Swedish Pepparkakor

These cute little spicy gingerbread shaped cookies are so crispy, crunchy and addictive!! They're kind of like eating potato chips...you can't just eat one!! And they're bite sized, too!
This recipe has been in my file for quite a while. I found this recipe and another in a magazine in I'd never heard of before called " Hallmark"".
The trick to getting them really crispy is to roll them out as thinly as possible. Once again, I halved the batch ( the full batch makes 9 dozen and that's a whole lot of little gingerbread guys and gals!).
They have 3 different spices in them so they have nice flavor. I think the addition of just a pinch of black pepper would give them a little extra kick, though and swapping out the dark corn syrup with molasses might also give them a deeper flavor. But don't get me wrong, they're really great..and so cute!!
So let's get started:

Start by melting the butter in a large saucepan and then adding the spices.

Once that's combined, add the sugar and corn syrup and mix well. Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Then set this mixture aside to cool. The recipe says to cool to room temp. 1 to 2 hours but I put mine into a mixing bowl and it cooled in about 1/2 hour.

In standing mixer, beat egg and add cream and cooled butter mixture.

On low speed, add half the flour, 1 cup at a time. Then add the baking soda, then the remainder of the flour, 1 cup at a time.

Once that's all mixed, pull off chunks of dough, the size of tennis balls, and wrap each " ball" in plastic and chill overnight ( or for several hours).

Now it's time to preheat your oven to 325. Generously grease your baking sheet. The original recipe says to pinch off golf ball sized amount of dough ( geez this person must like sports. First tennis, now golf!!). Anyway.. as you can see from the photo below, I just cut the dough into 4 pieces and placed between 2 sheets of waxed paper, using plenty of flour to keep it from sticking. And I mean plenty! The thinner it gets, the more it wants to stick to the paper. I rolled mine to approx. 1/8" thickness.

Make sure you flour the underside of the dough before you cut these out or you'll be fighting with it and ..well let's just say you won't be too happy! And they won't come out the perfect happy couple you see below!

Then put the little cuties onto your prepared sheet. They don't spread much so you can place them about 1 " apart and be fine.

As soon as they come out of the oven, take your spatula and very carefully get under each one to loosen or they will cool and fuse to the baking sheet.

See how thin and crispy! So good! Go ahead..Bake a bunch!

Swedish Pepparkakor

1 cup ( 2 sticks) butter

2 tsp. ground ginger

2 tsp. ground cardamom

2 tsp. ground cloves ( I would also add a pinch to 1/4 tsp. blk. pepper).

1 cup sugar

1 cup dark corn syrup ( could use molasses instead).

1 large egg

3 tbsp. heavy cream

5 cups flour ( do not sift).

1 tsp. baking soda

1. In large saucepan, melt butter. Add ginger, cardamom and cloves. Add sugar and syrup,mixing well after each addition.

Bring to a boil and cook for 1 minute. Set aside to cool, 1 to 2 hours at room temp. ( I transferred mine to a cool bowl and it only needed about 1/2 hour.)

2. In standing mixer bowl beat egg. Add cream and cooled butter mixture.

3. On low speed, add half the flour, one cup at a time.

4. Add the baking soda, then add the rest of the flour, one cup at a time.

5. Pull off chunks of dough the size of tennis balls and roll into balls.

6. Wrap each ball in plastic wrap and refridgerate overnite or for several hours.

7. Preheat oven to 325.

8. Heavily grease baking sheet.

9. Working with one ball at a time, pinch off golf ball sized dough and roll out, using plenty of flour, between 2 sheets of waxed paper. Roll as thin as you can, (about 1/8").

Cut out cookies with small 2 1/2" cutters and place on baking sheet about 1" apart.

10. Bake 8 to 10 minutes. Carefully loosen with spatula as soon as they come out of the oven to prevent sticking to the sheet. Cool on wire racks.