Pepparkakor-The Diabetics holiday cookie

So I was looking all over for a great cookie recipe for diabetics that didn't involve Splenda. The answer came when I remembered a conversation I'd had with Linda Barney 2 years ago about a spice cookie that only has 1 gram of sugar per cookie. (For those of you who don't know that's pretty good. The average cookie has anywhere from 10-20 grams of sugar per cookie & even animal crackers usually have about 4 per tiny little cookie.) It took a bit of looking, some research and-alas-a lot of fiddling in the kitchen but I've devised a recipe I really like. It really has a kick-no 1 or 2 tsps of spices here there are a full 2 Tablespoons of 3 different spices. I also added some orange oil which I really liked but Jon said he liked them better without. Also, they have a nice 'snap' to them. I like a spice cookie that is thin and crunchie not soft. I tried the recipe from the official website of Sweden but they didn't keep their pretty shape at all because they shrank every time I baked them even if I rolled them thin enough nearly to see through. Also, they always ended up being soft and chewy. I even checked the relative humidity of Stockholm vs Lake Jackson to see if that was the problem, but no dice. It's practically the same in both places. I've decided that it has to be that I cut the sugar in half. I know, I know you can't dink around in baking the way you do in cooking because it's all scientific and whatnot but I'm me and that won't change. As is on their website each cookie would have over 2 grams of sugar per 1 1/2 inch cookie so cut the sugar on it. I included the link so any of you who want to could give it a try but I don't suggest messing with the sugar ratio. Their recipe is more like a regular dough-it has WAY more flour than mine-and thus is easier to roll out and get onto the cookie sheet without any problems. My recipe took a little practice before I could work well with the dough, but the result was a beautiful cookie with great snap, a lot of flavor and only 1 gram of sugar per cookie. And if I'm going to take the time to make cookies for someone for the holidays then-for me-it's worth the little bit of extra effort. So, for the recipe and a few tips I discovered to make it easier....




The official Pepparkakor of Sweden
(http://www.sweden.se/eng/Home/Lifestyle/Food-drink/Swedish-culinary-classics/Saffransbullar-and-pepparkakor/)

When it says let it rest just let it rest on the counter. There are no eggs, so there's no danger that way. I...um....stuck mine in the fridge because that's what we do with cookie dough here in the States when we're letting it rest and it was rock hard in no time at all. I rolled it between two sheets of parchment and used 1/8th inch thickness guides on my rolling pin and it didn't stick at all and was really easy to work with. (If you don't have thickness guides and don't want to buy any put two really thick rubberbands one on top of the other on each end of your rolling pin. Not exact, but it will be close to 1/8th inch and it's better than having cookies that are all different thicknesses.)

Here are before and after baking pictures of my recipe vs the other one. My recipe is the one on top in both pictures (no subliminal message there). The picture's a little blurry, but you can see the other one shrunk quite a bit.

Mindy's Pepparkakor

1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 c unsulfered molasses
4 T water
1 1/2 c soft butter
2 T cinnamon
2 T ginger
2 T cloves
2 tsp cardamom
2 tsp baking soda
4 c sifted flour
12 drops orange oil (optional; also you could use 1-2 T orange zest)

Beat the sugar, molassess, water, spices and orange oil if using until the batter turns a light color and everything is incorporated. Don't be shy now, whip it good. Sift the flour and baking soda together and add slowly. It will be a very soft dough. I refridgerated mine in a covered tupperware a couple of days because I had the time, but I reccomend at least 24 or overnight if you must. The reason is that the spices tend to get stronger and blend better together if you let it rest a little. Get two sheets of parchment & dust one liberally with flour. Put your dough on the flour and flatten it with your hand. Dust the top liberally with flour and put the other sheet of parchment over top. Roll it out as thin as you can get it trying to keep the dough even. (See the tip about rolling pin guides for the Swedish recipe.) Now is the tricky part. After some practice, I could just roll it out, cut the shapes and get them onto the cookie sheet without making a huge mess. It has to be really thin though.

If you're worried about how delicate they are here are a couple of methods that make the dough much easier to work with. However, both methods add time to the process, so you have to weigh your options here.

Easy Method 1:
Roll the dough out thin and just leave it alone for an hour or more between the parchment sheets. It dries out a little and doesn't rip nearly as easily this way. I found this out by accident because I rolled some out and forgot it when I went to do my visiting teaching. When you're ready just cut out the shaped & keep going. This method works really well if you don't mind leaving a mess on the counter while you do other things

Easy Method 2:
Roll the dough out thin and cut the shapes making sure you wiggle it a little bit so there's a little space between the shape and the negative pieces (the bits you aren't going to bake). It doesn't have to be a huge space, just so long as it's not connected still. Slide the sheet of parchment onto a cookie sheet and pop it into the freezer. In about 15 min the dough is frozen stiff and the cookies are really pretty easy to get off and transfer to the cookie sheet. I couldn't tell that freezing the dough made any difference in the finished cookie either for those that might wonder. I've been thinking you could do it this way but then put the shapes in a couple of freezer bags before you bake and have ready-made pepparkakor dough anytime you want. Hmmm...

Anyway, whatever method you end up using, they bake at 325 degrees for about 8 1/2 minutes. As with everything else down here the humidity will get to them and steal the snap if you don't take precautions to keep them de-humidified. I checked around to see how to do this and this is what I came up with. The better crocker answer lady said-much to my surprise I might add-that if you like your cookies crisp then don't put them in an airtight container, just cover them loosely. I thought it was the other way around which would explain why the cookies I made last night all got soft. If your cookies do go soft don't despair. Just put them on a cookie sheet and pop them in the oven at 325 for a couple of minutes and they crisp right up. (This works for store bought cookies too.)

I ran out of cute little baggies to give out cookies in and just tied up a stack of them with ribbon and have decided that this will be my preffered method of cookie gifting in the future. Less fuss and less expense and way cuter than a bag. Perfect. Enjoy! Love you Gramp!!