Gingersnaps & Gingerbread Men

It's finally December, which means I can start celebrating the Christmas season to my heart's content. I'll be honest, I've been listening to Christmas music since the week before Thanksgiving and baking gingerbread cookies since the day right after, but it definitely seems more appropriate to do these things in December.

I love both of these ginger cookie recipes. Both recipes are great, and although their ingredients are similar, the different proportions of flour to leavening and sugar to butter make them taste completely different. And the smell of these cookies when they're in the oven is magical! I promise your house will literally smell like Christmastime.

Also, these are great recipes to make simultaneously. The ingredient list is practically identical, and the baking temperatures are both at 350 degrees. Both require a quick chill in the fridge, so while one batch of gingersnap dough is chilling in the fridge, you can whip together a batch of gingerbread men dough.

I just finished making these gingersnaps and gingerbread men for this Saturday's Eat My Blog bake sale. For those of you who don't know, Eat My Blog is a charity bake sale put together by Cathy of Gastronomy Blog. All proceeds go to Los Angeles Regional Foodbank. I've been wanting to participate in it ever since she started the event, but this was the first time I've had my own kitchen to do some baking in. My cookies have some pretty humble ingredients compared to some of the exotic and elaborate treats that are going to be for sale, but they're perfect for the holiday season. Make sure you stop by on Saturday, December 4th, at Tender Greens (8759 Santa Monica Blvd) in West Hollywood from 10:00am.m-4:00p.m. for some sweet treats!

Incredibly Crisp Gingersnaps

makes about 50

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 teaspoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

12 tablespoon (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1 large egg

1/4 cup molasses

sugar for finishing

1. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.

2. In another bowl, cream butter with sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg and continue beating until well incorporated.

3. Add half the flour mixture then add in molasses and combine before adding remaining flour mixture. Mix only until just incorporated.

4. Chill in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. The dough can be made the day before.

5. Using an 1-inch cookie dough scooper, make balls of dough to roll in sugar before placing on a silpat-lined baking sheet. Leave plenty of room between the cookies (3 inches) because they will spread in the oven.

6. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 12-15 minutes.

Gingerbread Men

3 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup packed dark brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoons ground cloves

1/2 teaspoons finely ground pepper

3/4 teaspoons coarse sea salt

1 large egg

1/2 cup molasses

1. In a bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder.

2. In another bowl, cream together sugar and butter until light and fluffy. Then add in spices and salt. Combine before adding the egg and molasses. Mix until incorporated.

3. Add flour mixture and mix on low until just incorporated. Divid the dough into two parts. Wrap each individually and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4. Sprinkle some flour on a flat surface and roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Using cookie cutters, cut out the gingerbread men and place on a silpat-lined baking sheet.

5. Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for 8-10 minutes depending on the size of the cookie cutter you're using. A 2-inch tall gingerbread man takes about 8 minutes in the oven.

Royal Icing recipe for decorating:

4 cups powdered sugar

3 tablespoons meringue powder

1/4-1/2 cup water

Food coloring gels

Mix together with a hand mixer until stiff peaks form. Feel free to adjust the consistency with either more powdered sugar or more water. Decorate!

Cookies for Santa

I love gingerbread. I love cookie cutters. I especially love making gingerbread cookies for Santa Claus.

I love gingerbread houses. I especially love gingerbread houses that are only 2 inches tall.

I love Christmas. I love baking. I especially love baking for Christmas! :)

Pretty much all of my Christmas presents were food-related which was fine by me! My mom gave me an Ina Garten cookbook and rolling pin. My mom gave me the french rolling pin a few days early and although designed to roll out pie crusts in a perfect circle, it worked great for making thin crisp gingerbread cookies--just the way I like them!

To make the cookies, I used Martha Stewart's recipe for gingerbread snowflakes. I halved the recipe and added less than half of the brown sugar so they wouldn't be as sweet. I love this recipe! I made it at least three times over the past three weeks of Christmas break.

Although I used Christmas-themed cookie cutters, these cookies could definitely be consumed year round. Just use differently shaped cookie cutters. I rolled the dough out so thin the last few times I made them, they turned out more like movorian (sp?) spice cookies than gingerbread cookies. So delicious!

Gingerbread Cookies

3 cups all purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) of butter

1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoons ground cloves

few turns of finely ground black pepper

3/4 teaspoons coarse sea salt

1 large egg

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1. sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl

2. cream butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment until fluffy

3. mix in spices and salt, then egg and molasses

4. reduce speed to low and add flour mixture

5. divide dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold--about an hour

6. preheat oven to 350 degrees

7. roll out dough as thinly as possible--or however thin you prefer--and cut with cookie cutters

8. bake until crisp--about 10 minutes

9. let cool and decorate as desired!

As Christmas approached, I made some to give as gifts to friends and neighbors. I was so happy just looking at them perfectly packaged on the kitchen counter. So Christmasy!

I have always wanted to make a gingerbread house but I always felt like it would require me to make a lot of dough, it would require a lot of work, blah blah blah. So I never got around to it. Finally, this year, I stumbled upon a post on tastespotting that featured little gingerbread houses that sat on the rim of your cup. I thought they were so cute! I had to give them a try. Here they are!

I used the same recipe as my cookies. I used the template from this site. Yes they sucessfully perched on cups but in the end, I just wanted to make a little village of houses :)

Guess who made the eccentric blue-sprinkles gingerbread house?

My boyfriend hehe. He must love me. He puts up with my OCD miniature gingerbread house making and still manages to feign interest in making his own. :)

Molasses Cookies

Molasses Cookies

Recipe adapted from Baking: From My Home to Yours, by Dorie Greenspan

makes about 2 dozen

2 1/2 cups of all purpose, unbleached flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

1/4 teaspoons ground nutmeg

pinch of freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) room-temperature unsalted butter

1 cup dark brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 large egg

1/2 cups white sugar to roll cookies in before baking

Steps:

1. Sift together dry ingredients--flour, baking soda, salt, ground spices

2. Cream butter on medium speed in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment for 2 minutes. Add brown sugar and cream until fluffy. Add egg (preferably also at room temp) and cream until incorporated

3. With the mixer on the lowest setting, slowly incorporate the dry ingredients into the wet.

4. The dough will be sticky. Separate into two portions and wrap each in wax paper. Let the dough chill in the fridge overnight or if in a hurry, chill for 30 minutes in the freezer.

5. While the dough is chilling, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F

6. Once the dough is chilled, remove from freezer/fridge. Make balls of dough that weigh about 21 grams (to ensure consistent size) each or a tablespoon each if you do not own an electronic scale. Roll the balls of dough in sugar. These cookies will spread in the over so place only about 8 cookies per silpat-lined baking sheet. Gently press down on each ball of dough until it is about 1/2 inch thick before putting in the oven.

7. Bake for 12-14 minutes.

I absolutely LOVE molasses cookies. There is nothing like a warmly spiced, gingery molasses cookie to really make it feel like the start of the holiday season. I used to always bake my default gingersnap cookies that have a very similar flavor but are crunchy and crispy in texture. This time, I felt like making a chewy cookie. I did some research and ended up with these. I was VERY pleased.

Perfectly soft and chewy in the center, with a slightly crispy edge, these molasses cookies definitely satisfied my holiday sweet-tooth. I increased the spice amounts in the recipe and ended up with a wonderfully spicy cookie. Being rolled in sugar also makes these cookies beautiful and sparkly to look at!