Pepparkakor
Thin, crisp Swedish gingerbread biscuits cut into shapes with cinnamon, ginger and cloves, chilled for 1 hour and baked for 10 minutes.
Photograph credit: Pepparkakor by Johan Bryggare · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Flickr · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
Pepparkakor: Step by Step
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Beat the butter and sugar until pale. Beat in the syrup and egg.
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Mix in the flour, baking soda and spices to a soft dough. Wrap and chill for 1 hour.
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Heat the oven to 200°C / 390°F and line trays. Roll small pieces of dough 2 mm thick and cut shapes.
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Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until the edges darken. Cool on the tray.
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Mix the icing sugar and water and pipe on decorations.
What Can Go Wrong
- Roll the dough very thin.
- Chill the dough firm.
- Cool on the tray to crisp.
The Short Version
Roll the dough as thin as you dare. That is the key instruction for pepparkakor, the thin, crisp Swedish gingerbread, because the thinner the dough, the more snap in the biscuit. They are cut into hearts, goats, pigs and stars and are the Christmas biscuit of Sweden, hung on trees and eaten by the hundred.
Beat butter with sugar, then add the syrup, egg and the dry mix of flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and a pinch of white pepper. The dough will be soft and sticky. Chill it for at least 1 hour, or overnight, and it becomes firm enough to roll. Work with a small piece of dough at a time and keep the rest in the fridge.
Roll on a well floured surface to 2 mm thick, cut shapes with cutters and lift on to lined trays. Bake at 200°C / 390°F for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are a shade darker. They crisp as they cool on the tray. Decorate with white icing. They keep for 4 weeks in a tin, and they get more spiced over time.
To Go With It
Mulled wine · Coffee · Hot chocolate
Keeping Pepparkakor
Keeps for 4 weeks in a tin.
Quick Answers
How long does Pepparkakor take to make?
30 minutes of preparation and 10 minutes of cooking, plus 1 hour of Chilling, so allow 1 hour 40 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 40.
What's in a Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
Cooked this? Keep a note for next time
Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked.
First published ; last changed .
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