An Cooking

Spicy gingersnaps Piparkökur

The Icelandic term for gingersnaps and gingerbread cookies literally means “pepper cookies”.
These unusual gingerbread refrigerator cookies not only contain pepper, but also paprika. My mother modified the recipe from one she found in an old recipe booklet.

500 g flour
500 g brown sugar
250 g butter
2 eggs
5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp powdered cloves
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1/4 tsp paprika

Mix together the dry ingredients. Add soft butter and eggs and knead until smooth. Cool in the refrigerator overnight. Roll out into sausage shapes of even thickness, pinch or cut off small portions and make little balls out of the dough. Put on a cookie sheet covered with baking paper and press your palm on top of each ball to flatten slightly. Bake at 200°C until browned.

Update: I made a batch on Saturday. These are very good gingersnaps. Instead of making balls and flattening them with my hand on the cookie sheet, I cut the dough rolls into thin slices (about 5 mm - 1/5 of an inch thick):



They do not spread much when they get in the oven, so a space of about 2 cm (4/5 inch) between them is enough. I baked them at 180°C in my convection oven. The cookies took only 4 minutes to get to the stage where I like them best: golden but with a slightly chewy center. If you plan to store them for more than a week I recommend 2-4 minutes more in the oven to get them dry through. They will be a darkish medium brown by that time. Any longer than that and they will burn, unless you go for the ball method, which will yield thicker cookies that will need slightly longer baking.