Low Carb Pebernødder

Everybody has their particular cookies that they just must have for Christmas. For me, the cookies are the Danish traditional pebernødder ("pepper nuts", known as Pfeffernüssen in Germany) and brunkager ("brown cakes"). With our recent dietary changes, these cookies presented a challenge. Between these and the sugar cookies, I have baked quite a lot this Christmas, and our buckets of almond flour are getting emptied at a surprising clip. With the l-carb shop offering almond flour for as little as €12/kg, I can afford to go through some - that's at least a better price than the €30+ seen in some shops. Here's the recipe for pebernødder - the brunkager must wait till tomorrow since they have to rest for several days.

Pebernødder

This is my mother's recipe, with low-carb replacement marked in bold:
  • 500 g flour (replace with 200 g flour, 300 g fine almond flour)
  • 1 tsp ammoniumcarbonate (hjortetaksalt, in Germany Hirschhornsalz) - use 1 1/2 to 2 tsp
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp cardamom
  • 1 tsp ground black pepper
  • 125 g butter
  • 250 g sugar (replace with 250 g xylitol in crystals, e.g. Xucker)
  • 2 eggs (I used 4 small eggs)
  • Zest of one organic lemon
Mix the dry ingredients, add the butter and crumble it together, then add the eggs. If the dough is too dry to form a ball, add a bit of canola oil. It should form a solid ball, not be sticky. Wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Preheat oven to 200C. Roll dough into several 1 cm thick rolls - you may need to use some more regular flour to keep it from sticking. Cut the rolls into 1cm bits and place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until slightly brown.

These are not crunchy in the way they would be with all regular flour, but they have a nice almondy taste added. Do not try to replace some flour with flax seed flour or sunflower seed flour (sunflour?), the taste of those flours is too savory.

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