[Sca-cooks] my recipe for the 19th-

[Laura C. Minnick]

It's only barely the 19th, but best to do this while I'm remembering!

My Mennonite Grandma, who started out huge but got smaller and more 
bird-like the bigger I got, was a baker of some reknown in her circles. I 
remember her kitchen as neat as a pin, filled with the scent of yeast dough 
and suffused with warm light through her lace curtains. At Christmas time 
she baked pan after pan of wonderful cookies- coconut macaroons, 
'Thumbprint' cookies filled with red or green jelly, gingerbread men with 
cinnamon candies for buttons and eyes, lacy shortbread snowflakes, and 
peanut butter cookies- she let me help by criss-crossing the fork on top.

But mostly for Christmas she baked Pfeffernuisse.

When Grandma moved into a nursing home, my Uncle Herman put most of her 
stuff up for sale at a garage sale- including her cookbooks, filled with 
notes and spare recipes in her spidery handwriting. (My aunts nearly killed 
him when they found out he'd sold the cookbooks. And he had no clue why 
they were upset.) Fortunately, the last time she was out here in the 
northwest to visit (been 20 years, because we have a picture of Annie on 
Grandma's lap during that visit) I extracted from her a recipe for 
Pfeffernuisse. It just isn't Christmas without them, and I can imagine her 
looking over my shoulder, giving instructions, like she did when I has a 
tiny girl, standing on her old yellow stepstool...

Pfeffernuisse

5 eggs
2 C dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons dark coffee
1/2 t mace
1/2 t ginger
1/2 t nutmeg
1/2 t cardamom
1/2 t cloves
1/2 t allspice
1/2 t salt
1 t black pepper
1 t cinnamon
1 t ground lemon peel
1/2 anise seed (bashed up a bit in a mortar) and/or 1/2 tsp anise extract, 
depending on taste
1/4 dark molasses
2 t baking powder
6 C flour

In a large bowl, beat the eggs until they a a thick, lemon-colored foam. 
Add the brown sugar and coffee (I can't drink coffee anymore, so I use make 
up a little using instant. It works). In a small bowl or teacup mix the 
spices, blend them together well, and add to the sugar and egg mix. Add the 
molasses and baking powder, and blend well.

Work in the flour one cup at a time. The dough should be quite heavy and 
fairly stiff. Chill in refrigerator about 1 hour. (Sometimes I leave it 
overnight to fully develop the spice flavors.) On a floured board, work 
dough into ropes about the thickness of your thumb- cut into bits about 
5/8" long. Arrange on cookie sheets (greased, I think. I don't have it 
written down) closely but not touching. Bake at 300 for 22-25 minutes. 
Cookies should be lightly browned on the bottom, and dry. Roll in powdered 
sugar as they're cooling if you like. Grandma didn't, Mom did. I do when I 
feel like it. Store cookies in a tupperware (or similar with lid) 
container. The flavors develop more fully after a couple of days, but 
somehow they're never around that long...

'Lainie
___________________________________________________________________________
The penalty good men pay for not being interested in politics is to be 
governed by men worse than themselves. -- Plato