl (2.5 cups) white sugar
• 3 dl (1.26 cups) whipping cream
• 20 dl (8.45 cups) white / all purpose flour (you’ll probably need a lot more – see below)
• 1 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 1/2 tsp ginger powder
• 5 tsp cinnamon
• 3 tsp baking powder (not baking soda)

Making the dough:

Mix butter, molasses and sugar in a heated pan until sugar is melted. Be careful because the mixture will be very hot and if you get it on your skin it will burn like nothing you have ever felt before! When everything is melted, mix in the whipping cream. The different ingredients do not mix well and will constantly separate. That’s normal.

While the mixture is still hot, take about 5 dl of the flour and mix in all the spices and the baking powder. This will ensure that the spices are evenly distributed throughout the dough. Mix in the flour bit by bit to ensure that the dough gets an even consistency. As you add in more flour it will get really tough so if you have one of those kitchen machines with a kneading arm I suggest you use it instead of wearing yourself out like I did.

The dough is finished when it has a light brown colour and a slightly sticky consistency. Sprinkle some flour on top of the dough, cover it with a towel and put it in the fridge for a day or so.

Making the cookies:

When the dough is well rested, cut out a fist sized piece and place it on a sheet of unwaxed parchment paper or another non-stick surface like a Silpat. When you roll it out the dough will be too sticky to lift off the surface and place on a cooking sheet so I just roll it right onto the sheet and cut the cookies there. Roll the dough out till it is about 1 – 2 millimeters thick and cut out shapes with standard cookie cutters. Pepperkaker are actually better the thinner they are so try to avoid making them as thick as regular ginger bread. They also don’t rise in the oven which helps.

Place the tray in the middle of your oven and cook for 10 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the cookies come out of the oven they will still be a bit soft so take them off the tray and let them rest on a cooling rack for a while minutes before putting them away or eating them.

A note on flour

Over the years I have realized that flour is different depending on what continent you are on. In Norway this recipe works fine with 20 dl of white flour, but when I made the dough this year I used close to 30 dl of all purpose flour to get the same consistency. Unfortunately this means you have to experiment. I think you’ll be safe with about 25 dl but that might also be way off.

That’s it! Good luck and don’t eat too many cookies all at once!