German Spiced Cookies

You can’t eat just one.

Lately I’ve been enjoying savoury snacks and treats so, when I found this recipe in the July 2017 issue of Super Food Ideas magazine and saw that it included black pepper, I knew I had to make a batch.

I particularly love how these almost taste like ginger cookies, yet there is no ginger in the recipe. The dusting of powdered sugar adds the perfect amount of sweetness.

These cookies are really easy to make. If your kids aren’t addicted to chocolate cookies, these would be a fun baking project. You might end up with powdered sugar ‘snow’ all over your kitchen though 🙂

Ingredients – makes 40 bite-sized cookies:

• 125g/4.5oz unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 cup treacle (or molasses)
• 1 egg
• 2 and 1/2 cups plain (all purpose) flour
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 cup icing (powdered) sugar

Method:

• Heat your oven to 180C/160C fan forced/350F and line two baking trays with baking paper.
• Put the butter in a large bowl and beat until smooth. If you do this with an electric mixer then it will only take a minute.
• Add the sugar and treacle to the butter and beat together until fluffy.
• Add the flour, spices, and bicarb of soda. Slowly fold together until combined.
• Form the mixture into small balls and place on the prepared trays.
• Bake for about 8 minutes then swap the trays over and bake for a further 7-8 minutes or until the cookies are just starting to crack a little.
• Remove from the oven and leave to cool on the trays for 10 minutes.
• Place the icing sugar into a deep bowl and add the cookies in small batches, tossing each batch to coat in the sugar before placing on a wire rack to cool completely.
• Serve and enjoy!