The Best Thing I Had In My Mouth - Orange Drop Peppernuts

Once again, my friend received some peppernuts from his mom.  I never thought anything could beat the original peppernut, but I was mistaken - a peppernut with orange candy slices can.  Crunchy, chewy, sweet and orangey, it is the perfect holiday snack with a hot cup of tea or just by themselves.  I thought I would share a similar recipe from the Peppernuts Plain and Fancy book.

Mother's Gumdrop Peppernuts from Peppernuts Plain and Fancy:

-3/4 cup shortening
-1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
-1 1/2 cups brown sugar
-3 eggs
-1/2 cup milk or cream
-1 cup chopped nuts
-3/4 pound spiced gumdrops, diced (I would buy orange candy slices)
-3/4 teaspoon baking soda
-3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar
-1/2 teaspoon salt
-4 to 5 cups flours

Cut gumdrops into small pieces with scissors dipped in flour.  Cut onto a plate and dust pieces to keep them from sticking together.  Set aside.

Cream shortening and sugar.  Add eggs, one at a time, followed by milk, gumdrops, and nuts.  Add sifted flour and remaining dry ingredients.  If necessary, add a little extra flour until dough clings together.  Chill overnight or longer.  Roll into 1/2 inch ropes and cut into 1/2 inch pieces.  Bake on greased pan at 375 degrees F for 7-10 minutes or until golden brown.  Place cookies into a clean, dry dish towel and let cool.

Enjoy!  Click here to see me making peppernuts.

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.

Cookies Galore

Last year around this time, I became a human cookie factory for a weekend. I always think homemade gifts are the sweetest, plus it can be a way to save money during the most expensive month of the year. My coworkers always give each other gifts which I find to be really annoying (I am a total grinch), but since I like to bake I decided this could be both a nice gift and a fun activity. It ended up being a 4 day baking marathon. The first two days were dedicated to making dough and refrigerating it, and the final two was a non-stop bake-a-thon (literally 8 hours in the kitchen both days). By the end of it, I was completely exhausted and my feet were throbbing. I ended up making chocolate chip cookies, sugar cookies with royal icing, chewy ginger snaps, snickerdoodles, peppernuts, Fleur de Sel toffee, and candied citrus peel (click on any of the links to get the recipes). In my opinion, people were not impressed enough - so this year I am not going waste my time going to that much work.

This year for my office gifts I order some tins of Russian tea from Kusmi Tea and I am planning to make peppernuts to go along with each tin. Tomorrow I am going to my boss' cocktail party so I decided to make the chewy ginger snap cookies. I know she likes them so well. I will post about them probably Wednesday. If you are looking for an alternative chocolate chip cookie - the chewy ginger snaps are so good and perfect for the holiday season.

Below are pictures taken from last year's cookie making. I got all the packaging from my favorite paper store called Paper Presentation.

Rolling out the peppernut dough.

Tiny peppernut slices.

Peppernuts baked.

Chewy ginger snaps cooling.

Sugar cookies with Royal icing and sprinkled sugar.

Chocolate chip cookies cooling.

Fleur de sel toffee.

Candied orange peel drying.

Making labels.

Packaging.