Pfefferneusse

en Päpanät Re'ssapt

Peppernuts  Flaten – Wall, from Mountain Lake, MN / Lustre, MT / Salem, OR / Falcon Heights, MN

1 cup milk

1 cup sugar

1 cup lard or Crisco™

2 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cloves

4 cup flour

    Heat milk and sugar over medium heat.  Remove from fire and add lard or Crisco™.  Set aside to cool.  Sift dry ingredients or combine spices and baking powder, mixing well.  Add to flour and sift with whisk.  Add to cooled mixture.  (We poured liquid mixture slowly into dry ingredients while mixing.)   

    Chill overnight (traditionally, many Mennonites keep the dough in the entry, garage or car during the winter).  Next day, roll into pencil-thin strips, or the size of a thick crayon.  Cut into ½ -¾” pieces and bake in 400⁰ oven until a light brown. 

    Peppernuts are eaten with coffee or soaked in hot chocolate.  I find that their spicy flavor can also sensationalize a rich red or fruity white wine.

    Peppernuts, pfefferneusse, papanuta, however you choose to spell their name, peppernuts are a holiday tradition that unifies Mennonite generations and the international diaspora of Prussian and Russian Mennonites into a single cultural identity, at least for those holidays.

    Karen and I made these for Christmas out of a collection of family recipes, mostly relating back to the Kleine Gemeinde of Nebraska and the Bruderthaler of Minnesota.  Enjoy!

Steve Wall's 1994 essay on Peppernate's:

Amen! Amen!

    One of the first church debates that I recall as a child regarded the use of applause in the church service.  Interestingly, it is also the earliest point at which I realized that I tended to favor traditionalism over the new form of Evangelical service.

    As a child, our church practiced two verbal forms that fell out of use fairly rapidly as the 1980s wore on – the use of the Amen and the practice for adult believers to address each other as Brother and/or Sister (er, usually just one or the other).  While I clearly recall both verbal forms being readily and commonly employed, I have no clear idea as to their actual historicity or whether they relate to the Mennonite heritage or to the American Evangelical heritage of the church and conference.

    The Amen controversy centered on the perceived correct response to special music, music in general and other special presentations during the church service.  Since the 1960s, at least, the basic program or protocol for the evangelical Mennonite church service included individual laic participation with a strong focus on special music.