Pepernoten / Pepper Nuts

So yesterday (Dec 5th) was a national holiday here in Holland. Not the kind of holiday that gets you free from work or an excuse to show up the next day with a hangover though. It's more a small celebration - mainly for children - where everyone exchanges presents, write cheesy poems to each other and eat loads of pepernoten. Sort of a prelude to Christmas. Well I haven't seen a gift-wrapped present at my chimney since I was a little girl, but we continue the tradition with - of course - the food. Clementines, speculaas and pepernoten.




What are pepernoten you may ask. The translation for pepernoten would be pepper nuts. They're little, round, crisp cookies that are full of spices; cinnamon, white pepper, ginger and cloves just to name a few. They're absolutely my favorite thing to eat this time of year! And it's so great that I can make them myself now because I'm not much in the mood lately to go to the grocery store in this snowmageddon ... Rating: 3.5 out of 5.



Pepernoten: adapted from AllRecipes.nl

Ingredients:
- 1 cup self-rising flour (125gr)
- ⅓ cup dark brown sugar (75gr)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened (50gr)
- ¼ cup milk (25ml)
- 1 tablespoon speculaas spices*
- Pinch of salt

* Speculaas Spices:
- 4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground white pepper
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon ground cardamom

Instructions:
- Preheat the oven to 325˚F.
- Put all the ingredients in a medium-sized bowl and beat with an electric mixer attached with the dough hooks until just combined, about 1 minute. Use your hands to knead the dough until everything is combined and has a dark brown color.
- Shape the dough into little balls by rolling it between your hands. Put the dough balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Bake the pepernoten for 15 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.