Yield: About 40 – depends on the cookie cutter
Prep time: 30 minutes
Baking time: 10 minutes
Inactive time: 8 hours
Total time: 8 hours 40 minutes
Norwegian Gingerbread Cookies are spiced, snappy cookies that make your house smell divine when they bake. They are perfect for kids and adults to decorate, and you can shape them into whatever you please!
Ingredients:
For Pepperkaker:
250 g butter / 1 cup + 2 Tbsp.
250 g powdered sugar / 2 cups
125 g light syrup, *see link below 1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp. May substitute with light molasses
100 ml heavy cream, 3.4 oz.
400 g flour, 3 cups + 1 Tbsp.
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
2 tsp. ground nutmeg, less is also okay, but I love it spiced
For Icing:
3 egg whites
1 Tbsp. lemon juice
500 g powdered sugar / 4 cups
Directions:
Melt butter, and stir together light syrup (or molasses), heavy cream and powdered sugar in a medium saucepan. Cool this mixture for 5 minutes before adding in all the other ingredients; flour, baking soda, spices. Mix/knead well—I mix it with the spatula attachment in my stand mixer, for about 10 minutes. Shape dough into a thick disc shape, cover with plastic wrap and chill overnight.
Pre-heat oven to 175° C (350° F) and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Roll out your dough on a floured surface. Roll to 3 mm (0.12 inch) thick and cut out using various cookie cutters. If it’s a very sticky dough, you may want to place the dough between two layers of parchment paper before rolling out. Place the cutout dough on the parchment-lined baking sheets.
Bake on the middle rack for 10 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet before cooling them completely on a wire rack.
For the icing: Mix everything together and pour into piping bags to decorate as you please. Too stiff? Add lemon juice or water. Too runny? Add more powdered sugar.
* You may find light syrup in Scandinavian specialty stores, or online.
Recipe by and image by: Stine Mari, https://gingerwithspice.com/norwegian-gingerbread-cookies-pepperkaker/