Recipe From: Laura
As I corral the last of my holiday decorations and tuck ‘em away for next year, my mind reflects on how the magic of Christmas evokes favorite memories of Christmas pasts-- the joyous celebration of Christ's birth, special family traditions, festive music repeating in my head, the warm captivating lights, smells of pine bough and cloves, the joy of giving that touches hearts, the blessing of being able to celebrate another Christmas with family...... and the list goes on. So many important parts collectively play in the spirit and significance of Christmas. This year-end reflection also helps me decide what traditions/events get to stay and what to let go of so I can live in each moment. Discovering what’s truly important this time of year helped me to transition to simpler holidays. But even the best of my intentions with holiday traditions can be a lot of work and stress, all for the sake of “well, its tradition”. And then there’s my love for baking lots of treats all month long-- even if its a lot of work. There’s something magical about creating memories and the joy that fills my home as the kids and I bake goodies and jam out to Christmas tunes. Non-negotiable, right?. Just how do you narrow it down to just a few homemade treats? Well somehow, I managed to only bake one treat this entire Christmas season---u can guess what that would be! What is it that makes gingerbread cookies so special? Perhaps its this.... As fall is synonymous with pumpkin spice, the Christmas season is with gingerbread spice. As much as I love me some gingerbread, I could never find a recipe that left its mark embedded in my heart....that is until Christmas Eve. These scrumptious snaps won the history of Christmas baking, earning a sweet spot for a “must-make” every Christmas. Just the sweet aroma of freshly baked gingerbread wafting throughout my neighborhood had peeps breakin’ out their pocketbooks as I loaded 'em up with all the goods. I can’t blame 'em. The hallmark flavors in each soft chewy gingerbread cookie are perfectly spiced, adorned with drizzles of sweet icing then sprinkled delicately with sugar-- it’s no wonder these cookies dance like sugar plums in my head. This leads me to believe there's some sort of mysterious trickery that takes place here-- all discipline is lost--its cookies to crumbs in seconds. And let's just say as magical as she may be, even Mrs. Claus herself could not have crafted better sweets. These cookies begin a new tradition that will welcome every Christmas season to come.
.png)
*Recipe requires planning ahead & chill dough*
INGREDIENTS
For The Dough
3 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 teaspoon black pepper (I did 1 tsp)
1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup + 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup blackstrap or dark molasses (Blackstrap molasses is less sweet, so in my opinion, I would not recommend for this recipe. I use unsulphured organic molasses.)
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
**SEE TIPS FOR BEST RESULTS**
For The Glaze
1 cup confectioner’s sugar
2 tablespoons warm water
(alternative glaze recipe below)
BEFORE YOU BEGIN, PLEASE READ TIPS BELOW FOR BEST
RESULTS
INSTRUCTIONS
- Stir
together flour, cocoa, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, baking soda, salt and
pepper into a medium bowl.
- In a
stand mixer with paddle attachment, beat butter on medium speed until
creamy and fluffy. Slowly add sugar while the mixer is running and
continue to mix until smooth.
- Scrape
down the sides, add the egg, and mix on low until fully incorporated.
- Add
molasses and corn syrup and mix on medium until incorporated and scrape
down the sides of the bowl.
- Add in
flour and mix on low until ingredients are well incorporated and a dough
forms that starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Remove
dough, to a piece of lightly floured wax paper, place a large piece of wax
paper on top, and then roll out to 1/8” thickness, and rest overnight in
the fridge.
Preheat oven to 350 degree and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. - Remove
the top wax paper from your dough, lightly flour the surface and roll your
patterned rolling pin over the dough and cut into squares. Alternatively,
you can imprint your cookies with a cookie stamp, cut them out with a
biscuit cutter, and then re-work & roll out the dough and repeat the
process to use all of your dough.
- Bake
until slightly darkened along the sides and still soft in the
middle. For a chewy cooky, I recommend taking them out
earlier because they continue to firm up after taking them out of the
oven. For a crispy cookie, let them bake until the middle
is starting to firm up. My 2.5” cookies took exactly 8 minutes to have the
perfect chew to them. It will depend on the thickness of your dough and
size of your cookie.
- The
excess dough from the cutouts ---each time you roll the dough out to cut
out more cookies, the dough will be soft. Take the time to roll it out
again but not to thin, freeze the dough for 30 min. then cut them out.
Cutouts for cookies work best when cold.
To make the glaze, sift your sugar into a bowl, add 2T of
water and whisk until smooth.
- Let cookies cool for about 5 minutes and while they are still warm brush a coating of the glaze on top of each cookie with a pastry brush. Let cool completely before serving.
TIPS
1. Make Dough Ahead
The Dough needs a lot of time to chill in the fridge, so
making the dough the day before you plan to bake is a must in my book. It means
way less stress on baking day.
2. Roll Out Your Dough Before Chilling
While the recipe calls for chilling your dough and THEN
rolling it out the next day, I found it much easier to roll it out to the
desired thickness before resting it in the fridge. The dough becomes incredibly
hard to work with once it is chilled.
Make sure you use PLENTY of flour when rolling out your
dough to avoid sticking and tearing the dough.
3. Sift Sugar For Icing
To prepare the icing, sift the sugar first to get rid of any
clumps--a very necessary step. The last thing you want on your beautiful
imprinted cookies is clumpy icing.
An Optional Glaze Alternative:
1 TBSP melted butter
1 TBSP pure maple syrup
1 1/2 c. powdered sugar
2 TBSP milk
pinch of salt
Comments
Post a Comment