Mrs. Becker’s Peppernuts

When I was a child we lived in an old farm house. I loved that old house. Anyway, The Becker’s lived across the road from us in their old farm house. Mrs. Becker was a grandma and probably in her 60’s. She had really long white hair that she would braid and wrap around the top of her head. She and her husband spoke German often when I was visiting. Mrs. Becker introduced me to wonderful things. – like eating Town House crackers while drinking Pepsi! To this day I love that merging of flavors! She also introduced me to peppernuts. She made the best peppernuts in the world!!

Imagine my surprise when I started school and walked into a classroom full of people my size. Up until then my best friend had been Mrs. Becker and even though I would see children my size once in a while and there were 2 or 3 at church, I was shocked to see a whole room full of “us!”

When I became an adult and married with my own family I wanted to make the peppernuts that Mrs. Becker had made. They were different than any others I’ve ever bought or tasted – not as spicy and they were soft.

    

So I got the recipe from her. Now I don’t know how many of you have ever gotten a recipe from a German Mennonite woman – but I did get the ingredients and that’s about it. I had to learn how to make them by hit or miss!

Peppernuts

1/2 cup butter

3 cups sugar

3 eggs

1/4 cup honey

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1 teaspoon soda

1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 pinch cloves

1 pinch salt

1 cup walnuts (I chop mine)

add flour until stiff ( I tried measuring this time how much I used and it came to a little over 7 cups)

Refrigerate up to an hour

Roll into ropes and cut by half inch links

(the smaller you make them the crispier they will be)

Place on a cookie sheet and bake for about 8 – 9 minutes at 400