Pfeffernuesse preferences?

I make a version with anise( which I like) and without nuts. I roll the dough into thin "snakes", cut in tiny pieces and bake. They are about the size of a large dried green pea (before baking) and I only do this at Christmas. But we, and others, love them. It's fun to eat cookies by the handful!

I like the idea of pea-sized cookies and will try that with one roll of the dough. I should be able to reroll dough to the pea -diameter snakes after chilling, I hope.

By the way, we had cool temperatures and quite low humidity today, and only 6.5 Cups of flour was needed. I more often make these when the kitchen is warm and has high humidity from other baking so this was new to me. It created a damp-sand textured mixture rather than fully-formed dough. I scooped it out 1 C. at a time on the waxed paper and was able to squeeze it to form the nickle-diameter rolls.

Are they really called Pfeffernuesse?

I only know Pfefferkuchen, but that would be a typically German Christmas snack (I think).

Pfeffernuesse, Pfeffernusse, or Pfeffernüsse. Even anglicized to Feffernous. Occasionally Peppernuts.

They are a German Christmas cookie. A 1709 recipe calls for sugar, eggs, (ein gutes paar eyer), muscat nuts (which I discovered means nutmeg), ginger, and other stuff which I gave up on, because it's not only written in archaic German, but it's a hard-to-read scan of Gothic script.

I've never cared for them, mainly because all the ones I've tasted had anise, which I don't like.

Yes, #3, that's the name of recipe passed along from my German great-grandmother and made at Christmas time. I see from a search that the spelling varies, with/without the third 'e', some translated to English as Peppernuts, and the Scandinavians make a version that includes pepper and cardamom called Pepperkaker. One noted the recipe as pfeffenusse kuchen - so I'm thinking it could also have been shortened along the way to pfefferkuchen - pepper cookies. Some recipes include ground cloves, some use molasses, some brown sugars, some crushed anise rather than anise seed. One recipe even coated these in powdered sugar while warm (similar to the much more tender-textured snowball cookies), which I'd not recommend.

I like them with pecans in them (no anise). My mom makes a kind of version of them called angel cookies (no nuts). They're both my favorite. I love the way they melt in your mouth.

No anise please.

The Dutch equivalent is called Peparnoten. Don't rely on my spelling. I get the impression they when they are homemade they are almost always made with a mix of spices sold specifically for the purpose.

Some have chocolate in them.

As much as I like chocolate, I wouldn't want it in these. In fact, although I do like pecans in them my favorite way to eat them is plain. They're just fine the way they are.