Along with the tart pucker of oranges, this cake is lightly spiced and is made with an additional sweet splash of vanilla.

I brought this cake to my book club and as they collectively tasted the cake, the group of outspoken women was left speechless for several moments. To say it was hit would be an understatement.

Pfeffernusse cookies are classic German treats (like spritz cookies) and they are often made around Christmas time.

What Are the Special Ingredients in Pfeffernusse Cookies?

• Ground Black Pepper – Pepper is what makes these pfeffernusse cookies most unique. Americans often shy away from the idea of pepper in sweet desserts, but you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the fun spicy kick it gives them. You can use any ground pepper, but white pepper works nicely if you don’t want to see black specks in the cookies.

• Holiday spices – Once you get past the pepper, the spices look like many other German Christmas cookies. They include cinnamon, nutmeg, cardamom, and cloves.
• Molasses – Just like in ginger molasses cookies, molasses gives the cookies a rich, deep flavor. You can use light or dark molasses (dark will give a stronger flavor). I do not recommend using blackstrap molasses as it has a more bitter flavor.
• Brandy – The recipe doesn’t use a lot of brandy; rather, it has just enough to add a touch of brandy flavor. If you don’t want to purchase brandy only for this recipe, you can use rum or even replace the brandy with apple juice.
• Almonds – Finely chopped almonds give the cookies an extra little crunch. Fun fact: pfeffernusse cookies don’t have the word nuts in the them because of the nuts in the recipe; it’s because they are traditionally shaped like nuts.

Crunchy or Soft?

This pfeffernuse cookie recipe is versatile, as it can produce both soft and crunchy cookies depending on how you prepare and store them.

Many recipes for gulab jamun use mixes [paid link], but as regular readers know, I am a 100% from-scratch kind of gal. I got my gulab jamun recipe from My Feasts. It worked perfectly, with one exception: the balls were supposed to be able to soak in the syrup for hours, but after two minutes, my balls were fully saturated. By the five-minute mark, they had completely fallen apart in the syrup. I have two theories as to why this happened: the syrup could have been too hot, or the balls might not have been fried long enough. If you have any thoughts on this, please leave a comment.

To work around that minor hiccup, I found that the best technique was to let the gulab jamun soak for two minutes and then remove them from the syrup with a slotted spoon. When I was ready to serve them (if I didn’t eat them immediately), I microwaved them for ten seconds at a time (until hot) and served them over a small amount of hot syrup.