It was a fun day today. We got a box of mail forwarded by Daughter Mary Mae (Our "official" address is her house.). Besides a few bills and magazines, there was a nice bunch of Christmas cards and some small gifts. But, the thing that made our day was a couple of small bags of precious Pfefferneuse cookies. When they show up, you know it's Christmas time!
Pfeefferneuse or Peppernuts are a small anise flavored cookie. My mother made a version that were the size of walnuts. The kids used to put them in their jacket pockets when they were out riding and eat them like jaw breakers.
Our family started making them with Dorothy Friesen's (Judy William's mother) recipe that used ground star anise. They are quite small -- about the size of your littlest finger nail. Traditionally, the dough was made Thanksgiving week and aged until they were baked just before Christmas. The dough is rolled out into long snakes or ropes, then cut into small pieces and baked. It's a very labor intensive process. You can have a hundred or more of the little critters on one baking sheet.
I'm glad that MM has been busy baking -- and even happier that she shared!
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