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.
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.