Pfeffernusse-Pepper Nuts with Coconut Sugar and Whole Wheat flour. Christmas Time

Pfeffernusse or Pepper Nuts are one of the oldest  German Christmas Cookies.

  Nowadays it is hard to believe, but Pfeffernusse were created at a time when sugar was excessively expensive and the sweetening was done mainly with honey.  
 Wonderful Pfeffernusse recipe is quite a healthy one but in my recipe I went even further, I replaced white sugar with coconut sugar and used whole wheat flour instead of white flour. The result is great.

                                  ***You need***
~ Honey - 1 Cup
~ Molasses - 1/3 Cup
~ Coconut Sugar - 2/3 Cup
~ Unsalted Butter, Room temperature - 125g
~ Whole Wheat Flour (I used Ivory) - 4 and a little bit less than 1/4 Cups
~ Soda - 1 teaspoon
~ Salt - a pinch
~ Cinnamon - 1 generously full teaspoon
~ White Peppers - 1 teaspoon of freshly ground ( You can use Black peppers in less amount, as they have more aromatic heat)

 ~ Mace - 1 teaspoon of freshly ground (You can use Nutmeg. Although Nutmeg and Mace come from the same fruit and have similar flavor, Mace is sweeter and lighter than Nutmeg)

             ~ 2 Eggs
             ~ Almonds, blanched - 3/4 Cup, finely chopped

  ~ Zest of 1 Lemon

                     ~~ Preheat Oven to 350F (180C)~~
= Place Honey, Molasses, Coconut Sugar, Butter in heavy saucepan over Medium heat and cook. Mix occasionally till butter melts and you will see the beginning of bubbling.

 

 = Remove from the heat. Let the mixture cool about 20 minutes. It has to be cool enough to add Eggs

 = Add spices (Soda+Salt+Cinnamon+White Pepper+Mace) into the Whole wheat flour

 = Mix Eggs with an eggbeater in a separate bowl

 = Add Eggs to Honey/Molasses mixture. Combine well.

= Sift Wholewheat flour with Spices into a large bowl. Important: When you sift a whole wheat flour, please return back all bran of the whole wheat back to the flour.

= Pour (Honey/Molasses/Coconut Sugar/Butter/Eggs) mixture at once into Flour/Spices mixture. Mix

= Add Zest of 1 Lemon and finely chopped blanched Almonds

= Mix well and form a dough

 = Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least for 1 and a half hours or overnight.

= For baking, pinch off small pieces of dough ( the size of teaspoon) and roll into balls.

 Place on baking sheets covered with parchment paper or greased with butter and bake at 350F (180C) for 12 minutes.

 = When done, remove onto a wire rack and let cool

                   Enjoy and Be Healthy:)