**Pepparkakor: A Traditional Swedish Christmas Cookie**
Pepparkakor are traditional Swedish Christmas cookies that are enjoyed by people of all ages. These thin, crispy cookies are flavored with a blend of spices, including ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and cardamom, and are often decorated with white icing and nonpareils. Pepparkakor are a popular treat to serve at holiday parties and gatherings, and they also make a great gift. There are recipes for three different types of pepparkakor in this article: the traditional recipe, a gluten-free version, and a vegan version. All of the recipes are easy to follow and can be made with ingredients that are readily available at most grocery stores. Whether you're a seasoned baker or a novice in the kitchen, you're sure to find a pepparkakor recipe in this article that you'll love. So gather your ingredients, preheat your oven, and get ready to bake up a batch of these delicious holiday cookies!
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.
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
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.
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.
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.
PEPPARKAKOR II
This is about as Swedish a cookie as you can find! The dough is rolled thin, and cut into many shapes, the most commonly used is the pig!
Provided by Sue Haynes
Categories Scandinavian Recipes
Yield 36
Number Of Ingredients 11
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Stir in egg, corn syrup, orange juice, and orange zest. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; stir into the creamed mixture until combined.
- Roll dough out to 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies on wire racks.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 126.6 calories, Carbohydrate 18.5 g, Cholesterol 18.5 mg, Fat 5.3 g, Fiber 0.5 g, Protein 1.5 g, SaturatedFat 3.3 g, Sodium 108.6 mg, Sugar 8.7 g
PEPPARKAKOR II
This is about as Swedish a cookie as you can find! The dough is rolled thin, and cut into many shapes, the most commonly used is the pig!
Provided by Sue Haynes
Categories Scandinavian Recipes
Yield 36
Number Of Ingredients 11
Steps:
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar. Stir in egg, corn syrup, orange juice, and orange zest. Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves; stir into the creamed mixture until combined.
- Roll dough out to 1/8 inch thickness, and cut into shapes with cookie cutters. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Cool cookies on wire racks.
Nutrition Facts : Calories 126.6 calories, Carbohydrate 18.5 g, Cholesterol 18.5 mg, Fat 5.3 g, Fiber 0.5 g, Protein 1.5 g, SaturatedFat 3.3 g, Sodium 108.6 mg, Sugar 8.7 g
Tips:
- Use fresh ingredients: The fresher your ingredients, the better your pepparkakor will taste. This is especially true for the butter, eggs, and spices.
- Chill the dough before baking: This will help the cookies to keep their shape and prevent them from spreading too much in the oven.
- Use a light touch when rolling out the dough: Don't overwork the dough, or the cookies will be tough. Just roll it out until it is about 1/8 inch thick.
- Bake the cookies in a preheated oven: This will help them to bake evenly.
- Let the cookies cool completely before frosting them: This will help the frosting to set properly.
Conclusion:
Pepparkakor are a delicious and festive cookie that is perfect for the holidays. They are easy to make and can be decorated in many different ways. Whether you are making them for a special occasion or just for a snack, these cookies are sure to please everyone.
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