Pippernutters

One of the things I was most excited about having once our shipment arrived from the US was all of our cooking/baking pieces.  I wouldn't consider myself a great cook or even someone who just loves to cook, but it was amazing how much I missed being able to just make something whenever I wanted.  I am sure part of that was just that I couldn't do it, so I wanted to more.  Especially the first few days we were in the apartment, it was especially hard because we didn't have a fridge, oven, or microwave so we had to go somewhere else for every meal.

Well ever since I got here and tried the "spiced" tea at work which had the cardamom in it, I have been craving Pippernutters.  You know how just the smell of something can you take you back to a memory?  This was exactly like that.  Probably about 10-15 years ago, my grandma had come out to NC to babysit us kids while my parents went on a trip and we made Pippernutters.  I think I have only had them one other time and that was at a family reunion on the same side of the family and one of my relatives made them.

A handful of pippernutters ready to be eaten!

Pippernutters have a very distinct taste because they are really just kind of a sweet, soft bread bite that is flavored with cardamom.  So when I tasted and smelled the spiced tea, that's exactly what I thought of.  I emailed my grandma and asked for the recipe which she gladly sent me and noted that "Grams would be so happy to give you her recipe for Pippernutters, though she wouldn't believe you were baking them in Abu Dhabi."  :)

I had a lot fun making them, although they took a lot longer to make than I had remembered.  Part of that might be that I couldn't find ground cardamom in the store, so I just bought it whole and decided to grind it myself.

Here's my piles of cardamom, the whole seeds are in the
background, the "shells" in the middle, and the un-ground
seeds in the foreground.

Once I finally got what I thought would possibly be enough to make the 4tbs of ground cardamom, I dissassembled our rock salt grinder and put the seeds in there to grind.  It was quite the process, but well worth it.

Here's a few more photos of the of process:

Mixing the ground cardamom into the batter

Baking the bites

 
I tried to do a little research online to find out if they were Welsh or maybe German (I know the Christmas cookie recipe from my great-grandmother is German and that I'm supposedly some significant part Welsh).  The main things I found were danish and german with varying names and not all included cardamom and many included other spices like nutmeg, allspice, and anise.  Apparently the Vikings brought cardamom from the Middle East to the Nordic countries.


Grandma, maybe you can confirm what country this recipe may have come from?



One last note, the yeast I bought in the store had this label/directions on it:

"Water at blood heat"

Maybe it's just me, but I was a little weirded out that they referred to blood in the directions.

Anyways, I plan to try to share some at work tomorrow as the recipe made enough to feed about 10 people.  They do go great with tea & coffee :)