Pip-a-neir

Well, as hard as I tried, the pip-a-neir did not get made the day after Thanksgiving. It did however get made that Saturday.  I will tell you, that it is a task usually set aside in my family for as many in the family to join in as possible.  We have the Christmas tunes on, we laugh and joke, and have lunch together after.  It makes for a lot of great memories. Some of my favorite actually.  For the last- I don't know how many- several years I have been the one to finish off the dough (getting it to the perfect rolling consistency) and rolling out the ropes to pass on to everyone else to cut and place on the cookie sheets for baking.  This year, not even Will would help me.  I did it all on my own.  I'm not complaining mind you, I love pip-a-neir too much, but I didn't make any great memories this year, it was kind of lonely.

For those who have forgotten, pip-a-neir is a danish cookie.  It is like a molasses cookie, but has some anise in it too for a little spice to the flavor.  It also looks like kibble.  Don't let this be off-putting!  It is actually a great selling point.  I will bring a small bag to work, (and used to bring it to school back in the dark ages) people never want to try it, they think I'm crazy for eating dog food.  That's OK, see, that means there's more for me!  What did I tell you--- great selling point!

So for those interested in learning how to make it, here goes....
Ingredients

1/2 c crisco
1 dash salt
2 eggs
2 c molasses
1 c sugar
9 c flour (more or less)
1 teaspoon anise seeds or cardamom seeds
1/3 teaspoon cloves
1/3 teaspoon cinnamon
1 dash white pepper
2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 c walnuts chopped

Cream together crisco, salt and eggs.  Add molasses and sugar mixing well.  Combine anise, cloves, cinnamon, white pepper, baking soda and chopped walnuts with one cup of flour.  Add to molasses mixture.

Continue to add flour one cup at a time.  I find that every time I make this I use different amounts of flour.  It is usually between 6 1/2 and 7 1/2.  Once you can't stir any more, start mixing it with your hands.  Kneading the dough till smooth and you have a great consistency for rolling it out into ropes.  Roll into ropes and slice into bite size pieces.  Bake on a grease cookie sheet at 375 degree oven for approximately 7-10 minutes, or until golden brown.  DO NOT OVER BAKE.

If you like a softer cookie, cook for about 7 minutes, or if you like crunch cook for 9-10 minutes.

This is the disclaimer found at the bottom of my recipe. ;-)
*This is an old Danish Christmas cookie recipe that we always made between Thanksgiving and Christmas.  The oldest children rolled out the ropes while the younger ones sliced them..... lots never made it to the cookie sheet, but Gram never gave us the devil for it.

Here is one rope made, always want to have some flour on the board.

you wat to have a little space between pieces on the cookie sheet or they stick together.  Not that that's a bad thing.  We always look for the largest cluster.

And this is about a third of a batch cooling on the rack.  We usually let them sit in the cookie sheet for about 5 minutes after coming out of the oven because they should still be pretty soft, then transfer them to the cooling racks to finish the cooling process.

Making the dough can be a great sensory project for kids who like and/or need that sensory input.
I mean, who doesn't like to get a little messy and knead some dough?  Trust me, it can be a great stress reducer for adults as well........