If I can't send you cookies...

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...I'll send you a cookie recipe.

It's kinda late in the season, but it occurs to me that I've been on dA for two years now and have never shared this with you. My family has few Christmas traditions: we go to church on Christmas Eve, afterwards drive around and look at lights, then at home Dad reads Chapter 2 of the Gospel of Luke (no particular translation). And any of those may happen or not happen, and may or may not be attended by everyone, as I've got one brother halfway across the continent, and the other has to split his time with the in-laws. We're okay with that, because our own traditions are but one generation old, created when my parents found themselves starting a family half a continent away from any parents or siblings on either side, with chances of travel being slim to none. You do what you have to.

Sometimes they do still make us sing Christmas carols outside their bedroom door Christmas morning. Guess that vocal music degree wasn't totally wasted.

But there is one thing that must happen. There is one thing that must be present, or else it is not Christmas. There is one thing that has changed a little bit over the generations, but not a whole lot, going back a few centuries at least, and which will continue as long as I or my family has any say in the matter: peppernuts.

Or pfeffernüsse, if you're German.

Or crunchy little nuggets of joy, if you're my older brother. They're not actually nuts - there are no nuts involved. No pepper either: pfeffer actually means spiced. Translation was not something my ancestors excelled at, which is fine by me. Whatever you call them, these things are quite possibly the most addicting cookie on the planet. They're hard, crunchy, not especially sweet, and they go splendidly with coffee or tea or on their own, in a bowl, by the handful. They take a long time to make, but the recipe is nearly impossible to get wrong. I think.

At any rate, here you go:

1. In a large bowl, cream together:
1 1/2 c white sugar
1 1/2 c brown sugar
1 c butter

2. Add to above and cream together:
1 c whipping cream
1 c corn syrup (dark or light doesn't matter)
2 eggs slightly beaten

3. Add to above and cream together:
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground star anise (This may be hard to find. Try a specialty herb/spice shop, a Chinese grocery, or just order online.)
1/4 tsp cardamom
1/4 tsp ground cloves
8 c all-purpose flour (I usually do this two cups at a time. If you're using an electric mixer, be aware that after the fifth or sixth cup of flour, the dough may be thick enough to break the motor. With the last two cups, I'm usually mixing the dough with my hands.)

4. The dough should be stiff and sticky.  Chill it several hours or overnight to make it easier to work with.
5. On a floured surface, roll balls of dough into snakes, about 1/2 inch in diameter, and cut into pieces about 1/4 inch wide. A sharp, non-serrated knife works best.
6. Arrange the peppernuts on an ungreased cookie sheet (some people layer the sheet with parchment paper) and bake at 300F for 25-30 minutes, or until they start to go brown at the edges.
7. Let cool. The spice flavor gets a little stronger after a few days. They'll keep forever in an airtight container. (Our record is one year, and they were still good.)

Mixing the dough usually takes me about an hour, maybe an hour and a half. Rolling, cutting, and baking takes three hours, even doing two cookie sheets in the oven at one time. But man, I gotta tell ya, it's worth it.

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