The Best Thing I Had In My Mouth - Peppernuts

A little over a week ago, my friend received two pounds of peppernuts from his mom.  These were made by the First Mennonite Church of Hillsboro, Kansas, and boy do they really know how to make them.  If you have never had a peppernut, I truly feel sorry for you.  These tiny, crunchy, sweet and spicy little cookies are addictive.  

Photo taken from The First Mennonite Church, Hillsboro, Kansas.

Peppernuts are a Mennonite tradition, especially around Christmas time.  Peppernuts Plain and Fancy states that "original peppernut recipes probably were copied from the Germans, Dutch and West Prussians when Mennonite families moved about Europe in search of religious freedoms," then the recipes were brought from the Ukraine in 1874 and have been used ever since during the holidays.  Here is a great description of peppernuts from the very front of the book:

Peppernuts may taste like cookies, but they are smaller - much smaller - about the size of a haxlenut or dime. Ladies use to take pried in how small they could make them. Grandmother's rivaled the size of large peas. Others painstakingly cut their in perfect little circles.

They were definitely the best thing I have had in my mouth this week.  And yes, I finished a whole pound of them, so what :)

For a few pictures of me making them a couple years ago - click here.