Peppernøtter - Pepper Nuts

First of all - Happy little christmas!

I would like to apologise for my absence, but I am currently on Christmas holiday in Norway with my family. I was panicking a bit as I hadn't finished my "Seven Kinds" biscuit project, but today I had some time to spare tonight and finished off the project.

Before that, we had "Santa Porridge", which is a tradition for my family to have on the 23rd. It's rice porridge that we serve hot sprinkled with sugar, cinnamon and a little knob of butter in the centre. It is a little different from family to family, but I think the point of it is to have a cheap nice meal before celebrating with a huge dinner on the 24th.
To make a little bit more out of it than just, well...rice porridge - we add an almond in the casserole, and whoever gets it wins a prize, which is usually a marzipan pig! This year, my mother got it! We always save a little of the leftover porridge and sets it out in a bowl for Santa - the man needs a little porridge to keep him going!

I would have tried to make it from scratch if it was up to me, it only takes pudding rice, a tiny bit of salt, a little more sugar, and a few drops of vanilla extract, and then you boil it like a risotto, only with milk. Cook it for about an hour until the rice is nice and soft. ANYWHOOOO, mum suggested we did as we usually do and cheated with a little hand from Toro, and to be honest, it is a pretty good substitute

I'm rambling, anyway, now for the sixth type of christmas biscuits - peppernøtter, which means peppernuts, but are basically gingernuts, and these came out better than the ones I made last year, result!

Peppernøtter - Pepper Nuts
(Makes about 60, 80 calories each)

250 g butter
200 g sugar
1 tbsp dark or light syrup
1 egg
2 ts ground ginger
2 ts ground cinnamon
2 ts ground cloves
1 ts cardamom (optional)
2 ts bicarbonate of soda
650 ml flour

- Mix sugar, butter and syrup. Then add the egg and stir well to combine.

- Now, add the spices, followed by bicarbonate of soda and the most of the flour. Combine this to a nice dough, add more of the flour until it is easy to handle without it sticking to your hands too much.

- Pre-heat the oven to 150°C. And on a baking paper clad tray roll the dough into balls the size of large hazelnuts. These will spread out a little, so keep some distance between them.

- Place in the middle of the oven and bake for about 15 minutes until nice and golden.

Original source:
http://www.dansukker.no/no/oppskrifter/fine-peppernotter.aspx

- Jules