Peppernuts are a 17 year old tradition in our family and it was given to us from the Miller side. It is an old German recipe from the late 1920's - a treat we used to receive from Merl's mom every year at Christmastime. After almost 10 years of marriage I believed I had accumulated enough experience in the kitchen to attempt preparing them......as I felt they were a bit labor intensive. I believe I was 8 months pregnant with Ryan at the time - in my tiny little kitchen working hard most of the afternoon. When Merl got home from work that day I immediately wanted him to test them.......he chomped and chewed several and said, "Hmmm......something is missing." "Don't you tell me something is missing!!!!!" "Sorry, but something is missing." After further investigation I discovered that I had omitted the most important and key ingredient!!!! Anise.
Well let me just say that it has taken years of working at it but I now have confidence that we are producing full quality peppernuts! In the original way of making them, one rolls pieces of the stiff dough into pencil like strips to later cut into the small disc shaped cookies. This year Allison received darling little cookie cutters from her Aunt Sarah - so we rolled the dough out and used the cookie cutters. I think we have now decided this is our new favorite way of doing it! We love to give them away for Christmas - only problem is it is hard to keep from eating them all while we are making them and having any left for others!
Peppernuts waiting their turn for the oven
Cooling time
Cutting peppernuts the "new way"
One of my lovely assistants
The finished product waiting to be eaten or packed away!
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