Description
A humble looking spice cookie that tastes like anything but, one bite of a Pfeffernuss and you’ll wonder why spice cookies never taste as good as this.
Ingredients
Cookie dough
- 1/3 cup butter (75 g)
- 1/3 cup brown sugar (70 g)
- 3 Tablespoons molasses (63 g)
- 3 Tablespoons honey (63 g)
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 and 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom (from about 9 green cardamom pods if you grind it fresh)
- 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 large egg
- 2 cups flour: either all-purpose flour, whole wheat pastry flour, or a 50/50 mix of the two (260 g)–see note
Glaze
- 1 and 1/2 cups powdered sugar (180 g)
- 2 Tablespoons Earl Grey tea or hot water
- 2 teaspoons spiced rum or vanilla extract
Instructions
Make the dough
- Preheat the oven to 350 F (180 C). Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Measure the butter, brown sugar, molasses, honey, spices, baking soda and salt into a small pot. Heat the pot over medium heat, whisking until the butter melts and the spices just begin to simmer. By the time this happens, the sugar should be well-dissolved.
- Take the pot off of the heat and let it cool for about a minute.
- Beat the egg in a small cup and quickly whisk it into the spiced syrup.
- Stir the flour into the syrup, stirring just until the flour disappears.
Bake the Pfeffernusse
- Scoop out small balls of dough onto the prepared sheets.
They won’t puff up too much, but do leave about 1/2″ all around each cookie. You can fit up to 18 on each sheet. - Bake the cookies for 12-15 minutes, rotating the sheet trays halfway through the baking, swapping the sheets from top to bottom (or bottom to top) and rotating the sheets 180 degrees.
- Let the cookies cool completely (about 15 minutes) before glazing them.
They won’t puff up too much, but do leave about 1/2″ all around each cookie. You can fit up to 18 on each sheet.Make the glaze
- Mix the glaze ingredients in a small bowl.
- Dip the tops of each cookie into the glaze and then set the cookies to drip off any excess glaze on a wire rack. If desired, dip each cookie twice in the glaze.
- Allow the cookies to dry completely before storing. Store the cookies in an airtight tin lined in parchment paper. Cookies are best eaten after they have aged for a couple days in the tin. Kept in a tin like this, cookies will keep for weeks at room temperature.
Store the cookies in an airtight tin lined in 
Notes
A note about flour: German 405 flour has a lower protein content than American all-purpose flour. I like to fresh mill 1 cup of soft wheat and mix it with 1 cup of all-purpose flour to get closer to German flour. Alternatively, you can use entirely whole wheat pastry flour, or simply use all-purpose flour. The softer flour will give you a slightly more delicate cookie, but standard all-purpose still makes for an excellent cookie.
For thicker icing: This recipe will give you a sheer glaze. If you prefer a thicker, whiter glaze, cut down the liquid to 1 tablespoon of water and 1 teaspoon of rum or vanilla.
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 15 minutes
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Oven
- Cuisine: German