Monday, September 14, 2015

Pepparkakors


Pepparkakors sounded so peculiar
to me over thirty years ago.
While exploring a cute town with 
Swedish origins called
Kingsburg
in central California,
I kept coming across 
"pepper cookies".


Kingsburg, 
home of the water tower turned
into a giant Swedish coffee pot.
And best of all,
abelskivers!

I ended up with a tin of
Pepparkakors 
and we loved them.
My daughter reminded me
that her Kristen American Girl
cookbook has
a Peppakaor recipe.
Kristen uses shortening.
Rose's recipe uses butter and couldn't be simpler.

In fact, it was so simple
I had to keep re-reading the recipe
to see if I forgot anything.



The only difficult thing about 
this recipe is finding
Grandma's mild molasses
and Swedish Pearl Sugar.

I opted for Brerr Rabbit's mild molasses
and drove across town to the Italian market
for Pearl Sugar.


Swedish Pearl sugar is smaller in size than
Belgium Pearl Sugar, 
which is used in Liege Waffles,
the authentic Belgian Waffle.
It all has something to do with
the caramelizing ability.


Butter and sugar are creamed together, then 
the dry ingredients stirred in by hand with
the flat beater.


The very soft dough is patted into a rectangle,
wrapped in plastic and chilled.

And then the fiddly part; rolling the dough
into a log, re-wrapping and forcing it inside a paper towel
cardboard roll.
I shoved the entire log into one paper towel roll,
opting not to cut it into smaller logs.

After freezing, it came apart easily, just like
those Pillsbury cinnamon roll canisters.


Using a very sharp metal dough scrapper,
the tube is sliced into rounds, sprinkled with sugar
and popped into the oven for a quick bake.


This little cookie is quite an aromatic gem.
Another one for the Christmas cookie line up.
~
by
Rose Levy Beranbaum











9 comments:

  1. They are the perfect Christmas cookie, aren't they? I love your pearl sugar.

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  2. Great job, Vicki. They look delicious. I also felt they were a perfect Christmas cookie.

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  3. They look wonderful. Now I need to research these Liege waffles!

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  4. Your cookies look amazingly delicious! Thank you for the culinary history lesson as well. Now you have motivated me to find an Italian Market to find the Lars Belgium Pearl Sugar, smaller version as you mentioned. Thank you so much for your post and information Vicki!

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  5. I love how you showed the mini pearl sugar and the bigger version. I think mine is the bigger version which I found too sweet. your cookies look amazing!

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  6. Well, do I really have to write a blog up, having just read the perfect one? Between you and Patricia, I always have the perfect information. Love knowing about the larger Belgian sugar from 'Lars'... and the little town's quaint water tower - would love to see that. Now that our missing prince has returned I will have company baking these tomorrow since I took the day off to be with him. I love your reference to having to go back to recheck the recipe since it seems too simple for comfort - lol.

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  7. Can I just say that Joan said what I wanted to say? Thanks for those bits of information...how do you do it? You are so thorough. Yours are darling little cookies.

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  8. Hi Vicki! Great post and your cookies look GREAT! I really loved these cookies, and made the spicy version and the original version also. The spicy ones are the favorite for spreading with cheese but the regular ones are very addicting as well. Interestingly, there is a food truck in our area that specializes in Liege waffles!!

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  9. Using the whole cardboard tube sounds like a good idea. These do look good and I might have to try them this Christmas. (Without the molasses!)

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