Vegan Pfeffernüsse
These vegan pfeffernüsse cookies are soft and chewy with warm spices, deep molasses flavor, and a delicate snowy coating of powdered sugar. They’re irresistibly festive and perfect for holiday baking!
Servings: 30 cookies
Calories: 94kcal
Ingredients
- ½ cup organic brown sugar
- 6 tablespoons vegan butter
- ¼ cup maple syrup
- ¼ cup unsulfured molasses
- 3 tablespoons unflavored and unsweetened non-dairy milk
- 1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
- 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
- ½ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon anise extract
For Coating
- ½ cup organic powdered sugar
Instructions
- Place the brown sugar, vegan butter, maple syrup, and molasses into a small saucepan and set it over medium heat. Heat the mixture while stirring just until the butter and brown sugar have melted, 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the pot from heat and let it cool to room temperature.
- Stir the milk and ground flaxseed together in a small bowl. Set it aside for at least 5 minutes, until the flaxseeds gel.
- While the flax mixture sits, whisk the flour, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, black pepper, baking soda, and salt together in a large mixing bowl.
- Once the flax mixture has gelled, whisk it into the melted brown sugar mixture in the saucepan, then whisk in the anise extract.
- Pour the melted brown sugar mixture into the bowl with the flour mixture and stir until a sticky dough forms.
- Cover the bowl and chill the dough for 2 hours (Note 1).
- Preheat the oven to 350°F and line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Roll the dough into balls, using a heaping tablespoon of dough per cookie. Place the dough balls on the prepared baking sheets, leaving at least 1 ½ inches between them.
- Bake the cookies until they've puffed up and the tops feel set but don't yet look browned, 8 to 10 minutes.
- Place the baking sheets on cooling racks when they come out of the oven. Let the cookies cool for at least 5 minutes on the baking sheets, then transfer them directly to the racks to finish cooling.
- Once the cookies are cool, place the powdered sugar into a bowl. Roll each cookie in powdered sugar until coated.
Notes
- You can chill the dough for up to 24 hours if you'd like, but you'll need to let it sit at room temperature until it's soft enough to scoop.
Nutrition
Serving: 1cookie (1/30 of recipe) | Calories: 94kcal | Carbohydrates: 18g | Protein: 1g | Fat: 2g | Saturated Fat: 1g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 1g | Trans Fat: 0.01g | Sodium: 80mg | Potassium: 68mg | Fiber: 0.4g | Sugar: 9g | Vitamin A: 108IU | Vitamin C: 0.01mg | Calcium: 17mg | Iron: 1mg