Dutch Pepernoten (Peppernuts)
Dutch Pepernoten (peppernuts) have a slightly sweet speculaas aniseed taste. They have a soft texture, and you can compare them with chewy biscuits. This simple recipe gives a small cookie with a delicious speculoos taste. Eat them fresh or even while they are still lukewarm. Then they are the tastiest. A delicious recipe for Sinterklaas evening, accompanied with chocolate letters (Dutch people love these!)
Equipment
- A conventional oven is used. When using a convection oven (with air fan) decrease the temperature with 30 °F / 20 °C
- Hand Mixer
- sieve
- Parchment paper
- plastic foil
- Baking tray
Ingredients
- 1 egg size M
- ½ cup honey
- ¼ cup Dutch syrup
- 1 tablespoon speculaas spice mix or gingerbread spices
- 1 teaspoon ground aniseed
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 2 cups self-rising flour
Ingredients you need per step are listed below the step in Italic
Instructions
- Mix the egg, honey, syrup, speculaas spices, aniseed, and salt in a large bowl with a spatula.1 egg , ½ cup honey, ¼ cup Dutch syrup, 1 tablespoon speculaas spice mix , 1 teaspoon ground aniseed, ⅛ teaspoon salt
- Place a sieve over the bowl and add the flour and self-raising flour. Strain this over the liquid, so you don't get lumps.1 cup all-purpose flour, 2 cups self-rising flour
- Mix with a hand mixer with dough hooks until you have a cohesive dough, three minutes on medium.
- Shape the dough into a flat disk and wrap it in plastic wrap.
- Place it in the fridge for at least 1 hour to cool it down.
- Preheat the oven to
350 °F( 180 °C) or 
320 °F (160 °C) - Line a baking tray with baking paper.
- Roll out the dough to ½ inch (1 cm) thickness. Cut horizontal strips of ½ inch (1 cm) thickness. Then repeat this with vertical bars at a distance of ½ inch (1 cm_ from each other); you will get a cube of ½ x ½ x ½ inch / 1 × 1 × 1 cm).
- Place the dough cubes on the baking tray at a sufficient distance from each other (about ½ inch (1 cm_ between each cube of dough).
- Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until golden brown
NOTES
1. Flour and self-rising flour - Self-rising flour is flour mixed with baking powder. Combining this with "regular" flour gives you an airy cookie but is not as airy as a cake (where you only use self-raising flour). You can also replace this with 4 cups (400 grams) with one teaspoon of baking powder
2. Honey and sugar syrup - The sweeteners of the pepernoten. Honey gives it a mild taste, and Dutch syrup (boiled down sugar beet juice) makes the flavor deeper and fuller if you can't get Dutch syrup, use golden syrup instead.
3. Refrigeration - Refrigerate the dough for at least 1 hour (or overnight) to make it less sticky and easier to roll out.
4. Speculaas spice mix and aniseed gives the dough the typical old Dutch pepernoten taste. [eafl id="175985" name="Gingerbread Spices" text="Speculaas spice mix"] can also be found as gingerbread spice mix. If you want to make it yourself, look at this recipe for kruidnoten.
5. Oven temperature
Oven - When you use a conventional oven, set the temperature to 350 °F (180 °C). In a convection oven, 320 °F (160 °C) is sufficient.
6. Storage -
- Don't - These Dutch pepernoten are best when they are still lukewarm or have just cooled down.
- Room Temperature - Store them in a sealed box at room temperature for up to three days.
- Refrigerator baked Dutch spice cookies - DO NOT store pepper nuts in the fridge. That's a humid environment. That causes a change in the structure, and that is not nice.
- Refrigerator dough - The dough can be kept in the fridge for up to two days before baking.
- Freezing spice nuts - Store them in an airtight container and freeze them. Thaw them at room temperature. Then, heat them in a preheated oven at 320 °F (160 °C) for five minutes to get them tasty again.
- Freezing dough - You can freeze the dough in an airtight container. Keep it up to one month. Then, let thaw in the refrigerator.
Nutrition
Calories: 2257kcal | Carbohydrates: 501g | Protein: 51g | Fat: 11g | Saturated Fat: 2g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 0.02g | Cholesterol: 164mg | Sodium: 510mg | Fiber: 17g | Sugar: 210g | Vitamin A: 504IU | Vitamin C: 2mg | Iron: 16mg
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