Quarantine Baking: Homemade Pfeffernusse Cookie Mix from Trader Joe's

Our favorite holiday cookie from Trader Joe's? Easy. The Pfeffernusse. We would consume boxes and boxes of this German spiced powder sugar cookie every year. And then one year... the recipe changed, and they weren't quite as good. And then the following year... they disappeared completely off the Trader Joe's shelves. This is where TJ's fails in its lack of communication with customers. There's no Trader Joe's social media to explain these things, and we're left just hanging with the mysteries of what happens to our favorite TJ items.

This year, in a twist, Trader Joe's didn't sell Pfeffernusse -- but it sold a Pfeffernusse cookie mix kit. It wasn't going to be the same, but it was something. We bought it and made the cookies. And they were good! They wound up being smaller than the TJ Pfeffernusse cookies we fondly remember, but they did have that crispy shell and soft interior just like the ones they used to sell. And of course, you can't go wrong with powdered sugar. We'd make them again... but how about just bringing back the already made cookies next year, TJs!