Marrying into a Swedish family means learning their traditions and customs and tasting lots of new dishes and desserts. One of my favorite treats native to Scandinavia is this lovely crunchy ginger cookie known as pepparkakor. You may have seen boxes of Anna's brand pepparkakor in the grocery store or at a Christmas party. They're delightful!
I decided to try my very-not-Swedish hand at baking up a batch of my very own pepparkakor. I am SO glad I did. The recipe is simple. The most challenging part is rolling out the tacky dough to 1/8 inch thick. It needs to be thin in order to create that perfect crunch. Give it a try. Everyone will be glad you did! I shared these with my friends at a women's gathering and some of the ladies commented that they couldn't stop eating them. :)
Swedish Pepparkakor Cookie Recipe
(crunchy ginger cookies)
recipe adapted from Tasty Kitchen
Makes 4-6 dozen cookies, depending on size
Ingredients
3/4 cups butter, softened
3/4 cups sugar
1 tsp baking soda
1 Tbsp water
1/2 cups molasses
1 whole large egg
3 cups flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp salt
Directions
Cream together the butter and sugar. Dissolve baking soda in the water and stir into the creamed mixture. Add the molasses and egg.
Whisk together flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt and then stir into the creamed ingredients until well blended.
Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight. This will develop the flavors.
Preheat oven to 350F.
Roll the dough to 1/8″ thickness on a lightly floured surface. Use your favorite cookie cutters or the traditional round/wavy edged cutter. Arrange on an ungreased cookie sheet. They can be placed pretty close together as they do not spread.
Bake for 8–10 minutes or until edges begin to brown.
Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container up to 2 weeks.
Enjoy!
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