Pepernoten Recept

La víspera de San Nicolás, los criados de San Nicolás suelen anunciar la llegada del generoso santo distribuyendo pepernoten (y otras golosinas). Esa noche echan los pepernoten por la sala y los niños se esfuerzan por recoger la mayor cantidad posible de esos dulces. Los pepernoten no se deben comer recién hechos. Por tanto es mejor prepararlos unos días antes del 5 de diciembre y guardarlos en un bote donde se conservan unas semanas.
para unas 50 unidades:
100 gramos de mantequilla blanda
125 gramos de azúcar terciado
2 cucharillas de especias de canela,especies..
una pizca de sal
250 gramos de harina con levadura
unas cucharadas soperas de leche
una nuez de mantequilla
Mezclar la mantequilla, el azúcar, las especias de speculaas y la sal en un bol, preferiblemente con una batidora o una trituradora, hasta tener una masa cremosa. Añadir poco a poco la harina y utilizar las cucharadas de leche que sean necesarias para lograr una masa homogénea. Hacer y formar una bola. Cubrirla y dejarla reposar en un lugar frío (por ejemplo en el frigorífico). Untar una placa con mantequilla. Hacer pequeñas bolitas del tamaño de una canica grande y colocarlas en la placa a cierta distancia entre sí y presionarlas. Meter la placa en el horno a una temperatura de 150-175 ºC y hornear unos 15 minutos.
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Aqui les dejo una explicacion mas detallada de la receta en ingles ....

I'm more than a little excited! Making the decision today to make my own version of a delightful Dutch biscuit and feeling rather confident the results are going to be fabulous. Do I sound a bit 'full of it'? Well hope springs eternal. I will as willingly post about my mistakes as I will about my achievements.

I had said a long time ago I was on the hunt for the perfect Speculaas cookie, and have done nothing since the first recipe which was nice but nothing like what I was looking for at all. Cooking from taste-memory I can remember having some really crunchy treats - cookies maybe - as a child. I can remember some of the flavours, but can't tell you much more than that they were hard, full of spice (similar to Speculaas) and flat bottomed with a round dome. Perhaps an aunty made them, I don't know.

Anyway, I had a hunt about for recipes, and as near as I can come up with are Pepernoten - the name sounds familiar to me. They appear to be closer in shape to Pfeffernusse generally speaking, but fact that my family history is Dutch, I am sticking to the Dutch name, rightly or wrongly.

I had to have a go of making my own. If my family aren't going to hand down recipes to me, I'll just have to get creative! Still trying to work my way through all the cocoa my uncle left me when he moved, I thought I'd have to add a little chocolate to these - probably not traditional at all.

Here then, is my attempt at what I will call Cacao Pepernoten. The ingredients list is long because there are lots of spices, but it's just a matter of tossing them in, a long list doesn't make for a difficult recipe. I think maybe a little anise might have been a smart choice too, I left it out though.

Cacao Pepernoten

300g (2 metric cups) plain flour
50g (1/2 metric cup) almond meal
20g (1 Aussie/20ml tbsp) cocoa
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1/2 tsp baking powder
125g soft butter
150g (3/4 metric cup tightly packed) brown sugar
60g (1/4 metric cup) golden syrup
pinch salt
1 egg

Preheat oven to 180C and line a baking sheet or two (I use recyclable stuff, baking paper would work of course).

Combine the flour, almond meal, cocoa, spices and baking powder giving them a bit of a stir about. Set aside.

Beat the butter in a large bowl until it is light and fluffy, then add the brown sugar and beat again until they are well combined and the mixture has taken on a lighter hue.

Add the golden syrup and beat once more until combined. Crack in the egg and add the salt giving it all one final beat together until the mixture is quite fluffy.

Sift in the flour mixture into the creamed butter and sugar and push the leftover bits of cocoa and almond meal through with the back of a spoon.

Using a spatula mix it all together well. You will think for a while it's too dry and that it wont come together but have faith, it will.

When the mixture has darkened and looks mostly damp, get hand into it and mix it about, the warmth of your hand will bring it all together. Keep kneading it until is is smooth.

Transfer the dough onto a board and roll it into a log about 35 cms long. Cut the log in half, and each half in half and so on until you have eight pieces of roughly the same size. Cut each of these in a cross shape to make a total of 32 cubes. Form these into balls. If you're more able than me, you can avoid all the cutting and just pull off balls of the same size with your hands and roll them - I'd end up with some the size of cricket balls and others the size of peas so I find the cutting more effective.

Place the balls of chocolaty dough onto the lined trays with a little space between them (they wont spread too much) and pop them in the oven for about 12-15 minutes. Their bases will have a slight tinge to them, but the biscuit colour will only have lightened a little.

Remove from the oven, and leave on the tray to cool for about 5 minutes before transferring onto a wire rack to cool completely.

Oh I am THRILLED with these Netherlands-inspired cookies! They are, I am pleased to say, not quite the tooth breakers I remember, but they have a lovely hard exterior and a slightly moist and chewy centre thanks to the almond meal. I love the cracked exterior, and have chosen to keep these plain - I don't think they need any icing, the cracks are decoration enough. There's no glamour here, they are not winning a beauty contest, but wow, I'm really pleased with these! Yummy!!!! Did I mention I'm so pleased with how I did with these. OK, pride comes before the fall right? Watch out for my next recipe then, I could be in trouble.

These cookies leave a hint of spicy spice on your tongue which is as I'd hoped. Sweet, and peppery! YAY FOR ME!

 shekina