Liquid Pfeffernusse

/
liquid pfeffernusse.jpg

 

When Julia made pfeffernusse last week and had a bowl of spice mixture left over, the obvious thing to do was make a pfeffernusse cocktail! But aside from the spices, what other elements would make sense? I washed Mt. Gay Eclipse rum in cream to swap tannins for a silky smooth texture, made a demerara syrup with the pfeffernusse spice mixture, and added cardamom bitters for another dimension of flavor. The end result is a smooth rum drink with a harmonious blend of sweet and spicy and a beautiful sheen to it from the fat-washing.

Ingredients:

  • 2.5 oz cream-washed aged rum
  • .5 oz pfeffernusse demerara syrup
  • 1 hard dash cardamom bitters

Directions:

For the rum: Add four ounces of cream to a jar and pour a pint of your favorite aged rum into the vessel. Slowly add lemon juice, up to 2 tablespoons, to promote curdling. Let curdles precipitate out and strain rum through cheesecloth and let any remaining particulates settle. The resultant rum should be translucent and much lighter than your original rum.

For the demerara: Combine 1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon, half teaspoon of ground cloves, quarter teaspoon of the following (all ground): allspice, coriander, ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, mace, black pepper, anise seed. Heat one cup of water, incorporate one cup of demerara sugar. Add spice mixture. Let steep for 20 minutes and strain syrup. Let cool. 

Combine ingredients in shaking tin, add 12oz ice, shake and double strain into chilled coupe glass. Garnish with a cinnamon stick. 

Julia's Notes: Pfeffernusse Cookie Recipe!

Every Christmas I have this dream of making a huge tray of assorted cookies... and I never do. But this year I was DETERMINED to at least make a solid Pfeffernusse! They're a classic German gingerbread-type cookie with a "secret" ingredient of black pepper. Fun fact: Pfeffernusse means "pepper nuts." So the secret ingredient really isn't that secret.

It took a couple of tries, but I'm happy with how these came out. They have that classic puffy dome shape and are sprinkled with powdered sugar, perfectly matching the fresh coating of snow in our yard on Christmas morning. I also added in the step of glazing with a rum icing for an extra kick.

This recipe is courtesy of my father-in-law. He says it's from the book Christmas Cookies by Oxmoor House, but my mother-in-law is pretty sure it originates from Southern Living. Yields about 4 dozen cookies.

Ingredients: 

  • 3/4 cup molasses
  • 3/4 cup honey
  • 3/4 cup shortening
  • 4 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground allspice
  • 1 tsp ground mace
  • 1/2 tsp black pepper
  • 1/4 tsp crushed anise seeds
  • 1 egg
  • 3 cups powdered sugar, plus extra for dusting
  • 1 Tbsp rum (I used Mount Gay, like the cocktail)
  • 2 Tbsp hot water

Directions:

Combine the molasses and honey in a medium saucepan. Constantly stir on low heat until warmed through. Add shortening and keep stirring until it's all mixed in. Take off heat and set aside to cool. Once cool, beat in the egg until just blended in.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, allspice, mace, pepper, and anise. Slowly add dry ingredients to the wet ones, stirring until just moistened. Let the dough rest on the counter for 15 minutes and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Roll dough into 1" balls, and place on a greased cookie sheet. Bake for 10 minutes.

Make the icing! Stir the rum and hot water into the powdered sugar.

Ice the cookies while they are warm but not hot. Use a pastry brush to paint the icing on each cookie. Once they are cooled, dust with powdered sugar.