Pepparkakor – Scandinavian spiced Christmas biscuits

Traditional Swedish festive biscuits flavoured with cinnamon and ginger, these make ideal edible gifts.

Iced biscuits in cellophane packages
By Saga Magazine | Published - 27 Nov 2025
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Prep time
10 mins
Cooking time
12 mins
Serves
24

Ingredients

  • 60g (2½ oz) butter
  • 75g (3oz) soft light brown sugar
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tsp ginger
  • 1 tsp finely grated orange zest
  • 1 tbsp black treacle
  • 2 tbsp milk
  • 225g (8oz) plain flour
  • ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

Icing

  • 1 egg white
  • 350g (12oz) icing sugar

Method

  1. Cream the butter and soft light brown sugar in a mixer. 
  2. Add the cinnamon and ginger, finely grated orange zest, and black treacle. Beat again, then add the milk. 
  3. With the beater on a low speed add the plain flour and the bicarbonate of soda. 
  4. Scrape the dough off the beaters and, using your hands, bring the dough together into a ball, adding more milk if you need. 
  5. Wrap in clingfilm and chill for an hour.
  6.  Roll the dough out 3mm (⅛in) thick. 
  7. Stamp out your shapes and put them onto two lightly buttered baking sheets. Gather the remaining dough, roll out again and keep cutting until all of it has been used.
  8. Chill for 45 minutes. 
  9. Cook the biscuits for 12 minutes in an oven preheated to 180°C (350°F, gas mark 4). They should start to feel hard round the edges as they cool and eventually become hard – they need to have a nice “snap”. 
  10. Gently beat 1 egg white then add as much icing sugar as needed (about 350g/12oz) to give you a mixture thick enough to pipe (thinner if you are just going to drizzle it onto the biscuits). 
  11. Decorate the biscuits and leave to set. 
  12. If gifting, wrap in cellophane and tie with ribbon. Makes 24.

Notes

TIP: practice your piping beforehand, if you are not used to it. For an easier topping, drizzle the icing using the tines of a fork.

(Hero image credit: Getty)

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