First, I am overjoyed that you made my recipe and I'm so glad that you liked them. Next, they are supposed to be smaller and a bit harder, mom said that they're supposed to last a while and you can dunk them in coffee to soften them up.

In Holland we have "Pepernoten" also literally translated to Pepper Nuts. They can be small round hard little cookies or small (1 inch) soft squares. My husband's Dutch grandfather was a baker and he used to bake them around Sinterklaas (December 5) every year. His recipe came from his grandfather who was also a baker. The ingredients are quite different from those you have used, but if you would like the recipe I would be happy (and proud) to provide it.

I will never lose my love with pen and paper! I'm 36 and still strongly dislike most social media, and that people think digital is king.

Peppernuts are often known by their German name, "pfefferneusse." They're a German cookie that also shows up in Pennsylvania Dutch and Mennonite communities' cuisines. They tend to show up in German households around Christmas.

Close the syrup bottle, hold it by the bottom and do a Pete Townsend windmill for about 15 seconds. Then you have enough!

I grew up in the midwestern US in an area with German and Mennonite communities. Peppernuts (or pfeffernuse) were very common during the holidays. This recipe is quite different from what I know as a peppernut without anise or the other warming spices and white pepper. Our dough was always stiff enough to roll into ropes and cut almost like making gnocchi.

I grew up in a Danish-American family in the northwest. Danish Pebbernødder were spiced with pepper, along with cloves, cinnamon, allspice, and nutmeg. The dough was rolled the size of a pencil and cut into small chunks. They are a part of a traditional cookie tray at Christmas.

Based on the title, I wasn't expecting a cookie 😄 Thank you to Katie for sharing a much loved heirloom family recipe. I look forward to trying them.

WOW! Communicating with lined paper. Katie might be setting a trend. Go Katie Go!

My grandma’s family were Mennonite and she made these with cinnamon, cloves, sometimes nutmeg and sometimes white pepper if she had it. She always put grated lemon peel in as well.

That is so cool. Those peppernuts only seem to be very loosely similar to German "Pfeffernüsse". The traditional German versions are more like (German) gingerbread and mostly do not contain pepper, but other oriental spices. And supposedly, pepper never really was an important ingredient of them, but in the middle ages oriental spices in general were called "Pfeffer" in German. And of course, there is quite some variety of quite different versions of them in Germany. Also, what is common and maybe even regarded as necessary for these kinds of christmassy cookies is to never eat them right after baking, but to let them rest in a box for at least 2 weeks. One, that is supposed to be important for the flavour, two, it definitely changes the consistency. So the German "Pfeffernüsse" usually are a bit harder than the usual German gingerbread, but also I would say, you would start with rather hard cookies that over time get softer and chewy in the box - much like gingerbread. It is cool, that in North America those cookies became their own separated tradition.

I love the rare letter in the mail! Thanks, Katie, for sharing your family recipe.

Love Glen rocking the CBC logo on his hat.

Love your fair isle sweater Julie. Thank you Glenn and Katie for making my day a whole lot happier 😊

Neat! I'm going to try these with ginger and clove for a chai masala cookie.

This is very different from the pfeffernüße recipe I use that has honey, molasses & lebkuchengewürz. Certainly not saying anything is wrong with that, but it's fascinating how recipes mutate over time!

Greetings from another Minnesotan! I'm in Minneapolis, about 2 hours from Katie. Glen, you did not make the cookies "wrong." You probably/possibly made them differently. The only "wrong" cookie is an inedible one. The ingredients on my Kari Light (clear) Corn Syrup are: corn syrup, salt, vanilla (vanilla beans, water, ethyl alcohol).

I make these at Christmas but we call them by their German name, Pfeffernusse . I usually add a but of anise, as well.

Wonderful Day when you receive a handwritten letter. Awesome when a recipe is included. Happy Dance. Thank you for sharing with everyone. Looking forward to making them soon. 😀

The amount of flour required can vary due to seasonal humidity and processing. My paternal grandmother would flour her hands if she was shaping a cookie ball recipe, but cookie scoops (a later culinary innovation) work just as well. Her recipe had allspice (Jamaican pepper).

Kudos for reusing the parchment. I do love the stuff, but I find it problematic to use something so disposable so I use it several times. And I love pfefferneusse.

Did anyone else watch this and immediately say "Holy cow, that's a lot of corn syrup!" lol These sound delicious, and I love seeing new ways to work with pepper.

My grandmother made these too, and I do remember them being smaller, but as long as they are delicious she would approve of yours Glen.

Ok... this is going on my list of things to try. I love the use of pepper in a "sweet".

That letter was the cutest thing I've seen all day

For the Karo syrups, the Karo Dark is closer to the Beehive brand in ingredients, where the Light Karo Syrup is the one that contains vanilla. So the Crown brand you showed is closer to a mixture of the Light and Dark Karo. I honestly would like the addition of a bit of vanilla.

Thank you for sharing the history and little known facts about the recipes. Watching you is the best of my day.

My grandmother made these every Christmas. I haven't had one since the 1970's, I was wanting to make them last year, but couldn't not remember the name or even how to begin to look up a recipe. I think she called them by their German name. She also rolled them in powdered sugar with more pepper in it to finish them. They were small and crunchy but had a soft interior.

I made something similar recently, from a Scandinavian recipe, it’s really interesting to see how recipes travel the world! The stuff I read on it was that pepper wasn’t originally an ingredient, (they just called a lot of spices pepper) but later on was added as a result of long misunderstanding! Traditionally it’d have cardamom, nutmeg and your general warming spices. Definitely supposed to be smaller, you probably needed more flour

Always wanted to try these. You're going to get inundated with more family recipes in the mail. That'll be fun!

Oh, I'm adding this to my repertoire! And while I'm at it, I'll experiment with various other spices added such as cinnamon/clove/ginger. I also think a cheese/peppernut might be interesting.

I’ve never heard of these before, but since Katie is from Saint Cloud and so am I then I feel like I need to try making them some time!

It's funny where are grandparents and great parent grandparents used black pepper. My grandma and I'm almost 68 was born in 1900 and she used between 1/8 and 1/4 of teaspoon of coarse ground only fresh black pepper along with the other spices in her apple pie it was amazing it just did something to the pie

I love the family connection- could make for a new videos around that content.

The name peppernut makes me think of Christmas and eating Peppernotten. Little walnut sized cookies that taste suspiciously like Voortman Windmill Cookies with black pepper.

Oh wow, I grew up with these but I didn't know until I read the comments! I had never heard the English name. Now I want some and might have to enlist my 90-year-old mother to help me out.

Love old family recipes! Definitely tried and tested until perfect 🥰

Love that the Tic Toc crowd is watching this wonderful channel!

My mother and grandmother used to make these. When my grandmother made them, she dipped them in a plain icing. Mother would shake them in a bag of powered sugar. They also had course ground pecans in them.

Pfeffernüsse - it is an American version of the German classic. Use honey instead of corn syrup and add some more spices to the black pepper - muskat, anis, ginger, ... and you have the German version. Cover with sugar glaze to get hard outer shell (nut) while retaining the soft and moist cookie inside.

A great way to start the day!

Glen, This is so cool. That letter made my day!

Refrigerate the dough for easy rolling into little balls, then press them down slightly with a fork to make an imprint resembling a walnut or pecan. We had fun doing it as kids...My Grandma's we're crunchy with a sort of chewy soft center. Very similar to the texture of a nut. Scrumptious!

They look lovely i bet they would also be good with cardamom as it is a lemony peppery flavored spice. I always do these kind of cookies by teaspoon sized drops of dough. They look like a lovely tea/coffee dunking type of cookie.

In bygone times "pepper" was a catch-all term for spices.

My Grandma used to make these but I didn't remember that she called them peppernuts. She made them really small, about the size of a peanut. I never had the patience to make a batch of them, but I LOVED eating them.

The use Karo syrup is definitely a widwestern americanization, and it's so endearing.

Cool variation. You gotta make Chef John’s version of Pfeffernussen. Interesting technique. No butter and no creaming and more spices, plus a lemon flavoured glaze that is killer.

This is very different from what I think of as peppernuts in Norway. They are more like small rounded gingerbread cookies and contains other spices in addition to pepper, often cloves and star anise. Also, I'm used to not creaming the butter and sugar, but heating the syrup, sugar, cream, spices and salt in a pan and then adding the flour and baking soda to that.

Sweet. Have you ever made a pfferneuse cookie. Uses black pepper also, but it’s dark brown and contains cloves. A delicious German cookie.

Was surprised they actually have pepper in them. From the title I thought it would be something like the Dutch Pepernoten which have nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon and aniseed. I wonder if this recipe is the origin of those?

Sounds awesome! We make some Italian cookies with pepper that are probably related and they're great!

The ones I made where called Peppernuts Cookies (Pfeffernüsse Cookies) and used a special spice blend

My brother-in-law makes a rolled chocolate cookie with pepper, which is a favorite with all our friends and everyone in the family, including me, and I don't even care about chocolate. I would never had thought of pepper in sweet foods, but now I know better! Pepper is good with strawberries, too.

In the Netherlands we call these Pepernoten (which means exactly the same) and they are almost always soft like how you made them. They are traditionally eaten around the feast of Sinterklaas (December 5th), which is a germanic version of Santa Claus.

I always reuse my parchment paper several times if it did not get too messy.

Love this

Looks like a winner 👍🏻

Glen look up pfeffernusse cookies “pepper nut cookies” very common in Kansas which had a lot of German settlers. You cookie probably came from this German cookie. I’ve never seen a black pepper Used in this cookie. Roll the dough in a thin 1/4 inch rope and cut thumb size pieces. going to try your version because I don’t like anise flavor they add they added to other warm spices

Nice video! As I already expected 😊

It has been decades since I’ve heard the name “Peppernuts.” My great Grandmother used to always have these in a tin when we visited. It is the only place/time I’ve ever seen and/or had them. They were the size of your thumb (pecan-sized) and very very hard. I never considered them a cookie...just Great Grandmother’s treats. I do remember it was an odd taste (for a child) as I was only 5 or 6 when I first tried them. I do recall that they were dusted with a white substance (likely powdered sugar). My Great Grandmother was an immigrant from Germany from the 19th Century (post-civil war). These should not be soft and/or chewy. You have piqued my interest so I need to go search for the recipe. I always enjoy your channel. Thanks for sharing.

Several friends make these and they are all native Minnesotans, now living in Minneapolis but originally from up north in Duluth, they are very tiny, rolled into ropes and cut and crunchy

Totally pfeffernuse! Love these.

Yum. Peppernuts are a Christmas cookie. They are delicious.

There are two kinds of Karo: dark and light. Light has a little vanilla flavoring. Dark is comparable to beehive. Neither have high fructose corn syrup. Katie: thank you for the recipe! I’ve never heard of these cookies. I will be making them soon.

After your video we made these based on listed ingredients, except before adding pepper, SWMBO split the dough in half. 1/2 Black pepper, other half was ginger, clove, cardimen, allspice, nutmeg, & Cinnamon. Both versions very good. Visited a friend, who like lemon so made a simple stiff frosting of 1 part lemon juice to 2 parts powdered suger to stick 2 flat cookies together. Another great recipe, thank you.

Nice video, Glen, and thank you Katie for sharing with us too!

I love the pepper flavor in cookies!

Katie, thank you for sharing this wonderful recipe with all of us. And thanks to Glen for making them here on the channel. I am wondering if Tate and Lyle Golden Syrup would work?

Glen have you ever thought about publishing a cook book of your favorite old recipes from your cook book collection, and maybe some of the more interesting ones your viewers have sent in to you? I bet you could write a whole book yourself about how recipe formats and measurements have changed over the years, you probably have already done all the research you would need to do from making your videos.

Love pepper nuts they are smaller and harder. Love them with coffee, or as a side with ice cream.

I love black pepper so im going to try these! So interesting!!!!

My mother made these cookies, hers had powdered sugar, also was told they go with red wine, I like them with coffee.

When I was little, some time ago. They were small and crunchy. Thanks for the great memories. Great video's.

Just Wow

Good morning. Karo has no high fructose corn syrup and is the same as what you used except it has caramel flavoring instead of vanilla

Thanks Katie!

beatifull

They looked like a cookie you could eat with soup, or a pasta dish for texture, or put 2 together with a cheesy filling? Tasty looking goodness 👍from BIGMICK IN THE UK🇬🇧

So on the farm we had these with the same name, but with cinnamon, anise and ginger...funny how recipes differ either way, I love how these get passed down generations...need to it keep em going !

As a German (from the Rhineland) - all the peppernuts I can remember eating were soft, and coated in a sugar glazing. But then again, my (quite extended) family doesn't have any peppernut recipes - they all make a bunch of other cookie types for Christmas. And yeah, they're very much considered a Christmas kinda deal here. So long story short: I *think* that I only every ate "industrially produced" peppernuts (like, I bought them in supermarkets). Which, naturally, means they were homogenized for all markets (regional differences matter _a lot_ in Germany, not only when it comes to food), and not nearly as tasty as the home-made stuff. I'm actually intrigued by the idea of peppernut flavor in a crumbly biscuit.

I have a Danish recipe for peppernuts that uses potash for leavening. The are balls and crunchy.

Fantastic recipe Katie, thank you for sharing it..! Great job as usual Glenn, we live about an hour and a half west of Cairo, Georgia where Kayro ("Kay-row") syrup originated..

Good show as always thank you. Keep up the good work. I look forward to seeing your shows 😊

Karo Dark Syrup ingredients are: corn syrup, salt, vanilla, refiners/cane syrup, caramel flavor, sodium benzoate, by the way.

Danish pebernødder (literally translates to pepper nuts) are much smaller than these, not even a quarter of the size, they're almost round and not at all flat, and they're definitely meant to be very crunchy

In Wisconsin we call these Pfeffernuse a traditional Christmas cookie. My Grandma made these every year. Grandma's did not have the cream, not as much corn syrup, did have anise & sometimes caraway seeds.

I was recently shopping in the baking goods aisle, near the molasses, a man stopped me and asked if I was making this cookie and proceeded to tell me how he and his wife make these, freeze in sections / rolls, and take out and bake anytime they wanted to have them…🤣

Adding a tablespoon of mint extract might be interesting ... 😎👍

My German Mennonite grandpa always made these at Christmas in the 50’s and 60’s, but they were rolled into ropes, and cut very small, like gnocchi.

My grandmother had a very similar recipe, but used peppermint instead of black pepper. A completely different taste! She also made them the size of quarters, and not as big as you did here.

My bottle of Karo Light Corn Syrup says "With Real Vanilla" right on the front. And the ingredients are Corn Syrup, Salt, Vanilla. I would assume if it was HFCS it would have to say that on the label somewhere. So there you go! Great Grandma's Peppernuts look really good and I will be trying them this weekend! 😃

Pfeffernusse cookies! Like my mom made. I’m from Northfield, Minnesota.

Baked in those twisty cookie pans, with Nutmeg? They remind me of Gems. I might have the Gems recipie still kicking, from the Baker husband, of my one Client. She gave me the pans and recipie, but a move from one City to another, had ALL my Treasures lost! That pan was among my Treasures, as well as the Recipie book i hunted for, with a specific cake recipie. Every time i visited an Aunt? She served Hungarian Poppy Seed Torte, with Walnut Frosting. Took me years to find it! At least i know the name and have it now. Someone baked it for me? Not the same! When i made it from that Book, it waa perfect! Spot on! *sad face*

Corn syrup is not a thing in my country, but what I have learnt today is that corn syrup does not contain corn! Who would have thought?

The Crown is closer to Karo, FWIW. Since it contains vanilla.

I didn’t know until recently that “high fructose corn syrup” is labeled as “glucose-fructose” here in Canada. I remember as a kid my mother using “fructose” as a sweetener for my diabetic grandfather and just thought it was the same thing.

Karo is regular corn syrup, and the light corn syrup does contain vanilla flavor. Only their maple-flavored pancake syrup contains HFCS. In the United States, high-fructose corn syrup isn’t readily available for consumers to buy. It’s typically only sold to industry in 5-gallon containers (or bigger).

Waiting for the video where his wife repells down from the ceiling for free food.

My favorite episode. It goes up there with all the great PBS programs!