Pepparkakor (Swedish Ginger Cookies) – a family recipe and Christmas cookie favorite! These thin, spiced cookies make the holidays extra special.
During the winter months when I was a kid, my mom liked to bundle me in a knit hat, the kind with a puff-ball on top. But it wasn’t just any knit hat with a puff-ball… on the front it read ‘Swedish Power’. She later admitted that she found some humor in dressing her half Japanese daughter in the hat because let’s be honest, when you think of Swedes, you probably don’t picture me 😉
My mother recalls her own childhood when pepparkakor cookies we served at various Christmas parties held in the town she grew up in. This particular recipe is adapted from my aunts recipe that is included in our family cookbook.
Pepparkakor are a kind of Scandinavian gingersnap that’s available year-round, but is particularly popular around Christmas. Traditionally they are thin and crisp. However, I like my pepparkakor with a little bit of chew to them – so this particular recipe yields a slightly crisp exterior with a chewy interior. Likewise, pepparkakor are often not decorated with icing, so this is completely optional. But I rather enjoy decorating holiday cookies and it can be particularly fun if you have little ones that want to help. And if you like, punch a little hole in the top before baking so that it can be strung with ribbon and hung from the tree!
Try serving Pepparkakor with coffee or Glogg (Swedish mulled wine)!
Here’s a tip if you want to decorate your pepparkakor – buy a squeeze bottle; you can find them for cheap at most houseware or kitchen stores and they will make your life just so much easier (at least as far as cookie decorating goes). If you don’t have a squeeze bottle, you can scoop the icing into a small sandwich bag or other small plastic bag. Push the icing down into one corner and clip off the corner of the bag (clip just a tiny hole, otherwise the icing will come out too quickly when decorating). While the plastic bag method does work, the squeeze bottle is just so much easier — use that if you can.
Pepparkakor dough also makes for a wonderful pepparkakshus or gingerbread house. Simply roll the dough a little thicker to give your structure a bit more stability, about a 1/4-inch thick. Then you can use the orange royal icing recipe included below to ‘glue’ the house together, decorate, and affix all the candy canes and gumdrops you want 🙂
- Pepparkakor
- 3½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons ground cloves
- 2 teaspoons ground cardamon
- 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
- 1½ cup sugar
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 extra large egg
- Orange Royal Icing, optional
- 1 cup confectioners sugar
- 2 tablespoon fresh orange juice
- ¼ teaspoon almond extract
- Sift the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and cardamon into a large bowl and set aside.
- In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, add the butter and sugar. Combine until nicely creamed. Add the maple syrup, orange juice, orange zest, and egg.
- While mixing, slowly add the dry ingredients. Mix until throughly incorporated and a dough has formed.
- Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and flatten out into a disc. Wrap each disc in plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
- On a lightly floured surface, roll out one of the discs of dough (keep any dough you're not working with, refrigerated). Roll out the dough to about an ⅛-inch thick. Don't be afraid to dust with more flour if dough starts sticking/cracking while rolling out.
- Using your cookie cutter, cut out the cookies. Use a thin stainless steel spatula, transfer the cookies to the sheet pan lined with parchment paper. Bake for 6 to 8 minutes.
- Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely before decorating.
- To make the Orange Royal Icing - combine the confectioners sugar, orange juice, and almond extract in a small bowl. The icing should be smooth but thick. If it's still a little clumpy after mixing well, add a small amount of orange juice (a little goes a long way). Transfer the icing to a squeeze bottle. Pipe the icing onto the cookies, decorating them as you like. Allow to dry throughly before stacking. Serve and enjoy!
How cute!! And these look so tasty. The crisp exterior and soft interior… I just want to grab one off my screen! Your decorating skills are better than mine haha.
i can practically taste the orange in these cookies. love that flavor and scent around the holidays. i can also picture you in that hat and your mom’s wry smile! so sweet.
These look so sweet! Love the introduction of a family recipe, pepparkakor. We went to Sweden two years ago, and we were in love with their food (not to mention it was stunning). Looking forward to giving this a try.
Such an adorable story! To match these adorable cookies! So delicious, my friend!
Hahahaha. I can just picture you in your knit hat with the poof ball on top! I bet you were the cutest thing EVER! I’ve never heard of Swedish Ginger Cookies, but they look absolutely amazing! I like my cookies a soft and chewy, so these babies are screamin’ my name! And you did such a great job decorating them! Almost too pretty to eat, but let’s be real, I’d eat them… ALL. 😉 Cheers, girlfriend!
Beautiful cookies! I probably wouldn’t decorate mine because I always turn cookie decorating into a sticky mess. I have heard and seen the squeeze bottle method and I could maybe make that work! I’m super intrigued by the ginger/orange combo-sounds tasty!
So, so pretty and festive Kathleen! And the flavors sound just delicious!
Haha, cute story! I have never heard of pepparkakor before, but love that their texture is crispy and chewy. The aroma in the orange zest must be real nice in the cookies. Thank you for sharing a family recipe! Enjoy the weekend!
Your mom sounds pretty funny….I bet you were super cute with that hat on, though!! I love how you opted to have them a little chewier. Sounds like my kinda cookie and what a great tip with the squeeze bottle ’cause I know i would be horrible trying to pipe that icing out with a bag….my hand definitely wouldn’t be too steady, that’s for sure. Love the addition of the orange in the icing…sounds like the perfect pairing with the warm spices in the cookie 🙂
These European cookies are my favorite! They look perfect! A friend of mine had asked me for the recipe, but I’ve never made them! Will send her a link to your blog 🙂 And will try to make them if I have time!
I just love ginger spice cookies, and holiday cut out cookies are my children’s favourite, they just love to decorate them. I haven’t made any spice cookies so far this year, looks like I’ll have to try your recipe next!
This completely reminded me of my mom, who is part Swedish and we used to make cookies together often. I love your icing designs here and those squeeze bottles are life savers right? The orange in this with the ginger must be divine! Just beautiful Kathleen, thanks.
So adorable! Love how you decorated your mom’s cookie recipes. She would be proud and such a heart warming story to boot! My one boy loves the spiced ginger cookies and my other boy likes the plain cut out cookies. Of course both are labor intensive… but worth all the family memories. Sharing of course!!!
I like your mom’s sense of humor. 🙂 And these cookies sound fantastic. That they’re crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle especially – my favorite cookie texture combo. I’ve been thinking about having a cookie decorating open house, where I make a bunch of sugar & ginger cookies (these are perfect) with a few kinds of icing for kids and adults to decorate a cookie to take home or eat on the spot. I love your squeeze bottle idea – should help minimize the mess.
What a cute story. These cookies are not only delicious but decorated perfectly. You could hang them on the tree 🙂
We get Pepparkakor here and I must say these look so divine, Kathleen. Love festive, fun and easy the are. Will try baking them with my little one this weekend! Have a wonderful weekend. 🙂