About This Recipe
Honey is the main sweetener in these small pepper-spice cookies. White pepper gives a quiet warmth alongside anise and allspice, while a light powdered-sugar coating softens the first bite. The dough needs a rest before shaping. Plan for two baking batches, and let the cookies cool before giving them their final dusting.
Recipe
Honey Pfeffernüsse with White Pepper and Anise
Make small honey spice cookies with white pepper, anise and a powdered-sugar finish. Includes dough chilling, two baking batches and cooling time.
13Ingredients
Yield: 24 servings
- 300 g all-purpose flour
- 254 g honey
- 40 g unsalted butter
- 50 g whole egg without shell
- 3 g baking powder
- 2 g baking soda
- 2 g table salt
- 2 g ground cinnamon
- 1 g ground allspice
- 0.5 g ground nutmeg
- 0.5 g ground white pepper
- 0.5 g freshly ground anise seed
- 40 g powdered sugar
Ingredient amounts scale; instructions show the original batch. Cooking times and pan sizes may need adjustment. Season to taste. Honey grams use US measures at 20°C and 17.5% moisture, a density estimate; weigh your honey for precision.
Instructions
- 1Warm the honey and butterWarm the honey and butter gently in a saucepan just until the butter melts. Do not boil. Leave for about 10 minutes until lukewarm, then whisk in the egg.
- 2Mix and chill the doughWhisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices together. Stir into the honey mixture until no dry flour remains. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour so the sticky dough becomes easier to handle.
- 3Shape small cookiesHeat the oven to 350 F (175 C). Line two large baking sheets with baking paper. Divide the dough into 48 small portions, about 13 to 14 g each. Roll gently with clean, slightly damp hands, leaving about 5 cm between balls. Keep the second tray chilled while the first bakes.
- 4Bake in two batchesBake one tray at a time on the middle rack for 13 to 15 minutes, until the bottoms are lightly browned and the tops feel set. They should still yield slightly when pressed. Allow about 30 minutes of oven time for both batches.
- 5Cool and coatRest on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then move to a rack. Cool for about 30 minutes. Sift the measured powdered sugar over the cookies, turning them to coat. Divide into 24 servings of two cookies. The total time includes the honey mixture cooling, dough chilling and baked-cookie cooling.
Estimated nutrition per serving
99.71 calories · 1.69 g fat · 20.1 g carbohydrate · 1.61 g protein · 72.31 mg sodium
Serving: 1 of 24 servings
Calculated from ingredient weights and USDA FoodData Central: 168894, 169640, 173430, 171287, 172803, 175040, 173468, 171320, 171315, 171326, 170933, 171316, 169656. Estimates use ingredient input weights; actual portions, brands and cooking losses vary. Omitted nutrient values are unavailable, not zero.
Pepper Is Part of the Flavor
Use a small scale for the white pepper and anise. Half a gram looks modest, but these are small cookies. If a scale cannot read that amount reliably, use measured spice spoons and accept that the nutrition estimate will describe the stated weights.
The St. Nicholas Center reproduces a honey-based peppernut formula with a warm honey mixture and a rested dough. This version uses butter and a dry powdered-sugar finish, with cinnamon alongside the pepper. It is a variation rather than a claim to represent every regional pfeffernüsse.
Flavor intensity uses an editorial culinary scale: 1 is mild and 5 is bold. These are tasting suggestions, not laboratory measurements.
Sources: UC Agriculture and Natural Resources: cooking with honey; USDA FoodData Central: Spices, anise seed; St. Nicholas Center: reproduced honey peppernut method.
1 = mild, 5 = bold. Editorial pairing guidance, not laboratory measurements; jars vary.
- Clover
- White pepper and anise
- Wildflower
- Allspice and cinnamon
- Buckwheat
- A stronger pepper-spice cookie
Get the Honey Buyer's Cheat Sheet (free PDF)
16 varieties on one page — color, flavor, best use and what a fair price looks like — from the 304 honeys we track.
Choose Honey You Like with Spice
Clover honey keeps the spice blend in front. Wildflower adds a fuller floral taste. A very dark honey makes a more assertive cookie and may hide the small amount of anise; taste it before choosing the jar.
Honey belongs in the dough here. Drizzling extra honey over finished cookies changes the dry coating into a sticky glaze. For another shape and texture, try honey oatmeal cookies.
Chill Before Shaping
The warm mixture is sticky. Refrigeration gives the dough time to firm, so do not judge its consistency straight from the saucepan. If it remains awkward after an hour, give it another short chill rather than adding handfuls of flour.
Keep the portions small and similar in size. A large cookie needs longer in the oven and can become quite firm at the edge before its center is ready. Baking one tray at a time also makes the two batches easier to compare.
Cooling and Serving
Let the cookies cool before coating them. Powdered sugar disappears into a hot surface, leaving a patchy finish. Dusting on a rack over a tray lets you collect the measured sugar and use it across the whole batch.
Store the cooled cookies in a tightly closed container. Keep them apart from moist cakes or fruit so the coating stays dry. Serve with coffee, or put them beside honey cookies and honey brownies for contrasting textures.
What the Estimate Includes
The estimate divides all the dough and the full 40 g powdered-sugar quantity into 24 servings. Some coating may remain on the tray, so that assumption can slightly overstate what ends up on a cookie.
The USDA anise record has no reported sugar value. A complete sugar total is therefore unavailable and is omitted rather than shown as zero. Other displayed nutrients use the listed ingredient weights; baking moisture loss is not modeled.
Choosing the Honey
Use Clover Honey or Wildflower Honey for the flavor described in this recipe. See our honey selection guide for other culinary choices.
