Go Back
Close up photo of Dutch wooden shoe filled with peppernut cookies, spiced gum drop candies and gold coins with additional shoe to the right

Peppernut Cookies (Pfeffernusse or Pepernoten)

Tracy @ Next Level Baker
Peppernut cookies are small bites of spiced cookie bliss. They are the quintessential holiday cookie for those with a Dutch or German heritage.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Chill Time 2 hours
Total Time 3 hours 30 minutes
Course Dessert
Cuisine American, Dutch, German

Ingredients
  

  • 1 cup butter softened
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup dark molasses
  • 2 teaspooons cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 2 teaspoons ground cloves
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda dissolved in a little water
  • 1 cup nut meats (ex. finely chopped pecans or walnuts)
  • 5 cups all purpose flour

Instructions
 

  • Ground 1 cup of pecans (or nut of choice) into small nut meat pieces.
  • Mix the butter, sugar and molasses together in the stand mixer, or with a hand mixer, until combined.
  • Dissolve the baking soda in a small amount of water. Add the cinnamon, ground ginger, ground cloves, dissolved baking soda and nut meats to the mixer and mix until combined.
  • Add the flour to the mixer one cup at a time. Mix until fully combined and then an additional 60 seconds.
  • Roll the dough into ¾ - 1 inch thick cigar shaped logs. Place the logs on baking sheets, cover and chill for a minimum of 2 hours up to overnight.
  • Take the logs out of refrigerator as needed. The logs made need to be lightly reshaped if they settled in the refrigerator. The logs warm up very quickly, so only take a few out of the refrigerator at a time and only handle as necessary. Slice off ¼ inch pieces.
  • Preheat oven to 350℉. It is not necessary to use cooking spray or parchment paper. As there is a lot of butter in the recipe, these cookies do not stick.
  • Place cookies on cookie sheet at least one inch apart. One half cookie sheet will usually hold approximately 48 cookies (six rows of eight cookies).
  • Bake at 350℉ for 7-8 minutes. For a softer cookie, remove from the oven before bottoms are browned. For a harder cookie, bake one minute longer. As this recipe makes hundreds of small cookies, it's best to do a test batch. Allow them to cool before touching or tasting as they do firm up as they cool. They cool quickly.

Would you like to save this?

We'll email this post to you, so you can come back to it later!

Don't worry! We won't spam you!

Keyword Pepernoten, Peppernut Cookies, Pfeffernusse
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!