What are Danish Pebernødder? Well, as the festive season approaches, the Danish tradition of baking pebernødder fills homes with the warm, spiced aroma of ginger, cinnamon, and cloves… and of course, a little pepper! These tiny little biscuits, perfectly sized for scoffing by the handful, have been enjoyed for generations in Denmark, often paired with a warm glass of gløgg on chilly winter days. You can buy them at pretty much any corner shop or supermarket in Denmark during Christmas, but the home-made ones are far superior; Danes often use an ingredient called hart’s horn salt as a leavening agent (yes, it did really used to be made from powdered antler!) but baking powder works just as well.
These dinky little biscuits are an essential part of the Danish Christmas game “Mus” (mouse), as popular with very sensible grown-up ladies as with tiny children! Pick one person to be the player and make them close their eyes; now, while their eyes are shut, line 10 biscuits up in a row and pick one of them to be the mouse. The player must then choose a biscuit one at a time and guess if it is indeed the mouse… if it is, then hooray for them and play passes to someone else, while if not, they have to eat it and guess again. I promise you we don’t change which biscuit it is half way through, EVER! 😀
Ingredients (makes about 110)
275g plain flour
125g sugar
125g butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 tsp baking powder
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp white pepper
½ tsp ground cardamom (I find that freshly ground cardamom pods are far more fragrant, and usually just bash up 4 or 5 with a mortar and pestle, removing the papery husks and then grinding the seeds with a pinch of sugar to help them break up).
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and line two baking sheets with greaseproof paper (you may need one more sheet, depending on how big your sheets are!).
- Place the butter and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and beat until soft and fluffy using the dough hook.
- Add the flour, eggs, spices and baking powder and mix until the ingredients come together to form a smooth dough. (If you are making these in winter your dough might be nice and stiff; if you find it too sticky pop it in the fridge for half an hour to firm up).
- Form the dough into a ball and then divide into four equal pieces with a knife.
- Taking one quarter of the mixture, roll it out into a long sausage about the width of your finger (depending on how wide it is it should give you a sausage of about 50-55cms long).
- Using a sharp knife, slice the sausages into little pieces the width of your finger.
- Roll each piece into a tiny ball and place on the baking sheet, giving it the lightest press with the tip of your finger as you go (this stops them rolling about!).
- Bake in the centre of the oven for 8 to 12 minutes depending on how fierce your cooker is. They should be pale golden brown on top and slightly darker underneath; it won’t hurt them if you keep opening the door to check!
- These dear little cookies will theoretically last for months in a tin, but in our experience you’ve got about three hours before they have all disappeared! The recipe scales up beautifully; why not set up a production line and make a double (or even triple) batch and pack them into pretty jars as a lovely edible home-made gift idea?).
