Pfeffernusse

Every year for Christmas we got a package in the mail from my grandma.  I didn't really know her as a chef or a baker, but every year she sent us a bag of homemade pfeffernuss.  Pfeffernusse (pepper nuts) are small hard anise-flavored cookies.  I know - anise.  I always loved them.  Probably because they were from my grandma and because of the emotional connection to the food.  Anyway, they are these little bite-sized cookies about the size of a marble.  They have a distinct flavor and don't need frosting or sugar on top.  Just plain and simple.

There were two ways we could enjoy our pfeffernusse.  First, we could dunk them in dad's coffee (not mom's usually, she didn't like them).  Pfeffernusse are firm and the coffee loosens them up just enough.  Or we could eat them out of our pockets.  Yes, our pockets.  That was my favorite.  Ohio winters are cold, especially when you are waiting for the bus or pushing the woods. (Pushing the woods means walking through the woods from one end to the other in a strategic manner so as to kick-up the deer and sending them running in the direction of the hunters.)

I remember standing outside in the cold on several occasions, it was so cold so I'd put my hands in my pockets and....you guessed it...pfeffernusse!  I would pop the little delight in my mouth and just kind of let it melt down.  (I have to tell you that once...maybe a few times...I'd put on my coat for the first time of the year and find a pfeffernusse in the pocket.  When they are a year old they are a bit too hard, and sadly, you have to toss them.)

When grandma died two years ago I scoured her recipe books for the pfeffernusse recipe.  To the envy of my cousins and aunts, I found it.  It wasn't until this year that I tried to make them, and I really wish I could have called grandma for some clarification.  You see, not only was the recipe written in the time of lard, but there are no instructions.  Only ingredients.  And even that isn't a complete list.  "Enough flour to roll."  Hmmm..."enough"....I seem to have lost my "enough" measuring cup.  It was a bit of guessing, but I think I figured out something at least close to what grandma used to make. If only it were cold...