h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I think they are called (but probably not spelt) pfefferneuse. They are little half balls of ginger cookies dusted with sugar. Yum.

Yep, there are cookies called "Pfeffernüsse" and they are made with ginger - among other things. If you want me to, I could look for the recipe for you.



Methos

Thank you, that would be very nice. I looked a bit but the lack of the proper spelling hindered me.

Sure, no problem. And if you have trouble with understanding what I mean, just tell me and I will try my very best to clarify myself. It's just that writing this entry has shown me that writing down recipes in a foreign language is really hard.

Also, I never made Pfeffernüsse myself since you need so many ingredients... i just ate them. But the cooking book I took the recipe from is a very good one so it should work just fine.

Okay, for "Pfeffernüsse" you need:

for the dough:
- 500g wheat flour
- 9 g (3 level teaspoons) baking powder
- 325g sugar
- one half of a tiny bottle full of lemon oil (in Germany you can get that in tiny, tiny bottles and it's especially for baking to give whatever it is you are baking an aroma of lemons)
- 2 pinches of ginger (powdered ginger not fresh one)
- 2 pinches of cardamom (also powdered)
- 2 pinches of ground cloves
- 2 pinches of clove pepper
- 2 pinches of white pepper
- 1 tablespoonful of cinnamon
- 2 eggs
- 6 tablespoonsful of milk or water
- 50g of ground almonds
- 50g of candied lemon peel which you cut up into tiny pieces
and for the frosting:
- 225g of icing sugar
- about 3 tablespoons of hot water

And this is what you have to do with all those things:

- mix the flour and the baking powder, sift the mixture onto your kitchen plate and make a little hollow in the middle of it
- put the sugar, the spices, the eggs and the liquid into the hollow and stir the them with a part of the flour so that a thick paste results
- onto that paste you put the ground almonds and the cut up candied lemon peel
- cover the almonds and the lemon peel with dough, make all of it into a dumpling and then quickly knead it into a smooth dough
- if it is sticky, add a bit more flour
- then roll the dough out onto a bit of flour until the dough is about 1 centimeter thick
- use a small metall ring or tiny glasses for liqueur to cut out small dics and put them onto a baking try covered with baking paper
(- I know "Pfeffernüsse" as small balls so I guess you can also form then into those)
- bake them in the pre-heated oven for about 15 minutes at 220 °C or gas mark 4 and a half

- for the icing you sift the icing sugar and then you stir hot water into it until it's become a smooth, thick liquid
- use this icing to cover the baked Pfeffernüsse
- let the whole thing dry and there you are
- keep the Pfeffernüsse in a tin container so that they stay soft

Have fun and I hope they taste good!

Methos


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