Christmas Calendar 2014 Day 22 - Liquorice pepper cookies

Pebernødder (pepper nuts) is a traditional Danish cookie for Christmas, so when I found a liquorice version of the cookie, I decided let it be a part of my Christmas baking for 2014.

I used this recipe Klidmoster´s lakridspeberkage, as starting point making a few modifications of my own. Instead of using brown sugar I went for the dark muscovado sugar, as a another of clearing up in the kitchen stock.

I also decided to add in lemon zest of ½ lemon, as lemon and liquorice is "traditional" flavour combination here in Denmark. However I can not pick any lemon flavour, so another time I would use from 1 lemon.

Liquorice pepper cookies:

• 100 g of sweet liquorice syrup
• 75 g of dark muscovado sugar
• 60 g of butter
• ½ organic lemon - only the zest
• ½ teaspoon grained black pepper
• ½ teaspoon grained ginger
• ½ teaspoon grained allspice
• ½ teaspoon grained cloves
• 1 tablespoon licorice powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• ½ beaten egg
• 250 g (cake) flour

1. Melt licorice syrup, dark muscovado sugar and butter together in a cooking over medium heat.
2. Remove from heat and stir in all many spices and baking soda.
3. Let the mass slightly cool down, before the egg and flour is stir in, until it is a smooth dough. 
4. Let the dough rest cold for minimum 4 hours.
5. Heat up the fan oven to 180'C.
6. Cover a baking tray with baking paper.
7. Divide the dough into small pieces of 6 g, which is rolled into ball shape
8. Place the cookie dough on the baking tray.
9. Bake the liquorice pepper cookies at 180'C in the upper of the oven for 7 minutes.
10. Let the cookies cold on a rack, before they are stored in airtight container.