Crunchy and spicy with aromas of cinnamon, ginger, clove, cardamom and other spices, pepparkakor, the Swedish version of gingerbread, also known as peparkake, or pepperkake in Norway, and piparkakku in Finland, has the taste of Scandinavian Christmas.
What are pepparkakor?
A traditional Christmas specialty, this little crispy cookie is called pepparkaka in the singular and pepparkakor in the plural. Peppar means pepper and kaka means cookie.
Today, the spicy and sweet taste of pepparkakor comes mainly from cinnamon, cardamom, ginger and cloves combined with a sugar syrup, whereas in the 15th century, pepper was the main spice of this cookie, hence its name.
One theory says that at the time, all exotic spices were often called pepper. Other spices used then were aniseed, fennel, orange peel, nutmeg, cedar oil and pickled lemon. Honey was sometimes used instead of sugar syrup.
How to make pepparkakor
A simple recipe for a crispy cookie dough ready in 10 minutes, pepparkakor are made with flour, butter, and spices such as cloves, ginger, cardamom and cinnamon.
Baking soda or baking powder is usually used as a rising agent and sugar syrup and sugar as sweeteners.
Classic Christmas pepparkakor are usually shaped like a heart, pig, star, man, or Christmas tree.
It is very important that the pepparkakor dough is very cold when rolled out to form the cookies with a cookie cutter so that it is easier and the cookies keep their shape well.
The thinner the dough is rolled out, the crispier the cookies will be.
Pepparkakor cookies can be served as is or decorated with a royal icing. Icing is a preparation based on powdered sugar, vinegar or lemon juice and beaten egg white, used for various uses in confectionery, as filling and decoration for cakes and cookies.
What is the origin of pepparkakor?
The first written evidence of seasoned honey cakes dates to about 350 B.C., but the ancient Egyptians already knew of sweet honey cakes, a discovery made through funerary artifacts.
The ancestor of gingerbread is therefore honey loaf that was already known to the ancient Egyptians and Greeks.
Composed of various flours and honeys, without spice, the Ancient Greeks called it melitounta and the Romans called it panis mellitus, cited precisely by Pliny the Elder.
Athenaeus of Naucratis, a Greek scholar and grammarian who lived in Alexandria around 200 AD. evoked then melilates manufactured in Rhodes.
Unlike today, bread was not only eaten at Christmas, but also at Easter and other times. It was part of the Lenten cuisine and was usually served with a strong beer.
It would seem that today’s gingerbread derives more precisely from the Chinese Mi-Kong, literally meaning “honey bread”, composed of wheat flour, honey and often scented with aromatic plants and attested in the 10th century. It spread, among others, through Genghis Khan’s soldiers, the founder of the Mongol Empire, to the present Middle East where the Arabs immediately adopted it.
During the Crusades of the 12th and 13th centuries, in the Middle Ages, Europeans discovered this honey bread and oriental spices and brought the recipe back to Germany and France.
Then, the consumption of this bread made with honey and spices spread through the monastic networks, especially by the Cistercian monks.
But the origin of gingerbread is much debated. Other sources indicate that it would have been brought to Europe by an Armenian monk, Gregory of Nicopolis, in the tenth century, in the year 992, who arrived first in France, near the town of Pithiviers, where he would have taught the art of gingerbread to the local Christian monks.
In the 13th century, the recipe was brought to Sweden by German migrants.
In Germany, in the 15th century, a real brotherhood was created, bringing together gingerbread makers; bakers and confectioners who wanted to make gingerbread and gingerbread figurines absolutely had to be part of it.
In addition, these figures had to be approved by special officials of the Holy Roman Empire of Frederick III.
In the Middle Ages, gingerbread was also produced in monasteries and convents. For example, in Sweden, in Vadstena Abbey, nuns made spice cookies that helped to overcome stomach aches caused by indigestion.
In England, gingerbread was thought to have therapeutic properties and, for this reason, in addition to being sold in monasteries and squares, pharmacies also offered gingerbread.
In the city of Toruń in Poland, pierniki or pierniki toruńskie are the specialty par excellence. Also produced since the Middle Ages, the first pastry chef who made them famous throughout the country was Niclos Czana, whose sweet creations are remembered since 1380.
These Polish spicy cookies became so famous that they threatened the no less famous Nuremberg lebkuchen: the two cities were very jealous of each other and the hostility did not cease until 1556, when an agreement was signed that allowed the exchange of recipes.
Even today, however, there is still a sense of pride and rivalry between Poles and Germans over these cookies, which the mere signing of an agreement cannot appease, even after centuries.
As far as Swedish pepparkakor are concerned, the first documented consumption of gingerbread in Sweden dates back to the 14th century.
It was discovered that the purchase of raw materials clearly indicates that pepparkakor cookies were cooked for the wedding in 1335 between King Magnus Eriksson and Blanka of Namur. Magnus Eriksson, was King of Sweden from 1319 to 1363 (Magnus IV) and King of Norway from 1319 to 1343 (Magnus VII).
In the 16th century, gingerbread was imported. Gustav I Vasa, regent and then king of Sweden, left traces of writings about a ship that sank off the south of Öland and which was completely destroyed so that its cargo with, among others, pepparkakor were destroyed.
Legends around gingerbread
In Sweden, the idea that one becomes nice by eating pepparkakor has long been alive and well.
Indeed, eating gingerbread has long been considered healthy and the various spices that make it up have always had the reputation of having special powers.
King Hans, who was King of Denmark (1481-1513), Norway (1483-1513) and Sweden (1497-1501) as well as Duke of Schleswig-Holstein, was prescribed gingerbread by his doctor because he was in a constant bad mood. According to information from a Copenhagen pharmacy, several dozen kilos of pepparkakor were sent to King Hans.
In Sweden, there is an old saying that with a mouth full of pepparkakor, it is hard to be angry with anyone.
Another Swedish legend says that if you don’t want to eat gingerbread and be nice, you can always squeeze a pepparkaka in the middle of your hand and make it split into three pieces. If it splits into three pieces, one can then quietly make a wish and wish it to be granted.
Pepparkakor at that time were already made in the shape of a heart, especially for Christmas in the early 1800s. The heart is usually associated with kindness or goodness. Maybe the idea is that these Swedish ginger cookies make people nicer because they are heart-shaped.
Another famous legend about gingerbread is related to Christianity, a legend according to the Gospel according to Matthew, the first of the four canonical gospels contained in the New Testament.
It is attested by a document dating from the 8th century which tells that the wise men were not only three, but actually, there were four. The fourth, however, never arrived in Bethlehem but spent his last days in Syria, sick.
He gave the rabbi who housed him, the coffin that he should have given to the newborn Christ and the rabbi found a ginger root inside. The wise man told the rabbi the reason for his journey and told him about the birth of a new messiah.
The rabbi told him in return that he had had his disciples prepare, from time immemorial, little bread houses whose purpose was to keep alive the expectation of the arrival of the Messiah. The wise man, dying, advised his new friend to add ginger to the bread dough, and this would be the birthplace of gingerbread and the tradition of cookie houses.
It is interesting to remember that Bethlehem in Hebrew also means “the house of bread”.
This recipe is validated by our expert in Swedish cuisine, Chef Stefano Catenacci. Chef Stefano is the co-owner of Nobis Hospitality Group, including Michelin-starred Operakallaren in Stockholm.
Pepparkakor
Ingredients
For the cookie dough
- 6 cups flour , sifted
- 1 cup brown sugar
- ½ cup light sugar syrup
- ½ cup water
- ½ cup butter , cut into pieces
- 1 tablespoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
For the royal icing
- 2 cups icing sugar
- 1 egg white
- 2 teaspoons white vinegar or squeezed lemon
Equipment
- Stand mixer
- Rolling pin
- Cookie cutters
- Baking sheet
- Parchment paper
- Cooling rack
- Pastry bag
Instructions
Cookie dough
- Add the brown sugar, syrup and water into a saucepan.
- Bring to a boil and immediately remove the pot from the heat.
- Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the spices.
- Pour the hot sweet mixture over it and stir until the butter melts. Let cool for 15 minutes at room temperature.
- Combine the sifted flour and baking soda and add over the mixture in the bowl of the stand mixer.
- Using the flat beater, mix everything very quickly until a soft dough forms.
- Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it rest in the refrigerator between 24 and 48 hours.
- Preheat the convection oven to 400 F (200°C).
- Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces.
- Start by working a piece of dough and place the other two in the refrigerator during this time.
- On a floured work surface, roll out the dough thinly and form the pepparkakor using cutters in the shape of a heart, star, tree, snowman, or others.
- Place cookies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, bake for 4 to 6 minutes or until light brown.
- Watch the baking closely because pepparkakor tend to burn quickly.
- Repeat the operation until all the dough set aside in the refrigerator is used up.
- Place the pepparkakor on a cooling rack and allow them to cool completely.
Royal icing
- Beat the egg white in a bowl.
- Add the icing sugar and vinegar and beat until the mixture is neither too runny nor too thick.
- Add a little vinegar or lemon juice if the mixture is too thick or on the contrary, add a little icing sugar if the mixture is too liquid.
Decor
- Pour the icing into a piping bag fitted with a tip and decorate the cookies.
- Carefully place each cookie on a cooling rack and allow the frosting to set in the open air for at least 2 hours.
Video
Vera is the “expert” of the 196 flavors’ duo. With over 30 years of experience in the kitchen, she is now sharing her skills as a private chef and cooking instructor.
Cecilia says
What’s Christmas without gingerbreads or this version Pepparkador? Very nostalgic cookies especially during our childhood days.