Began day one of cookie making last night. It might not be a multi-day process, but we're Swedish, and Pepparkakor is a two day process. Our particular receipe consists of a list of measured ingredients and the instructions to chill before rolling out.
I'm sure this made plenty of sense to the Johnson (well, except they weren't Johnson until they came into the country- I'm not sure they HAD a last name before that) who first came up with it, but to the not so every day cook, this isn't helpful.
It's not a typical receipe. If you look them up online, they're just ginger snaps, really. Ours aren't like that- for one thing, they actually have pepper in them. White pepper is a traditional Swedish spice, used in the meatballs, and also in these cookies, which is why these cookies are called Pepparkakor (pepper cookies, essentially). They're not like gingerbread, either.
So, my mother being the only person left in the world who remembers having made these (my grandmother made them, but she hasn't been able to make cookies for a few years now), I was on the phone to her a lot. She's also the first member of the family to try it with a stand mixer, which I also have. "How long should I cream the butter and sugar and sorghum? Thirty seconds, are you sure about that?", "You use white sugar, not brown? Brown feels like it makes more sense, it's poor people sugar, and this doesn't have eggs, so I figured... OK, white sugar." "What temperature do you bake them? It doesn't say. You don't remember? I know it only takes, like, seven minutes for the things to cook, the temperature's probably important." It's also got an enormous yeild- if you only do a half receipe you get like, sixty cookies. The full version calls for a pound of butter -four sticks- and eight cups of flour.
And they last forever. The Swedes would hang them up in the rafters and eat them all winter. The only problem with them is that they seem to be an aquired taste, they're always the last ones to be eaten any time I've ever taken them anyplace, and even then I end up with more. They're not gingerbread, but they look it, so I don't know why people don't eat 'em. They're also marvellous to use with impression cookie cutters.
Impression cutters leave a design on the main part of the cookie. They're hard to find now, but Hallmark used to make them (check Ebay, people pay rediculous prices for what used to cost 75 cents), and Tupperware, and a company that my mother got all hers from, CookieCraft, but they go by another name too.
Anyway, it's all sitting in the refrigerator now, waiting for me to roll it out sometime today. Then I'll get started on the Spritz. Which are, from what I recall, an adventure. Since they're mostly butter, and they're a press cookie (Mirro used to make a cookie press, if you don't know what it is, check Ebay yourself), time is of the essence. If the dough gets too soft before you've baked all of them (and you can't press them on to hot cookie sheets either), they won't turn out. So, that's what I'm doing later tonight.
I know I was raised by a family of bakers (not of cooks, don't try to ask us to make turkeys), but it still boggles my mind that people would go to the trouble to buy the new cookies Nestle makes. They're pre-cut shaped cookies. All you have to do is put them on a sheet and in the oven for ten minutes or so. What's the point, please? If you're that pressed for time and effort, why don't you just buy cookies and a "baking cookies" Yankee candle? Who in their right mind would still call those things "homemade"?
The only real purpose might be for someone who wanted to keep a passel of kids busy decorating while the grown ups worked on dinner. That way, they're out of the way, but they feel like they're helping. You know, if they're the sort of kids who can be trusted not to start "Frosting Fights".
Not that I would know anything about that.
Actually, no, I wouldn't.