Pepparkakor: the irresistible Swedish ginger snaps
If you’ve ever stepped into a supermarket in Sweden (the food section in your local Ikea will provide the next best alternative) you may know about pepparkakor. They’re a much loved Christmas cookie, but I like to enjoy them all year.
If the name doesn’t ring a bell, the description will – very thin and very crisp dark spiced ginger biscuits, also known as ginger thins or ginger snaps. I picked up a couple of boxes when visiting Stockholm over Easter, one for home and one for a gift. Turns out I ate most of both boxes as it’s almost impossible to ignore their unique texture and mildly fiery flavour.
They’re not like any other cookie I’ve encountered – incredibly light and completely void of moisture lending to their unmistakable crispness. And those who did get a chance to dip in a paw before I managed to scoff the contents of both boxes thoroughly enjoyed them for the same reasons.
Short of having to drive to Ikea every time I want to re-stock, I soon realised the only solution would be to find a recipe and make them (regularly) myself.
The elusive pepparkakor ‘snap’
After quite a bit of research, it turns out achieving the signature snap in this Christmas cookie favourite is a challenge. There are online stories of bakers making dozens of batches with varying degrees of ingredients, still unable to claim victory over the elusive and unique texture.
Suggestions involve excluding any fat whatsoever in order to remove all moisture. Others say bake the ginger biscuits for longer at a lower temperature. Further advice speaks of using very strong and unfamiliar raising agents for the tough dough.
Well, I found a recipe and a process that read right to me. I tried it, and I nailed it first time. If you want to achieve the same texture and flavour as those boxed Swedish ginger thins, use this recipe.
Check Out: Recipe For Gluten-Free Hazelnut And Coffee Cookies, With No Butter!
This recipe is from Cook’s Illustrated Magazine (November 2011) and is an absolute corker. It is also incredibly quick and easy to make the dough – the majority of your time will be spent rolling and cutting out the individual ginger biscuits.
The recipe suggests this makes about 80 biscuits but I end up with double – I suspect I roll the dough half as thin as the recipe has. So if you do in fact want 80, I would half the below ingredients. Or you’ll end up with 160 biscuits filling up two large Tupperware boxes. Not a bad situation to be in, in my opinion. Keep them airtight and they’ll last you for as long as two people with an average biscuit intake would need to eat them.
A Recipe For Pepparkakor, Or Swedish Ginger Snaps Cookies
Makes 80 (or around 160 very thin ones as in the pictures)
- 2 1/2 cups plain flour
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 170g unsalted butter
- 4 tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp pepper
- Pinch cayenne
- 1 1/4 cups packed dark brown soft sugar
- 1/4 cup molasses or black treacle
- 1 large egg plus 1 large yolk
How to make pepparkakor dough, the perfect Christmas cookie
Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt together in bowl. In the meantime, heat the butter in a pan over a medium heat until melted.
Lower the heat to medium-low and continue to cook, swirling the pan frequently, until the foaming subsides and the butter is just beginning to brown. Turn off the heat.
Whisk in all the spices and then add the brown sugar and molasses to the butter mixture. Whisk to combine until the sugar has melted and you have a smooth mixture. Add the egg and yolk and mix again with the whisk to combine. You should have a dark, sticky, smooth and glossy mixture.
Pour this mixture into your bowl of flour and combine with a spatula until you have a dough – don’t over work it. Cover the bowl with cling film and keep in the fridge for the butter to firm, at least an hour.
Rolling out pepparkakor ginger snaps – why not make gingerbread men!
Adjust your oven racks to upper-middle and lower-middle positions and heat the oven to 130C (fan). Line two baking trays with non-stick baking paper or silicone paper.
Break off a portion of the dough and with your hands mound into a round and squash down. Take a rolling pin and slowly roll it out – if the edges are dry and crack, smooth them out with your fingers and continue rolling slowly.
If any of the dough sticks to your rolling pin, just reverse the roll to remove it and join it back to the main mass.
Roll them about as thin as 1mm – don’t worry, they do rise a little in the oven. Use a small cookie cutter to cut out your shapes. You can choose whatever you want – simple circles, stars, or even gingerbread men.
Carefully lift each biscuit and place on your baking trays – leave a slight gap between each as they do expand slightly. You will fit about twenty per baking tray. Gather up the remaining dough and join with the rest of the mass. Break off another portion and repeat the process until all your dough is used up.
Baking pepparkakor Swedish ginger biscuits
Place one tray on the upper rack and while it’s baking, roll out and fill up your next tray. After 15 minutes or so, transfer the partially baked top tray to the lower rack and rotate 180 degrees.
Place your second tray of biscuits on the upper rack. When your first tray is done, remove from the oven and transfer each biscuit to a cooling rack. Bring the top tray down to the bottom shelf, and continue this rotation until you’ve cooked all your biscuits. The ginger snaps are done when they are hard to touch and just darkening around the edges – around 15-20 minutes.
Tip The dough can be refrigerated for up to two days or frozen for up to one month if you want to get ahead. Let the dough stand at room temperature for 30 minutes before shaping. Let frozen dough thaw overnight before proceeding with the recipe.
Settle down on a comfy arm chair in the evening with half a dozen pepparkakor, a glass of cold milk and a good read. I’m sold.
Have you ever made pepparkakor and if so, how did it go? What’s your favourite type of Christmas cookie? Would you use gingerbread men cutters for this, or another shape? If you’ve tried making these ginger things, let me know in the comments below!
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I’ve made two batches of these so far, going to make my third today (that’s the plan, at least). My wife and I love these cookies! We bought a big box of pepparkakor at IKEA and loved them so much we decided I should learn how to make them. Found your recipe and the cookies I made were even better than IKEA’s! We eat them sparingly, one or two at a time, usually no more than three in a day but I start planning a new batch as soon as we get near the end of the previous one.
The only thing I do different is use dark muscovado sugar instead of the brown sugar. It’s a richer taste, in my opinion, but I know it’s not readily available everywhere. I also plan to use sorghum syrup in place of the molasses in a future batch. I’ll let you know how that goes.
Author
This is so awesome to hear Larry, thank you for letting me know! I actually thought they were better than the IKEA version too 😁 Great shout on the dark muscavado too, I will try that next time!
Made these today and they’re tip top! A few we’re neglected whilst I was busy cutting the next batch and caught a little, but they’re still just as tasty! I found mine got thinner and thinner as I got braver pressing them out.
Author
This is so awesome Chris! I too found I got mine thinner the more I did them. Enjoy all your biscuits 😀
Question: I’m trying to make thin crisps like this but without molasses. Do I need to replace the molasses with something or can I just leave it out?
I’m thinking you can use syrup like maybe maple or corn syrup.
Dark Corn Syrup
I made these today and they’re delicious! Only cooked off 10 and froze the rest of the dough to make them as part of some gift boxes nearer Christmas. I used a Christmas stamp to imprint them and it worked really well
Hi, I am making these today, rolled out as thin as I can but they have risen quite a lot more than expected, and even after 20 mins at 130 they are still soft and completely uncooked. Have turned the temp up and put them back in but not sure what I’ve done wrong? Going on for 30 mins in now and not really cooking well.
Author
Hi Steph! If they’re rising more than expected, I suspect you’ve put a bit too much bicarb of soda in. Too much rise might end up making it soft / chewy rather than crisp with a snap. I would perhaps try keeping them in a low oven, to see if dehydrating them helps crisp them that. Or just enjoy them as (I’m sure the flavour will still be great) and fingers crossed you nail these next time round! Hope that helps!
Can the biscuits be frozen after they’ve been made? I’d like to make them in advance!
Author
Hi Jo! I don’t think you can freeze cookies / biscuits once they are made. But you can certainly freeze the dough – it freezes and thaws really well, with the same end result!
I have frozen the biscuits and they were quite fine.
I freeze cookies all the time, I prefer it to freezing the dough of you plan to consume them in 1-3 months.
Hi! Amazing taste! Love it!
One question – how to keep them crunchy for longer than one day? They become soft after 30 hours or so 🙁
Author
Thank you so much Elze! I’m glad you like them 🙂 You need to keep them in an air tight container – something with a rubber seal or with clip locks so no air gets into it at all. In something like that, they will stay crunchy for a couple of weeks or so!
I have been making pepparkakor cookies for 25 years but did not have my recipe with me while away. These were terrible to roll out, butter would ooze out, and could barely be formed into nut shapes after we gave up on trying to roll them😣
Author
Hi ZL! It sounds like your dough was too warm when you were rolling it out, and so the butter melted and started oozing. The dough should still be cold and firm from the fridge. If you handle it too much, the better will get too warm. Hope that helps!
Here’s a tip I discovered during a marathon cookie making session at Christmas with friends. Cut your refrigerated dough into portions and keep all but the one you are rolling in the fridge. The kitchen was warm – marathon cookie baking ends up with a warm kitchen – so I chilled my baking stone – and rolled on top of it between two sheets of parchment paper. Worked like a charm to both keep from warming the dough too much by handling, and it didn’t stick to the rolling pin.
We also managed about 140-160 cookies because we rolled them super thin too. And in just a month two of us have polished them all off. Made a batch of dough yesterday – just letting it get a littler warmer so I can start rolling!
I can’t find molasses, any suggestions???
I’ve seen other recipes suggest dark corn syrup.
Treacle…. its the same thing (British name) Molasses is American
I used dark corn syrup and the cookies turned out fabulous.
I love these cookies, they are my favorite, but every year when I prepare them I have the same problem. When I let the dough in the fridge to cool, I get a very hard dough, like a rock almoste, hehe. Is that normal? How can I thin the dough?
Author
Hi Elsa! Yes your dough will be quite hard when you take it out of the fridge. Don’t try to roll out the whole thing! You need to break off portions of the dough and with your hands, mound into a round and squash down. Then take a rolling pin and slowly roll it out – if the edges are dry and crack, smooth them out with your fingers and continue rolling slowly. Then repeat the process, breaking off another piece, until you’ve used it all up. I hope that helps!
OH these look delicious! I’ve been using the same gingerbread cookie recipe for the past five years or so, decided to switch things up a bit and stumbled upon this beauty. If you don’t mind me asking, what do you mean by pepper, black pepper or red? And after taking the upper rack down and rotating it, how many minutes do you recommend I keep baking the lower rack for, 5-10? Can’t wait to go back home (dorm life inhibits baking) and try these out. Thanks for sharing the recipe, ellerinize sağlık!
Author
Hi Nazli! I mean black pepper. And you’ll be able to tell when the ginger snaps are done when they are hard to touch and just darkening around the edges – around 15-20 minutes in total. Once you’ve rotated them, keep an eye on them as they won’t need much longer. Hope that helps! 😀
Amazing recipe, the way i remember my grandmother making them back in Norway. You say 130 fan oven….is that correct. Seems so low
Please someone tell me, how many mililitres is one cup? We don not use cups in my country 🙁
Author
Here you go Adrien: http://www.metric-conversions.org/volume/cups-to-milliliters.htm
ummm – US, Canadian or Metric cups? Heck I hate recipes with cups in, especially when the butter is in grammes! For fellow Europeans I’m about to use
2 1/2 cups flour = 320g;
1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar = 275g;
1/4 cup molasses = 85g treacle.
…and that worked perfectly! I made 120 wonderful, crisp biscuits – thank you Leyla
(bottom oven in Aga, 40 minutes total per tray of 20)
Hi these sound like a MUST bake…except I've just raided my cupboards and I don't have treacle…booohooo…shops now shut till Tues…what will I do?!? Do you think I could substitute with golden syrup? Afraid they'll miss that distinct treacle flavour…
Oh they're so good! Yes I Would say you could go ahead and substitute for this batch. Then get some treacle and try it the original way next time. Then you can compare the two and see which you prefer, and get two batches from the experimentation!
Made these exactly as described…just FANTASTIC! Here's a tip to getting the dough wafer thin without all the problems..roll the dough between 2 pieces of parchment paper, cut the cookies but DO NOT remove them from the sheet of dough. Place the whole tray in the freezer for a few minutes and the rounds are easy to remove without sticking. Great recipe.
That's a great tip, thanks so much for sharing! 😀 😀
I have a gas oven…same oven temp? Using Fahrenheit…
You should play with it in your – but I discovered in my oven 375F and 10 minutes total in the top 1/3 of my oven is perfect. The ones I tried doing from top to bottom ended up over-browned. In my girlfriend’s oven we did closer to 18 minutes using the two-rack switcheroo. Just watch them carefully.
I'm hosting a Swedish baking day for friends and family, -!: like you, have been wading through masses of pepparkakor recipes wondering which one will be the One. This one wins! All the positive feedback has me sold. And, since I polished off my IKEA tin in only a few days, I clearly need a refill.
What oven temp in Fahrenheit do you suggest?
Ahh, I hope the recipe serves you well for your Swedish baking day – that sounds like it will be lots of fun! Google tells me 180C in farenheit is 356, so around that should be fine. But still keep an eye on them either way, to make sure they don't burn. Let me know how they go!
Sorry ignore that. It's 130C, not 180C! Google says 130C is around 266F 🙂
Hi,as a native Swede I'm so happy that you've done the legwork for me.I thought I would have to go and by the pre-made frozen dough the sell at IKEA. It's really hard to use my Swedish recipes here in the U.S. as the flour is processed differently.
I will make these in a couple of days and try them. Thanks a lot and God Jul (Merry Christmas)as we say in Swedish.
This is so great to hear! Do let me know how it goes. God Jul to you too! 🙂
Yummy!!! I'll be making this for Christmas!
Hooray! Let me know how it goes 🙂
As you said, it's a very difficult biscuit to make but no effort is too much once you nailed it. I've done it, i got my own recipe and a brand. I bake and sell pepparkakor in Peru. 😀
Everybody love pepparkakor!!!
Haha, agreed Patricia – everyone does love pepparkakor! 🙂
We were at IKEA yesterday and could not justify paying $16 for a small package of these cookies. I plan on making these for my brother and hope he likes them just as much if not better.
That's excellent Amy. I bet you will love them!
Thank you for sharing! The cookies turned out fabulous!
That's wonderful to hear! Thanks for letting me know 🙂
I miss my regular trips to Sweden when I bought pepparkakor each time by the tin. So I searched for a recipe and liked the look of this one the best and the very favourable comments. The problem I have is that everyone finds them too delicious and morish that they're gone to quickly. I'm now making my third batch in 10 days. Now cutting into Christmas trees, bells and stars as well as the round shapes. Great Christmas gifts but why would you want to give them away?
Hi David, you're right – they are great Christmas gifts. And you're also right that they're so moreish! So glad to hear people are enjoying them 🙂
I just tried this recipe and these cookies are PERFECT! My first round ended a little burnt (because my oven is very old, and inaccurate, plus I had to convert the temperature to Fahrenheit, so it was set just a few degrees high anyway) so I cut the cooking time to just 15 minutes and flipped them around after 7.5. I probably won't end up with a full 80, but that's partly from rolling them a little thick and partly because I've already lost count of how many I've eaten!
That's awesome! So glad to hear 🙂
Made these for a Christmas party last weekend and they were a big hit – only used half the dough, and I have the remaining batch in the oven now – thank you for such a fantastic recipe! 🙂
How fantastic! Thanks for letting me know Chris. That reminds me – must make a batch myself soon.. 🙂
Leyla – these cookies are absolutely amazing. Thank you so much for the recipe. I find they are even better than the current Ikea cookies. 🙂 I've also made them without the ginger (blasphemy, I know) for my partner who can't have ginger and they were fabulous! Molasses thins 🙂 He loves them. This recipe is a staple in my recipe box now. Thanks again!
Thank you so much for taking the time to comment. That is so fantastic to hear! That reminds me, it's been too long since I last made them – must rectify! 🙂
i can't wait to try this!!! sounds good to me, i'll let you know how i get on.
Great Noel, I hope they turn out wonderful!
Those look delicious. I would want to get them as light and crispy as possible. I like ginger but it's been awhile since I have made cookies with ginger or any other light, crispy dessert with that ingredients. Ginger is good during winter too for keeping you warm.
Did you make them? How did they turn out?
Hey! Could you give me a hint how much a cup means? I mean, gramms. It is misleading for me soemtimes. Thanks! Otherwise… the recipe sounds brilliant!
It will vary depending on the ingredient. So half a cup of flour won't weigh the same as half a cup of nuts, for example. Just take a standard coffee mug and use that as your cup measurement, you'll be fine 🙂
FWIW in American recipes they like to measure things by volume, rather than weight. It makes sense, because it's quicker. 1 cup is 1/2 an American pint, or 8 fl oz, which is approx 235 ml, (though I don't think you'd need to be that precise in this recipe).
Ok – thanks 🙂 I thought 60g seemed like a lot but I'm looking forward to tasting them! 🙂
Can I just double check – is it 4 tablespoons of ginger??
Yes that's correct. 4 tablespoons of ground ginger that you buy in a spice jar. You'll find it with all the other spices in a supermarket.
Thanks for this fantastic recipe and helpful intro! Was looking around for recipes and few were so descriptive. Mine worked out really well, addictively yummy! I made them with a star cookie cutter for a festive twist. One tip I have is to roll the mixture directly onto your non-stick baking sheet to avoid having to lift and transfer them individually from surface to sheet. In other words, cut out a piece of your baking paper to the size of your baking tray and place on a flat surface, then roll the mixture onto the sheet and cut your shapes, pulling away the extra dough… and finally lift the sheet with biscuits and put it back on your baking tray ready for baking. This cuts out the need to lift your floppy unbaked biscuits from your work surface to your baking sheet – my little stars were falling apart and losing they're shape when I was trying to lift them at the beginning!
That's great to hear, and thank you for the tip! 🙂
Thank you so much for such a wonderful recipe. We omitted the cayenne pepper and cut them using a little gingerbread man cookie cutter, and they turned out perfect! Your research to find such a great tasting Pepparkakor has definitely paid off! You're onto a winner with this recipe!
So fantastic to hear Josie! I haven't made these in a while – think I will need to rectify!