Directions: |
Directions:Preheat oven to 400ºF.
Cream together the margarine and sugar. Stir in the molasses and eggs.
Sift together and stir in dry ingredients a little at a time to make it easier to mix the ingredients together thoroughly. Use a large stand mixer if you have one. Blending the ingredients together will be easier.
Cover the dough and refrigerate till the dough firms up enough to roll out. (I roll up the dough in three, equally divided "logs" in wax paper. Place two of the logs in a plastic bag and freeze for later use. Each log will make about 3-4 dozen depending on the size cookie you cut out.)
Roll out the dough thinly on a floured board. Cut with cookie cutters (esp. Xmas shapes). Place on lightly greased cookie sheet and bake for 4-5 minutes. Cookies will look lightly puffed. Let cookies rest on cookie sheet for just a minute or so, then cool on racks. When all the cookies are baked, turn oven off, cool slightly, put cookies back in oven on cooling racks and let them harden, about 10 minutes. Cool again. Store in an air-tight tin. If the cookies soften, crisp them up in a 200 ºF oven for 10 minutes or so.
These cookies don't hold decorative icing well. It softens them. Make decorations on them by poking holes in the cookies with a skewer. I make a fairly sizable hole in the top, thread them with thin red ribbon and hang them on a Cookie Tree at Christmas. |
Personal
Notes: |
Personal
Notes: Two of Dad's sisters had an annual "wrangle" over whether Pepparkakor should be sprinkled with sugar. It was a good-natured argument, but each one insisted they had the original Swedish recipe for the cookie, Aunt Doris sprinkled, Aunt Agnes didn't. I don't know which aunt was right. They were both formidable cooks and their cookies were perfect, crisp and light,with and without. I use Aunt Agnes' recipe (without)because the cookies stay crisp longer and are better for hanging on the Cookie Tree without sprinkled sugar.
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This recipe for Pepparkakor (Swedish Spice Cookies) is from