Pfeffernüsse Spice Cookies! Traditional German Christmas cookies made with a blend of spices like ginger, cinnamon, and white pepper and glazed. These cookies store and ship very well.

Photography Credit: Irvin Lin

Years ago, I used to host an annual holiday cookie swap at a local nonprofit community center in San Francisco. Friends and members of the community would gather together, bearing large batches of homemade cookies. Everyone would walk around, sampling cookies and taking a few of the ones we loved.

Each person left with a tin of assorted cookies, along with a slight sugar buzz.

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It was a marvelous way to meet new people in the neighborhood, as well as learn about new cookies that I wasn’t familiar with. And that’s exactly how I was introduced to the magical Pfeffernusse.

The executive director of the nonprofit, Rosie, grew up making Pfeffernusse, a traditional Christmas German spice cookie. I had never eaten one before, but I knew the minute that I tasted one that I wanted to learn how to make them!

Sadly, I never got Rosie’s recipe before she left San Francisco, but I’ve collected and looked at numerous recipes trying to figure out exactly what made hers so special. It turns out that there are numerous variations of Pfeffernusse cookies, all claiming to be authentic. (And as with all things “authentic,” everyone thinks theirs is the most authentic!)

The version I eventually landed on doesn’t use baking ammonia, a type of leavener that pre-dates baking soda and which some people claim is important to the authenticity. It’s available online, but the idea of baking with a compound that also functions as “smelling salts” just didn’t appeal to me.

I also eschewed coating the cookies with powdered sugar, something that a lot of recipes call for. For me, the traditional Pfeffernusse cookie is coated with a thin icing glaze, not a dusting of powder.

Regardless of whether not this recipe is what you think of as “true Pfeffernusse,” these cookies will fill your home with the smell of the holidays. After my partner AJ took a bite of one, he said, without any prompting, “These taste like Christmas!”

Take these to your next holiday cookie swap and watch as others declare the same!

Looking for more ideas for Christmas cookies? You can see ALL of them here!