Hi,

Your recipe is kind of light on the spices. I found alternative recipe online, which I have baked for the past 5 years and it's the exact flavor from my childhood. It's also quite an arduous recipe. (for me anyways) http://allrecipes.com/recipe/155182/pfeffernusse-cookies/

I substitute in equal amounts of white and black pepper, fwiw, totaling 1 tsp. Don't put the anise extract in the dry ingredients, put it into the warmed butter/molasses mix. That's a pretty obvious error, it would not blend.

It's true they never go bad. And they aren't everyone's taste, for sure. But my total favorite x-mas cookie.

Casey

Anise ... yuck. I'd rather eat worms. And cardamom reminds me of menthol shaving cream. :P

I found a recipe similar to the one you posted, on YouTube. I found it interesting that they cooked the molasses and corn syrup and added the flour while it was hot, as in choux paste. It seemed to make a shiny, almost glazed-looking cooky.

I've been making this recipe for 30 years, so it's possible that I've adjusted the spices to suit my taste--the original recipe has long disappeared. (Although I don't think it had anise or cadamom, or I would have passed on trying it.) OT, but I'm one who doesn't care for cilantro/coriander as well--I don't know if the same gene combination is involved in detesting all the above nasty spices.

One of my favorite cookies as well as the Chex mix! Enjoy the fruits of your labor.

Yummmmm, cardemom. I went to an event yesterday where one of the dishes served was cardemom bread with gjetost (goat cheese) slices on top. One of my all time favorites. I had four.

I'm quite intrigued by the pfeffernusse. I doubt I'll have time to add that to my holiday baking but I think I'm going to give it a try when I can. When I saw the photo for the AllRecipes recipe, I'm sure it's the same cookie that an old family friend baked when I was a kid. I haven't had it in decades. I remember that I loved the deep, heavy spiciness of it but that I always kinda let it melt in my mouth with a mouthful of milk to cut the flavor just a tad.

You have a darling kitchen elf, MG!

mama g, how many cookies does that make 3,000 or more? lol! I bet they don't last that long with your kids and gkids tho!

Lol, steph, I've never counted, but 4 batches fills 3 one-gallon jars m/l. No, they don't last long because the whole family looks forward to them--my sister almost did a happy dance when she found out I was making them yesterday.

Funkycamper, I once had a friend whose specialty was tandoori chicken she'd learned to make from her Pakistani in-laws, using cardamom (and other spices) and yoghurt, another thing on my unenjoyable list. It was OK, but I really wish I liked all those things. As for anise, I've never been able to stomach the taste or smell of licorice, even the mild red licorice whips. Thank you, that elf is a keeper!

I was curious so I weighed a gallon jar of cookies. It holds about 2.5 pounds. I am not curious enough to count them, though. ;)

MG - thank you for posting this. I'm particularly excited to try these because my paternal heritage is German immigrants from ND, but my sweet German grandmother didn't pass along any food traditions :-(

benjesbride, you're most welcome. My mother's grandfather was the first generation born here, after his mother immigrated from Germany--the story was that his mother was a stowaway on a ship, probably in the early 1880s. His wife later died in childbirth, and the children (including my grandmother) were fostered with a family friend until old enough to join him in the family business, running a sawmill. I don't know of any traditions (other than hard work) that were passed on, so I was happy to find this recipe, too.

I've read that the dough was often mixed and kept to age in crocks in the cellar, then baked as needed.

I do a more traditional recipe like Sombreuil posted. SO's family is not fond of them, and mine LOVES them. I'll give your more mild recipe a try this year (yes, I'm behind, too!), since his family outnumbers mine these days.