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.

~

The Baking Bible

by

Rose Levy Beranbaum