Pepparkakor (Swedish Ginger Thins).
There is no other aroma that reminds me more of the festive season than freshly-baked pepparkakor – so moreish that you can never just stop at one! Pepparkakor are delicate, incredibly light, thin, crisp cookies – baked in hundreds in every Scandinavian home. These spiced, melt-in-the mouth biscuits are often shaped as hearts, pigs and goats. Mormor (granny) used to set aside a day to bake these fragrant gingersnaps to give to all the family in the festive season. I loved to assist her with the rolling and the cutting, they were one of many kakor that she baked in the month of December. However Pepparkakor are baked throughout the year in Sweden, but they’re especially popular at Christmas.
Originally these cookies were far spicier than they are today. Pepparkakor means pepper biscuits, not ingefärakakor – ginger biscuits, because they contained lots of pepper. Nowadays many modern recipes do not contain any pepper at all and neither does mine. In my method cinnamon and ground cloves dominate with background flavours of ginger and cardamom.
Stamp holes for string just as they come out of the oven.
Iced Pepparakakor
These delicate cookies are very simple to make but fresh spices are crucial to the taste, especially the cardamom. Buy the whole pods or the seeds and grind as you need them. Store small amounts if you don’t bake that often as stale spices loose their flavour. The dough itself takes less than half an hour to make, however it must rest in the fridge overnight before you can roll and stamp out the shapes. Pepparkakor should be very thin, on the other hand, if you wish to hang them on your tree, I would recommend making them a little thicker.
It might surprise you to know that these ginger thins are truly delicious topped with a slice of creamy blue cheese, such as gorgonzola or St Agur. Try it, is so good!
Pepparkakor Swedish Ginger Thins
Equipment
- Rolling pin and cookie cutters
Ingredients
- 250 g Butter, salted room temperature
- 1 Tbsp Cinnamon
- 1 Tsp Ground Cloves
- ½ Tbsp Ground Ginger
- ½ Tbsp Freshly Ground Cardamom
- 180 g Caster Sugar
- 40 g Golden Syrup
- 60 g Molasses (Black treacle)
- 75 mls Water
- 500 g Plain Flour
- 1 Tsp Bicarbonate of soda
To decorate
- royal icing
Instructions
- Blend the butter and all the spices in a large bowl.
- Heat the sugar, molasses, golden syrup and water until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes and pour over the butter mixture. Cool to room temperature.
- Blend the flour and bicarbonate and the stir into the butter and sugar mixture. The mixture is fairly loose but it's now going to be refrigerated for roughly 8 hours, divide into 4 and wrap in clingfilm. This dough can be kept in the fridge for a week or frozen for up to a 3 months.
- Oven 190°C fan. Take only a small amount of the dough from the fridge and lightly flour your surface and roll out the dough 2mm thick. Stamp out your shapes with your chosen cookie cutters. With the help of a thin bladed knife, transfer them carefully to lined baking trays. Bake once you’ve filled a tray. Bake the biscuits for 5-6 minutes. They should start to feel hard around the edges as they cool and eventually become really crisp – they need to have a nice ‘snap’. Store in an airtight container for several weeks.
To decorate
- If you would like to ice your biscuits, take 30g of royal icing and add a small water until you have smooth paste that you can pipe with. I make the icing in batches as it begins to harden fairly quickly.
Notes
Tips:
- Plan a day ahead – the dough must rest in the fridge overnight.
- Take small amounts of dough out of the fridge at a time, roll and cut. At room temperature it is far more difficult to handle.
- When I bake these I roll thin ones for eating and slightly thicker ones for tree decorations.
- If you are good at icing make a thick royal icing and get your piping bag out. If you don’t feel confident using a piping bag, just make a thinner icing and flick the fork to and fro above the biscuits.
- Add 75g of chopped slivered almonds to the dough as an alternative.
- This recipe can be halved successfully.
Fika treats and beautiful scented edible Christmas gifts and decorations too.
I found a slightly different recipe with a cookie cutter and the wishing cookie tale. I am so excited to make these cookies.
Glad to hear it Sarah, let me know what you think.🎄
My son and I made these biscuits yesterday; best recipe I’ve tried and really straightforward. Many thanks
It’s great to hear you like my recipe. Thanks for taking the time to comment Lisa.
When I was a child the Pogen Family bakery made a version of these wonderful cookies. I could eat bag full bag by myself. Pogen’s bakery is long gone but not my memories of the thin crispy ginger snap. I’ve made your recipe twice, first time not rolling them thin enough. It gets close to what I remember. I did substitute bakers ammonia for the bicarbonate of soda. That change made them more crispy. I’m going to step up the ginger on my next batch. Thank you for posting this recipe, it taste really good and gave me a start on recreating a childhood memory.
Lovely to hear your story Robert. Rolling the dough very thin does take a little practise but it’s definitely worth persevering. Thanks so much for taking the time to comment.
So excited to make these this year! Do you know where your cookie cutters came from? I’ve been trying to find some good ones but all the Christmas cutters I’ve come across are so cheesey and these are so simple and delicate! Thanks again for the beautiful recipe.
Hi Laina, most of my cutters were bought in Sweden sometime ago. I did have a look on the web for you. If you search ‘Swedish Christmas cookie cutters’ some nice ones come up. Hope that helps. Glad you like my recipe☺️
There’s no egg mentioned? Is that correct?
Can’t wait to make these with my daughter!
That’s right, there’s no egg in this recipe.
Great recipe and good instructions, now our Christmas break is complete, plus they make perfect giveaways. Thanks and God Jul!
Glad you like the recipe Natalya and yes they make the perfect gift. God Jul!🎄
Thanks for the recipe! Can these be made thicker? Win the still be crispy is they are 5-6mm thick?
They can be made thicker, just adjust the baking time. I make the slightly thicker for tree decorations.
Thank you. How long would you bake them for if they’re 5-6mm thick?
Difficult to say, firstly I suggest lowering the oven temp to 180C fan. You’re looking for a deep brown colour, try baking 1 for 10 minutes (they harden as they cool). Add a minute or 2 if it’s not crisp.
Hope that helps.
Hi, I would love to make these lovely ginger thins, could you tell me what nozzle you have used for decorating them, please ?
I make a piping bag with grease proof paper. If you’re unable to do this I would invest in a Jem piping nozzle, size #5. Hope that help Elise.
Thank you Louise very much appreciate it. 🙂
I have been making these for three years now – following your receipe. The whole family love it and I love been able to bring back some swedish traditions.
I’m delighted to hear this Chloe. There’s nothing quite like the aroma of pepparkakor, it’s so festive.
This recipe took a few goes to dial in but 180c for 6mins 30secs (fan oven, the manufacturer’s recommended biscuit shelf) and lovely and thin dough was absolutely perfect. We lived for 2 years in Sweden when I was a child; they taste of Swedish Christmas. Once I had bought a Dala Horse pastry cutter, it was perfect!
Next, I need to learn to make cinnamon buns.
Thank you for the recipe, v appreciated.
I’m so pleased you like my recipe and that you found the right settings for your oven. I look forward to reading about your cinnamon buns Chris! :-))