Peppernuts

I love these little babies.  Never made them before but definitely going to become a Christmas tradition in our home from here on out.  Warning, these are time intensive (not complicated though), but so worth it!  Thanks Chris, for the recipe.  It's perfect.  For those of you not familiar with Peppernuts they are a mini Germanic Christmas cookie, small in stature but big in flavor.  This recipe has a distinct peppermint/licorice bite to it and just TASTES like Christmas.

4 cups golden syrup
4 cups white sugar
2 cups margarine

2 beaten eggs
3 teaspoons peppermint extract
2 teaspoons vanilla

1 teaspoon black pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon ground annis

12 cups flour

bring syrup, sugar and margarine to a boil, cool.
add 2 beaten eggs, peppermint and vanilla to cooled syrup mixture
Sift remaining ingredients into 12 cups flour, In VERY large mixing bowl combine dry and wet ingredients, stir and knead until well mixed (I actually mixed it around a bit with a spoon, then my hands, then put half of the mixture into my kitchen aid mixer at a time, and used the dough hook on it until it was well blended, makes a very stiff dough.)

The traditional way of making peppernuts is then to roll out little logs with a diameter about the size of a dime, and then cut little circles about a quarter inch thick.  My friend Chris squeezes them individually through a piping bag, but here's what I did.  I sprinkled my island with white sugar and rolled it out into a long rectangular shape, about a 1/4 inch high.  I then used my pastry cutter to cut straight lines the whole length of the dough, and then criss crossing in the other direction to make little squares about the size of a postage stamp.  (Warning, these will nearly double in size when baked and they are meant to be tiny, so cut the squares or circles SMALL.)  It made the cutting part much quicker but it's the next part that is time consuming.  This is going to make just short of a kazillion little bite size cookies and they each need to go on a cookie sheet with that same postage stamp distance between it and its neighbor.

Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes depending on the size, mine were small enough that 11 minutes did the trick, but I like mine crunchy.  If you  want them to stay chewy rather than crunchy you will want to make sure to not leave them in there even a minute too long.  I tested one tray, let them cool 2 min's and then was able to tell if I wanted to leave them in longer or less time for the size and consistency I like.  It's a matter of preference.  When they are slightly golden you know they are good to come out though, they will get crunchier over time.

This recipe makes 2 ice cream pails full, and that was after all 7 people in our family were popping them like popcorn while we made them.

You will NOT regret putting the time into making these.