Pffffefffernoo

[primsong]

Our women's group at church had their Christmas wing-ding and as it had an international theme I figured this was a good excuse to make a big batch of pfeffernusse, one of those wonderfully fragrant things that I adore and other people sometimes won't even eat.  Found a faboo recipe at allrecipes, liked the anise extract to tone down the anise slightly, had to crush whole cardamom with my pestle because I didn't have any ground (that took a while) and increased the black pepper to 1 1/2 t., added some buckwheat honey with the clover in the molasses and wow - these about make my eyes roll up in my head, mmmmmm.  They're heaven just sniffing them. Thanks to the strange aversion on the part of others, I even had a goodly lot left over to nibble/snarf at home too.

Life is uber-crazy, rather weird, both very good in some ways and quite stressful in others, very mixed right now - I'm grateful for the holidays and cookies and sparkly decorations, they are a welcome distraction and lift the spirits. 

Now - all of you go bake something super-tasty, but be sure the people around you don't want it so there's plenty left for you. ;-)

Comments

[dbskyler]

I had to look up pfeffernusse to find out what they are, but yum, they sound great! Might be time to fire up my oven, although I don't know if I can take on baking something new -- I have a hard enough time baking things I already know how to bake!

[primsong]

You won't regret it, though your waistline might. ^_^ I love trying things from other parts of the world just to see what sort of flavors they like, this is a particularly boffo combination.

[linaewen]

Ah, lovely! My Swedish grandmother made those every Christmas, I need to dig out her recipe and plan to make it this year. I'll compare her version to yours and might try both!

My life is uber-crazy, too, and I'm hoping it won't keep me from doing all the things I want to do in the holiday season -- like decorate and make cookies!

May your spirits remain lifted in spite of the stressful stuff!

[primsong]

It's a wild year for quite a lot of people, it seems - I'm still trying to find ONE evening at home where I can get out my decorations, I'm finally settling on getting them out one at a time in between things just to get it done. :-P And yes, I absolutely vote that you should go find her recipe, they're so nice a fragrant!