Pepparkakor Swedish Ginger Thins

Makes 110-120 biscuits, depending on the thickness

Recipe by Louise on November 30, 2017

Prep time: PT40M

Cook time: PT36M

Total time: PT76M

Rating

4.88 stars (8 reviews)

Blend the butter and all the spices in a large bowl or you can do this in a stand mixer, using the paddle attached.
Heat the sugar, molasses, golden syrup and water until the sugar has dissolved. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes and then pour over the butter mixture and stir. Cool to room temperature.
Blend the flour and bicarbonate and then mix into the butter and sugar mixture. The mixture is fairly loose but it's now going to be refrigerated for roughly 8 hours, divide into 4 and wrap in clingfilm. This dough can be kept in the fridge for 2 weeks or frozen for up to a 3 months.
Preheat the oven to 190°C (fan). Take only a small amount of the dough from the fridge and lightly flour your surface and roll out the dough 2mm thick. Stamp out your shapes with your chosen cookie cutters. With the help of a thin bladed knife, transfer carefully to the lined baking trays. Bake the biscuits for 5-6 minutes. They should start to feel hard around the edges as they cool and eventually become really crisp – they need to have a nice ‘snap’. Store in an airtight container for several weeks. *If you are making Christmas decorations remember to make a hole for the ribbon or string to go through. Do this as soon as they come out of the oven, I use the tip of a very small piping nozzle.
To Decorate
- Mix royal icing with a little water to a pipe-able consistency, or make your own, see notes below.

Merryn on 2023-12-22 (5 stars):
Thank you for sharing this recipe, Louise. I made these pepparkakor for my partner’s family who have a Swedish background and they loved them! My partner was particularly impressed with how authentically Swedish they were. For fellow vegans, I just substituted the butter for a plant-based alternative (nuttelex) which worked well. I did find the dough a bit tricky to roll out as it was still quite sticky even after a night in the fridge but I just added more flour to the bench which helped! Will definitely be making these again next year :)
Zoey on 2022-09-21 (5 stars):
I made these for my Swedish/Norwegian in-laws last December and they went down an absolute treat and my partner, who wasn’t a massive fan of the ones he got as a kid, loved these because he thought the spices were better balanced than the super gingery ones he remembered. Will absolutely be making these every year as part of a new Christmas tradition. They are delicious! They also kept really well in a sealed biscuit tin!