Pepernoten Cookies

Every Sunday night, I take part in a food Twitter chat (are we connected on Twitter?) that last about an hour. During last week’s session, I met a food blogger from Holland, Ellen from In My Red Kitchen, now living in Los Angeles. We exchanged a few tweets and I told her my guy is Dutch and I’d be checking out her website for recipes. She sent me back a link to her Pepernoten recipe and told me to make that for SinterKlaas.

Today is December 6, Sinterklaas, and last night, at my guy’s delight, I made Ellen’s Pepernoten recipe. Pepernoten are tiny little cookies deeply-infused with cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and clove. They are crunchy and are eaten sort of like popcorn – by the handful.

Here’s a slightly-modified version of Ellen’s recipe.

Ingredients:

• 1¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1 Tbsp. cinnamon
• ½ tsp. ground cloves
• ½ tsp. cardamom
• ¼ tsp. ground ginger
• Pinch of salt
• 1 cup light brown sugar
• 6 Tbsp. butter, melted
• 6 Tbsp. milk

Unbaked Pepernoten

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 340 F and line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
2. Combine the flour, the baking powder, the spices, the salt and the sugar in a medium bowl.
3. In a small bowl, combine the melted butter with the milk. Add the butter mixture to the flour mixture. Mix until fully combined – don’t overmix.
4. Use about a half teaspoon of cookie dough to form tiny little balls.
5. Place the balls on the cookie sheets and flatten them slightly with your thumb. Bake the Pepernoten for 15 – 18 minutes.
6. Cool completely on a cookie rack then store in an airtight container.

Makes about 75 cookies.