OHCE group hosts Cooking Through the County
Members of the Adams Homemakers Oklahoma Home and Community Education (OHCE) group hosted a class on how to make German pfeffernusse also known as peppernut cookies on March 15 to kick off the new Cooking Through the County project.
About a dozen people met at the Adams Clubhouse to learn how to make the tiny, tasty cookies from Judy Patterson who makes hundreds of various types of pfeffernusse cookies every year. Those attending the session were Patterson, Phoebe Johnson, Travis Johnson, Glenda Eldridge, DeAnna Farmer, JoAnn Tharp, Mary Jan Fast, Nora Bowers, Katie Richards, Beverly Richards and Sheila Blankenship.
Patterson shared several recipes, some calling for mace and black pepper while others are flavored with allspice, nutmeg and cloves; or anise, cardamom and cinnamon.
Since the cookie dough must be chilled, she had prepared one recipe and gave each participate some to roll out into thin ropes before cutting in 1/4” pieces. While those cookies baked, a few people mixed up another recipe of peppernuts. Those present sampled the first batch of pfeffernusse cookies, hot from the oven and each could take some of the second batch of dough home to bake more tiny cookies.
Everyone enjoyed hearing a bit of Patterson’s German heritage as she told how her family passed down instructions for the cookies, and participants shared stories of how they were introduced to pfeffernusse and shared various recipe options.
The cooking class was first session of the Texas County OHCE’s Cooking Through the County project. True Blue OHCE will host the next cooking class but no date has been set. the goal is to introduce unfamiliar recipes, foods and techniques to interested cooks.
To learn more about OHCE or about the new cooking classes, persons may call Arleen James at (580) 3387300 or contact any OHCE member.