Treacle cookies, including gingerbread men and ginger snaps, are popular treats made with molasses. Pepparkakor are Swedish ginger snaps, while Pfeffernüsse are German molasses biscuits, both traditionally eaten at Christmas.
Baked with ginger and other spices, treacle cookies go great with coffee or milk and have a warming appeal during the winter months. A byproduct of sugar production from sugar cane or sugar beets, molasses contains refined nutrients from the finished product. In Britain, where it is used frequently, it is known as molasses. Most countries that use molasses have found ways to incorporate it into baked treats.
Molasses cookies have been around in the United States since colonial times, when sugar was expensive and molasses was the sweetener of choice. Treacle cookies are a popular way for contemporary cooks to use up old-fashioned syrup. Of the three grades of molasses, the first and second are the sweetest, and the black ribbon is the darkest and most concentrated. The biscuits are usually made with the lightest two grades.
Gingerbread men are a traditional cookie made with molasses. Their first appearance was at the court of Elizabeth I of England. Very popular with children, gingerbread men can be decorated with icing, candy or simply cut out with cookie cutters into the shape of a little person. Gingerbread houses, cards, and even pets are other common shapes. These cookies were immortalized in a famous nursery rhyme, first published in St. Nicholas magazine in 1875.
Ginger snaps are crunchy sweetened molasses cookies that contain brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. These cookies are thought to have originated in medieval Germany when molasses and honey were the only sweeteners available, long before the advent of refined sugar. Numerous companies make packaged varieties of ginger snaps, but true cookie aficionados will claim that only their favorite homemade recipe will do. Next to gingerbread men, they are probably the most familiar treacle cookies.
Pepparkakor, Swedish ginger snaps, are a spicier take on treacle cookies, and some recipes include allspice and cardamom. The name translates to “pepper biscuit,” although they don’t actually contain pepper. Traditionally served at Christmas in Sweden, they are rolled very thin and left round or cut into decorative shapes such as people, animals or hearts. They are often decorated with icing. Pepparkakors are also used as Christmas ornaments, with a hole in the top and a ribbon tied.
Pfeffernüsse are German molasses biscuits also eaten at Christmas. These tiny pepper bite-sized cookies are made with peanuts and usually dusted liberally with powdered sugar. Some recipes actually contain small amounts of white or black pepper and molasses or honey. They are soft when they first come out of the oven, but become bubbly and hard as they cool. Many people like to dip them in a drink before eating.
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