Nuts to be Making Peppernuts

Saturday was a cooking disaster day. The plan was to make vegetable soup for the masses (or just the neighbors) and some sort of cookies to go with it. Farmer Brown was to pick up the borrowed stock pot. He left at 8:30 am. He arrived home at 3:00 pm. I was seething when I met him at the door. I finished my soup around 6:30 pm.


Remember that great book Like Water for Chocolate where her emotions end up in her finished recipes? My cookies came out tasting like frustration.

My grandmother makes Peppernuts every year. It's a tradition. They were my Uncle Jack's favorite cookie. These hard, little bite-size cookies are excellent with coffee. The recipe was easy and it churns out about 200 cookies. Perfect for sharing. That's what I was thinking as I started.

The recipe came together quite well, but my hand mixer was beginning to smell hot. The dough was dry and crumbly. There was no way this was going to roll out on the counter. I called Grandma to ask her to check my recipe. (Oftentimes when my mom gives me a recipe, she leaves out major ingredients.) Apparently, the recipe was correct, it just takes lots of time and muscle to get it together. Grandma never owned a Kitchen-Aid, though. I switched machines and the dough began to stick together.

The dough was unappetizing. You tell me what it looks like:

Here are the beauties on the tray, ready for the oven:

My mom always ices her with a simple powdered sugar icing and then tops them with a cinnamon candy. My icing was too runny. In the end, I put them in a container and sprinkled powdered sugar on them.
No one in the house liked them. I am only sharing the recipe in hopes you have your own, easy version to share with me.

Peppernuts

3 eggs

3 1/2 c. brown sugar

4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

2 Tb. cinnamon

1 Tb. cloves

Beat eggs and brown sugar . Sift and add flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and cloves. Roll out small pieces on floured board like making snakes with play dough, roll until the thickness of your middle finger. Cut into 1" slices. Bake at 300 degrees for 30 minutes. Ice and decorate.

I don't plan on making these again. It's time to get rid of some Christmas traditions.

Tomorrow, cookies I like. Cookies that are easy to make. Thank goodness.