Norwegian Pepperkaker Gingerbread Biscuits Recipe

Updated December 2024

As a variation to the regular cinnamon-spiced Christmas cookies, I thought I’d make these Norwegian Pepperkaker Gingerbread Biscuits instead. I was recently at a Norwegian cooking class with Signe Johansen and she made these amazing biscuits for us. I remember tasting these light, crispy and spicy biscuits and really wanted to try making it myself.

Pepperkaker biscuits are made by every family during Christmas in Norway and everyone has their own recipe. It used to be made with black pepper and I thought that would be a bit overwhelming but  I used a little bit in the recipe too.  I looked at a few other recipes but not all the recipes seem to use pepper.

I found 2 recipes from Ocado and MyLittleNorway and used a combination of both of them to make my version of the Pepperkaker biscuits.

I used a heart shaped cookie cutter but you can use these snowflake cookie cutter or these star shaped cookie cutter or even the traditional gingerbread men for a more festive cookies.

I made a batch for my Norwegian friend and she thought that they were quite good and not as sweet as most of the shop-bought ones. I’d urge you to give this very easy recipe a try.

This delicious dark and spicy Norwegian Pepperkaker Gingerbread Biscuits will be on your Christmas baking list every year once you’ve made these once.

Easy Norwegian Gingerbread Christmas Cookies

Don’t be daunted by the number of ingredients. The method is really simple. It is a matter of measuring out all the pepperkaker cookie ingredients and melt it all in a pot. As you can see, it involves quite a few warming spices like cloves and ginger. It also has molasses which gives a deep mellow flavour to the cookie. Some people add pepper too but that is optional.

As the sugar melts, the mixture will become increasingly sticky. You want to get the consistency into a sticky ball texture. When cooled, wrap in clingfilm for the next step. This then needs to be chilled for at least 2 hours or better overnight.

After chilling, it’s time to cut out the cookies. Roll out the cookie dough to a thickness of a pound coin or about 3mm. These cookies are meant to be thin and crispy.

Then choose your favourite shape cookie cutter and carefully cut out the shapes that you want. In Norway, they make these cookies as Christmas tree decorations too.

Place all the cut out biscuits onto a parchment-lined baking tray and bake at 160C for 10 mins. This recipe makes quite a lot of cookies, perfect for gifting.

Once you’ve made this once, you will keep coming back to them. The lovely warm, spicy Christmas flavours makes this a very delicious Christmas gingerbread cookie.

Do you have a favourite Christmas cookie recipe?

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Norwegian Pepperkaker Gingerbread Biscuits

Every Christmas, families in Norway make these delicious Christmas Cookies. As the name suggests, they sometimes use pepper in the recipe but it really is just a variation on a gingerbread cookie. It’s quite a simple recipe but quite delicious. 

Prep Time30 minutes mins

Cook Time10 minutes mins

Total Time40 minutes mins

Keyword: cookies,

Ingredients

• 150 g unsalted butter softened
• 150 g caster sugar
• 70 ml treacle
• 50 ml golden syrup
• 75 ml whole milk
• 1 medium egg yolk
• 450 g plain flour
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tsp cardamom ground to a fine powder
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• ¼ tsp finely ground black pepper
• ½ tsp fine sea salt

Instructions

• This takes a bit of planning as the dough should be chilled prior to rolling out.
• I chose the easier method where these ingredients are melted in a pot first.
• Then add in the dry ingredients and stir well
• The mixture should be quite a sticky consistency
• Then wrap up the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge overnight or at least for a couple of hours.
• When you are ready to bake the biscuits, warm up the oven to 160C.
• Roll out the dough onto a baking sheet directly. Roll the dough really thin, about half the thickness of a pound coin. The biscuits should be thin and crispy. Just use your favourite cookie cutter and cut out the shapes on the baking sheet.
• Lift the dough from outside the cookie cutter instead of lifting the cookies itself. As the dough is really thin, this makes it much easier to handle.
• Bake the cookies on the top shelf for about 10 minutes. If it is not crispy enough, leave it in the oven for a couple more minutes. You will need about 3 -4 baking trays depending on the size of your cookie cutters.
• Transfer the first tray to a lower shelf and place the next tray on the higher shelf and repeat previous step.
• Take your gingerbread biscuits out of the oven and cool them on a wire rack.
• You can make a hole in them and hang them on the tree or you can ice them if you like.
• These will keep for about 4 weeks in an airtight container.

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