My beloved Mom-in-law, Sharon, used to make molasses sugar cookies for her children. Smitty called them Rabbit Cookies because she used Brer Rabbit molasses and there was a picture of the rabbit himself on the bottle. We still refer to molasses cookies as Rabbit Cookies.
This week's baking assignment was a cookie that hails from Norway called Pepparkakors. To my American eye, the name looks like the kind of thing that IKEA would put on a shelving unit, but the cookies are GREAT!
The recipe includes black pepper. However, the variation includes cayenne pepper for even more kick. I loved that idea, so I made both kinds.
Smitty calls these "jacked rabbit cookies" because of the pepper. There are no eggs in this recipe, and the cookies stay nice and flat, unlike regular molasses cookies.
Next time I am with Sharon, I am going to give her some of these new rabbit cookies. She is going to LOVE them!
This week's baking assignment was a cookie that hails from Norway called Pepparkakors. To my American eye, the name looks like the kind of thing that IKEA would put on a shelving unit, but the cookies are GREAT!
The recipe includes black pepper. However, the variation includes cayenne pepper for even more kick. I loved that idea, so I made both kinds.
Smitty calls these "jacked rabbit cookies" because of the pepper. There are no eggs in this recipe, and the cookies stay nice and flat, unlike regular molasses cookies.
Next time I am with Sharon, I am going to give her some of these new rabbit cookies. She is going to LOVE them!
Here are the dry ingredients for the Hot Nick Pepparkakors. Ginger, cloves, black pepper and cayenne provide a delightful punch.
Rose's recipe called for Grandma's light molasses, but I can only find regular Grandma's molasses.
If you are still using volume measurements, by the way, please consider switching to a scale! It is so much faster, easier and more accurate to weigh your ingredients than to use measuring cups! Note that this glass cup is sitting on my scale and that I am weighing the molasses.
If you are still using volume measurements, by the way, please consider switching to a scale! It is so much faster, easier and more accurate to weigh your ingredients than to use measuring cups! Note that this glass cup is sitting on my scale and that I am weighing the molasses.
The completed dough is wrapped in plastic, ready for the fridge. It needs to be thoroughly chilled before the next step.
The dough is divided, rolled into logs, wrapped in plastic wrap and stuffed into cardboard tubes or PVC pipes. I had two batches of dough, one of the regular recipe and one of the Hot Nick variation. It was easy to keep track of which was which--regular in the cardboard tubes, hot was in the PVC.
The frozen dough is allowed to defrost slightly, and then sliced into thin wafers. The tubes kept them in amazingly good shape.
Before baking, the cookies are sprinkled with Demarara sugar, another of those specialty ingredients that I have discovered, thanks to baking with Rose! The complexity of flavor is amazing.
I sprinkled the Hot Nick cookies with a combination of Demarara sugar and cayenne pepper.
I sprinkled the Hot Nick cookies with a combination of Demarara sugar and cayenne pepper.
Rose suggested spreading the Pepparkakors with goat cheese. Here is some plain chevre sprinkled with fresh ground pepper. You can see the cayenne on these cookies!
The bottom line:
These are GREAT! Smitty is right, these are jacked up rabbit cookies! We love both variations, but the hot pepper ones are my favorite. I took the precaution of hiding them away in the freezer lest we nibble them all away. I want to keep them handy for guests.
These will go on the top of my favorites list from The Baking Bible!
NEXT UP: Honey Cake
Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving comments!
The bottom line:
These are GREAT! Smitty is right, these are jacked up rabbit cookies! We love both variations, but the hot pepper ones are my favorite. I took the precaution of hiding them away in the freezer lest we nibble them all away. I want to keep them handy for guests.
These will go on the top of my favorites list from The Baking Bible!
NEXT UP: Honey Cake
Thank you so much for visiting my blog and leaving comments!
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