**Pepparkakor** - a traditional Swedish Christmas cookie, a must-have for the holiday season in Sweden and parts of Finland. These crispy, gingerbread-like cookies are known for their distinctive flavor and intricate designs, often featuring stars, hearts, and other holiday motifs. Pepparkakor are commonly enjoyed with a cup of glögg, a traditional Swedish mulled wine, during the festive season. This article provides you with three unique Pepparkakor recipes to choose from, each with its own distinct taste and texture, to satisfy your cravings and add a touch of Swedish tradition to your holiday celebrations.
Let's cook with our recipes!
PEPPARKAKOR (SWEDISH GINGER COOKIES)
Provided by The Redhead Baker
Time 55m
Number Of Ingredients 13
Steps:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour and baking soda. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan set over medium heat, combine the butter, both sugars, molasses, ginger, cinnamon, orange extract, salt, cloves, and pepper. As the butter melts, whisk until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to simmer. Remove from heat. Cool until just warm to the touch, about 30 minutes.
- Whisk the egg into the cooled mixture until smooth. Pour over the dry ingredients and fold with a rubber spatula until no dry flour remains. Refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 2 days.
- Heat the oven to 350 F with racks in the upper- and lower-middle positions. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. Working with a tablespoonful of dough at a time, use dampened hands to roll into balls. Arrange 12 dough balls on each baking sheet, spacing evenly.
- Lay a sheet of plastic wrap over the balls on each sheet and use the bottom of a dry measuring cup to flatten each to about ¼ inch thick. Remove the plastic and bake until richly browned, 14 to 16 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through to ensure even baking. Cool on the sheet for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
SWEDISH PEPPARKAKOR COOKIES
This traditional Swedish Pepparkakor Recipe makes deliciously crisp spice cookies with ginger, cinnamon, cardamom and clove. They're a Scandinavian Christmas tradition and they're absolutely fabulous!
Provided by Sue Moran
Categories Dessert
Number Of Ingredients 15
Steps:
- Add the sugar, honey, and milk to a small saucepan. When measuring a "scant" cup of the honey and the milk, you want to it to be just under 1/2 cup, but not closer to 1/3 cup. If you can measure in milliliters, its exactly 100 milliliters.
- Bring to a boil then turn off the heat and let cool slightly.
- Add the butter and the spices to a mixing bowl, and pour the warm syrup mixture over them. Mix until the butter is melted and everything is combined.
- Sift the baking soda, salt, and flour together, and then add to the butter and the syrup mixture. Mix until everything is evenly incorporated.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk, and chill in the fridge overnight or up to 48 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350F. Roll out dough to about 3/8" thick and cut out using cookie cutters.
- Arrange cookies on a baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes, until slightly puffed and golden.
- Allow to cool completely before icing.
- Mix the powdered sugar with just enough water to make a smooth but thick glaze. Divide the icing into smaller batches if you want to make different colors. You can also flavor the icing with a little vanilla extract or almond extract if you'd like. For pipping lines and small designs, keep your icing pretty thick so that it won't spread, there should be a little resistance when mixing it with a whisk. For covering the entire cookie like the green and blue reindeer, add a bit more water to the icing so that it goes on smoothly and is easier to cover the whole cookie before it starts to dry and crack. Try some icing on a test cookie if you're not sure about the texture!
- For the light blue color I used, add 2-3 drops of food coloring to 1 cup or so of glaze.
- For the darker green/blue color, add a couple drops of green and blue, and a tiny touch of red to tone the color down a bit.
- Place the icing in ziplock bags or a piping bag fitted with a very small tip. Cut a tiny corner off of the ziplock bags if using. Decorate, and allow to harden completely before moving or stacking.
PEPPARKAKOR I
A traditional Swedish Christmas recipe, they are crispy, brown, and delicious plain or decorated. Different from your everyday gingersnap!
Provided by Kathy Seaberg
Categories World Cuisine Recipes European Scandinavian
Yield 60
Number Of Ingredients 9
Steps:
- Place butter in a large, heatproof bowl. In a medium saucepan, heat brown sugar, molasses and spices just to boiling point. Add baking soda and stir in. Pour this mixture over the butter and stir until it melts.
- Beat egg and mix in; add flour, a cup at a time, and blend thoroughly. Turn out onto a lightly floured board and knead 1-2 minutes. Wrap in waxed paper and chill until firm (about an hour).
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (170 degrees C).
- Roll out to approximately 1/8 inch thickness on a lightly floured board and cut into desired shapes. Place on greased baking sheets and bake for 8 - 10 minutes.
- Remove from sheets and cool on racks; may be decorated with piped icing or whatever else you like!
Nutrition Facts : Calories 65.9 calories, Carbohydrate 10.8 g, Cholesterol 8.5 mg, Fat 2.2 g, Fiber 0.2 g, Protein 0.9 g, SaturatedFat 1.3 g, Sodium 62 mg, Sugar 4.4 g
PEPPARKAKOR (SWEDISH GINGER COOKIES)
Categories Cookies Ginger Dessert Bake Christmas Winter Christmas Eve Party Kidney Friendly Vegetarian Pescatarian Peanut Free Tree Nut Free Soy Free Kosher
Yield Makes about 9 dozen cookies
Number Of Ingredients 14
Steps:
- In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt.
- In a small saucepan over moderate heat, warm the corn syrup and orange zest. Add the butter and sugar and continue warming, stirring occasionally, until melted. Remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature. Add the egg and whisk to combine. Pour over the flour mixture and stir to combine. Form the dough into a ball, wrap in a double layer of plastic wrap, and chill overnight.
- Arrange racks in the upper and lower thirds of oven and preheat to 375°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with nonstick baking mats, such as Silpats, or parchment paper.
- Using a lightly floured rolling pin, roll out a portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut the dough into desired shapes, such as circles, stars, hearts, bells, gingerbread men, and Christmas trees. Transfer to the prepared baking sheets and sprinkle with the pearl sugar. Bake, switching the cookies between the upper and lower racks and rotating the baking sheets about halfway through baking, until the edges are just beginning to brown, 7 to 8 minutes. Watch the cookies carefully to make sure they don't get too brown.
- Let the cookies cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to let cool completely. Continue rolling and cutting out the rest of the cookie dough and baking the cookies on cooled baking sheets. DO AHEAD: Pepparkakor can be baked ahead and kept, stored between sheets of wax paper in an airtight container, for up to 2 weeks, or frozen up to 1 month.
GINGERBREAD DOUGH / PEPPARKAKOR
Steps:
- In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter, brown sugar, molasses, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and baking soda together until the mixture is smooth. Blend in the flour and cream to make a stiff dough. Chill at least 30 minutes or until firm.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 to 1/16-inch thickness and cut into desired shapes using cookie cutters. (The thinner you roll the dough, the crispier the cookies will be). Place about 2 inches apart on the baking sheet. Bake cookies for 8 to 10 minutes until lightly browned. Slide cookies and parchment off the baking sheet onto the countertop to cool. Dip cooled cookies into melted white chocolate to decorate, or decorate with Royal Icing.
- Mix all of the ingredients together using an electric hand mixer, until the icing is smooth and thin enough to be pressed through a pastry bag with a writing tip. Add more lemon juice, if necessary.
- Gingerbread House/Box: Cut paper patterns for the gingerbread house: Five rectangles, 3 by 5 inches, to make the floor, walls and roof of the house, and two pieces for the ends of the house, 3 inches wide at the base, 3 inches to the roof line, and slanted to a peak 5 1/2 inches from the bottom. Roll gingerbread dough out to edges on a large, rimless cookie sheet. Place paper patterns onto the rolled out dough. With a sharp, straight edged knife, cut around each of the pieces, but leave pieces in place.
- Bake at 375 degrees F for about 15 minutes until dough feels firm.
- Place patterns on top of the gingerbread again and trim shapes, cutting edges with a straight-edged sharp knife. Leave to cool on baking sheet.
- Place royal icing into pastry bag with a writing tip and press out to decorate individual parts of house, piping on decorations, windows, door, etc., as desired. Let dry until hardened.
- Glue sides of house to base and at corners using royal icing. Place an object against the pieces to prop up until icing is dry (it only takes a few minutes).
- Glue two pieces together to make the roof of the house, but do not attach roof to the house. (Fill house with cookies, then place roof on top).
- Yield: One recipe of dough makes one house
TRADITIONAL PEPPARKAKOR (SWEDISH SPICE COOKIES)
Traditional Swedish spice cookie; traditionally served on St. Lucia Day (Dec. 13). These are my sisters favorite cookie.:) (Note: you need to mix up the dough a day in advance, cover and let rest overnight). Cardamom & finely chopped candied ginger would make nice additions to these Pepparkakor. The molasses is an essential ingredient in this recipe, you get crispy yet chewy cookies with a lovely rich subtle depth of flavor. Don't skip!
Provided by BecR2400
Categories Dessert
Time 55m
Yield 3 1/2 dozen cookies, 42 serving(s)
Number Of Ingredients 10
Steps:
- Sift together dry ingredients; set aside.
- Cream sugar and butter.
- Add egg and molasses.
- Blend in dry ingredients thoroughly. Let dough stand overnight for easy rolling.
- On a well-floured board, roll out dough to 1/8 inch thickness.
- Cut into shapes (we usually make gingerbread people) and bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes.
- NOTE: Prep time does not include time to let dough rest overnight.
Tips:
- Use dark molasses for a richer flavor.
- Chill the dough for at least 30 minutes before rolling it out. This will make it easier to work with and less likely to stick to the rolling pin.
- Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Any thinner and the cookies will be too fragile. Any thicker and they will be too dense.
- Use cookie cutters to cut out the dough into your desired shapes. If the dough is too sticky, dip the cookie cutters in flour before using them.
- Bake the cookies at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges are just starting to brown.
- Let the cookies cool on a wire rack before decorating them.
Conclusion:
Pepparkakor are a delicious and festive cookie that is perfect for the holiday season. With a few simple ingredients and a little bit of time, you can easily make these cookies at home. So next time you're looking for a sweet treat to enjoy, give pepparkakor a try!
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