Pulsnitzer Pfefferkuchen

Ingredients

Equipment Needed

• •Digital scale
• •Small saucepan
• •Large mixing bowl or stand mixer with dough hook
• •Rolling pin
• •Baking sheets with parchment
• •Airtight metal Plätzchen tin

Instructions

1. 1

   Warm the honey

   Put the honey, Zuckerrübensirup, brown sugar, and 60ml water in a small saucepan and warm them over low heat just until the sugar dissolves. Do not boil it. Boiling drives off the honey aroma and gives you a syrup hot enough to cook the flour at the edges, so let it cool until only warm to the finger, below 40C.

2. 2

   Mix the dough

   Whisk the wheat flour, rye flour, cocoa, spices, salt, and minced candied orange peel in a large bowl, then pour in the warm syrup and work it into a stiff, sticky dough. No raising agents yet. Pottasche and Hirschhornsalz do their work on baking day; leave them in for weeks and they lose strength or streak the dough.

3. 3

   Rest for weeks

   Press the dough into a flat block, wrap it airtight, and rest it in the refrigerator or a cold pantry for at least 14 days, better 3 to 4 weeks. The rest is not decoration. Honey hydrates the flour slowly, rye softens slowly, and the spice stops tasting raw only after time has done its work.

   Keep the dough airtight and cool, not under a damp towel. Damp cloth gives you surface mould, and Weggeworfen wird nichts only works when you store things properly.
4. 4

   Add the leaveners

   On baking day, let the dough stand at room temperature until it bends without cracking, 2 to 3 hours. Dissolve the Pottasche in 1 tablespoon cold water and the Hirschhornsalz in the second tablespoon, keeping them separate, then knead them into the dough one after the other until no pale streaks remain. Lumps of Hirschhornsalz leave bitter ammonia pockets, and lumps of Pottasche leave alkaline spots. That is not character. That is bad mixing.

5. 5

   Roll and cut

   Heat the oven to 180C, or 160C fan, and line baking sheets with parchment. Roll the dough 4 to 5mm thick on a lightly floured board and cut it into neat rectangles, about 4x6cm. Thin matters here: Hirschhornsalz is right for flat biscuits because its ammonia bakes out; make thick slabs and the taste stays trapped. Reroll the scraps once, then cut the last bits small for the cook. Weggeworfen wird nichts.

6. 6

   Bake them short

   Bake one tray at a time for 8 to 10 minutes, until the edges are set and the centres still give slightly when touched. Do not wait for crispness. Honey keeps browning after you pull the tray, and overbaking drives out the moisture the tin needs later. Open the oven door carefully; a sharp ammonia smell is normal with Hirschhornsalz and it disappears from thin, properly baked Pfefferkuchen.

7. 7

   Fill with plums

   Cool the pieces completely. Warm the Pflaumenmus with the red currant jelly if using it, just until spreadable, then let it thicken back to a soft paste. Spread a thin layer on the flat side of half the pieces and sandwich with the rest, flat sides together. Thick plum butter softens the Pfefferkuchen slowly and stays where you put it; runny breakfast jam leaks and makes a sweet mess.

8. 8

   Glaze and age

   Melt 170g of the couverture gently over a water bath, take it off the heat, and stir in the remaining 80g until smooth; add the cocoa butter or oil only if the glaze is too thick to brush. Dip or brush the tops and sides, then let the chocolate set on parchment. Layer the Pfefferkuchen in a tin with parchment between them and leave them 5 to 7 days before serving. They soften in the tin because the honey and plum filling share moisture through the dough. Nicht aus dem Glas, not from the waxy coating packet either.

Chef Tips

• •Do not add butter or eggs to this dough. Pulsnitzer-style Pfefferkuchen gets its moisture from honey, syrup, and time; fat would shorten it into a different cookie.
• •Use fresh spices, not a dead packet from the back of the cupboard. This dough rests for weeks, so stale spice has nowhere to hide.
• •Pottasche and Hirschhornsalz are worth finding. Baking powder will lift the dough, but it gives a rounder, cakier bite and misses the old Pfefferkuchen snap before the tin softens it.
• •If the finished Pfefferkuchen are still too firm after a week, put one apple wedge in the tin for 12 hours, then remove it. Leave fruit in longer and you are growing mould, not improving Christmas.
• •Serve them with black coffee or unsweetened tea. The cookies already have honey, plum, and chocolate doing the work.

Advance Preparation

• •Make the honey-spice dough 2 to 4 weeks before baking. Four weeks gives deeper colour and a calmer spice.
• •Bake, fill, and glaze the Pfefferkuchen at least 5 days before serving. They are not meant to be judged straight off the tray.
• •Stored in a tin with parchment, the finished Pfefferkuchen keep 3 to 4 weeks in a cool room.

Frequently Asked Questions

Nutrition Information

1 serving (about 45g)