Family Food Memory

Pfefferkuchen Platzen may at first look like a scramble of letters, but it is German for pepper or spice cookie.  This recipe has been in my family for longer than anyone knows. I am sure Oma (Grandmother) may have had some idea, but any indication of its origin died with her. All I know about where it came from is that Oma brought it over from Germany when she left in the late 1950’s and I became consciously aware of the sweet, crumply cookie with the thin, tart glaze some forty years later when I was five years old.

            The cookies only made an annual appearance in my life, Christmas. They are traditionally a winter dessert, and as such, that is the season when Oma would prepare them for our family. I did not know it at the time but this labor was the pinnacle of cooking out of love. She knew that my cousins, my sister, and I would look forward to the treat each year.  The preparations and cooking took about two days for each batch of dough she made. Oma made several batches every holiday season because she was active in the German-Birmingham based community, and she would prepare the dish for multiple families. Then I am sure on the edge of exasperation, she would prepare the final batch: ours.

            After Oma died it did not really seem much like Christmas without the cookies. Even when she was really sick her last Christmas she still got out one batch for us. It was these memories that inspired my sister, my mother, and I to try to make the recipe some years after she died (I want to say about three or four, but no promises on being exact). The first challenge we had to overcome was translating the recipe. This was a two-fold process. First, we had to decipher Oma’s handwriting. Then second, we had to translate the recipe from German. Oma was fluent in English, but she chose to cook and keep her recipes in her native tongue. It was hard and time consuming that first year to try and decipher handwritten German in order to translate it to English when the only members of my family that speak German, my mother and her sister, only speak it passively.

            That first time baking the cookies brought up memories of Christmas when I was little. Oma, Opa, and my mom’s family (aunt, uncle, two cousins) would have festivities on Christmas Eve, and sometimes this might very well be the first time we had seen each other since the previous Christmas Eve (despite the short geographical distance separating us). Between all the catching up among the adults, and the four children trying to cause distractions, there was ample opportunity for stealing pfefferkuchen. My cousin, and the younger of my aunt’s sons, Eric, and I were masterminds of the cookie stealing operations, being only one year in age apart gave the advantage of teaming up against the other two.  Now Christmas probably would have been easier on everyone without me, my sister, and my cousins running around playing cloak and dagger with cookies, but us waiting until after dinner for our favorite cookie that was only available one day a year was never going to happen. Sometimes we would get caught and sometimes we would get away with our schemes, but we always managed to get a few cookies before dinner. Eric would get the jelly filled and I would get the non-filled. 

Although the memories of Oma’s cookies were delicious, I can not say the same for our first batch. We faced a number of difficulties. One being that the recipe calls for a native German spice that does not translate and is not available, as far as I know, in the U.S. So we ordered some of the internet. Since my mother, sister, and I’s first attempt we have found a recipe that is simple spice mixture, and works as well in placing of the real thing. I have included this recipe as well at the end of this piece. Further, there was the challenge of learning to use a gram measuring cup as opposed to the English version many of us are accustom. This cup is cylindrical much like are American/English measuring cups, but it is shaped like a funnel instead of keeping consistently the same diameter. However, these measurements that involve grams can be converted to our accustomed and beloved English measurements, but in order to stay as authentic to Oma’s recipe as possible my family continues to operate, for this recipes sake, in metric measures.

 If translations and cultural measurement barriers were not enough, my mother, sister, and my baking experience is limited. In this field where Oma excelled, we were all highly limited, probably because she did enough baking for everyone. If cooking was rare in our kitchen then baking was practically extinct. If anything was baked it came from pre-made dough or a box calling for two eggs and some milk. This was another reason why the cookies held so long in me and my sister’s brain is because you could taste the homemade. In our house the term ‘homemade’ could have been used to describe Easy Mac that we made ourselves. If it had not been for Oma we would have probably never learned to appreciate what the term really meant.

Needless to say, this first homemade baking experience was just that – an experience. First once the supplies had been gathered, we had to hand shell, crush, and grade the hazelnuts. You can buy the already pre-graded, finely crushed nuts, but Oma always insisted on fresh nuts. She would say that the flavor was better, and in accordance with her instructions and in honor of her memory, my sister and I sat there for hours learning how to shell hazelnuts. If you also insist on fresh, I suggest a nut blender (I am not sure of the actual name for this appliance, but it works like a blender but with nuts. It makes this step way easier). Second, the dough has to be kneaded, and because of the involvement of flour my mother told us we had to wear aprons. This was an exciting thought for mostly we had no idea we even owned aprons (and to this day it is the only time they are used). Our excitement was short lived. We soon realized how much work kneading dough correctly could be, but after this step you are rewarded. Not with the cookies, but a night off for the dough has to sit at least twelve hours in the refrigerator.

The next day comes the hardest step in my opinion: cutting the cookies. It sounds easy, but the dough has to be rolled out and evenly dispersed. All the cookies in your batch need to be the same size (this is important for baking purposes). Every time we have ever baked these cookies together my sister and I constantly argue about whether we have rolled it even and/or if the dough is rolled too thick or thin. If the dough is rolled to thick then the cookies will not have the correct consistency and can fall apart when you pick them up and if they are rolled to thin then they will become too hard. It is a delicate balance, and one my sister and I feel we have both mastered at this point but can never agree upon.

The first batch, and the hardest, was also our worst. Our nuts were not fine enough so that consumers could see patches of nuts. Some were too thick and made a fluffy cookie while others were thin and made hard cookies. In the glaze, we added too much lemon juice and it was too tart against the cookie. In short, our experience with homemade baking was a disaster. These cookies are meant to be soft with a slight crunch (and with no visible detection of nuts), and the glaze is meant to be a sweet, savory compliment to the nutty flavor of the cookie. In my opinion, a well-made pfefferkuchen tastes of perfection.  

After this first round of cookies did not turn out quite perfect, we did not give up and have continued to make the recipe every year since. Now our cookies are still not on par with Oma’s, but then we do not have the fifty or more years baking experience that she had. Over the years, our renditions of her recipe have gotten consistently better, and I am sure that with enough trial and error we will someday be able to reproduce her creation that was so beloved by our family.

Even with our pfefferkuchen not being as good as Oma’s all of her decedents appreciate our efforts. My cousin still take his fair share of jelly filled cookies every holiday and we are able to send a dozen or so to many of our other relatives. The story of pfefferkuchen in our family has changed over the years, but it is a dish that we all treasure and can call our own.

Pfefferkuchen Cookies

250 gr sugar

500 gr flour

1 pkg chocolate pudding powder (not instant)

2 ½ tsp backing powder

½ tsp ground cinnamon

½ tsp ground cloves

4 tbsp lebkuchen spice

1 fresh lemon peel, grated

200 gr honey (@ 7 0z.)

2 eggs

5 tbsp milk

¼ lb butter, softened

½ lb roasted, finely ground hazelnuts

Powder sugar for icing

Lebkuchen spice:                                                       

2 tbsp ground cinnamon                                            

2 tsp ground cloves                                                    

½ tsp ground allspice                                     

¼ tsp ground nutmeg

½ tsp ground coriander

½ tsp ground cardamom

½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground anise seed

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and the chocolate pudding powder. Stir in the sugar, cinnamon, cloves and the lebkuchen spice.  Add the grated lemon peel and the ground hazelnuts, mixing together well.  Mix the eggs and milk together and add to the dry mix along with the honey.  Stir together.  Add the butter and mix until a sticky dough is formed.  Sift a little flour onto the dough board and put the dough in the middle of the board.  Knead slightly and form the dough into a round ball.  Place the dough in a ball and refrigerate covered overnight.

Sift flour onto the dough board and place a small amount of dough on the board.  Sift flour on top of the dough as well and roll the dough out evenly, using just enough flour to keep the dough from sticking to the board or the rolling pin.  Dough should be about 3/8 inch thick.  Cut the dough into cookie with cookie cutters and place on a baking sheet.  Bake cookies in a 350 degree oven for 8 – 9 minutes until slightly brown on the edges.

Let cookies cool before icing.

Icing:

Powder sugar

Lemon juice

Vanilla extract

Put powder sugar in a small bowl or cup.  Add a few drops of vanilla extract and a few drops of lemon juice to taste.  Add small amounts of water and stir until a smooth icing is formed.  Food coloring can be added to the icing.

Using a pastry brush, ice and decorate the cookies