- 500g flour
- 2 teaspoons of baking powder
- 300g sugar
- 2 eggs
- 6 tablespoons milk
- 3-4 good pinches each of ground ginger, ground cloves, ground nutmeg and ground white pepper
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- peel of 1/2 a lemon, grated
- peel of 1/2 an orange, grated
- 75g candied lemon peel, chopped
- 50g grated almonds
- 200g castor sugar for the icing
Whip the eggs and sugar stiff, then gradually add the flour mixed with the baking powder and the milk. Then the work the spices, orange and lemon peel into the mixture. Finally knead the candied lemon peel and almonds into the mixture. Cover and leave for an hour, roll out to a thickness of about 1 cm and press out your cookies (about 3 cm diameter). I do mine the traditional way and form cherry sized little balls which are then placed in a wooden form.
Leave the Pfeffernuesse over night, to dry out, covered with a linen cloth.
Preheat your oven to 200°C or 400°F and bake the Pfeffernuesse on a well greased baking tray for 10 - 15 minutes. When they have cooled, mix the castor sugar with 2 - 3 tablespoons of hot water to a creamy icing and coat each pfeffernuss individually.
Pfeffernuesse are as hard as stone after baking, so place them in a Cookie tin, seal and leave for 14 days. They keep a long time then, if you haven't eaten them first!