I’m Back + Gingerbread Cookies!!

Hey my friends! I’m FINALLY back to blogging. A normal schedule I have not decided, but I know my computer is finally hooked up and I have internet. WOO HOO!

At the moment I’m still trying to get all my stuff organized (house chores). I’ve gone from 2 closets, to 1 smaller closet. I have no furniture, so I’ve been trying to find an alternative to mimic furniture. Target has been very helpful in that department! Don’t worry I’ve been in the kitchen plenty of times cooking already. Speaking of which I made a red sauce for pasta over the weekend. Did the guys like? Hmm! The guys are tough critics but I like the negative feedback! I’ll let you know how that went.

In the mean time I will be sharing with you all my HOLIDAY COOKIES I made in 2010. I couldn’t find any time to get them up on the blog, so I figured I’d come back in January and sabotage everyone’s diets with delicious cookies. ;) If anything, bookmark these for the next holiday in what 11 months?!?

My first recipe I will share today is my absolute favorite cookie, gingerbread! At the cookie swap I was disappointed to find out no one made a spice cookie. I was left somewhat unsatisfied and had to make my own. The ones from King Arthur are fabulous. Spicy but not too spicy. The are buttery, moist and chewy. To keep them on the less sweet side I decided to not decorate with royal icing. It is always fun to decorate them with the kids. Instead I enjoyed my cookies smeared with peanut butter and dried cranberries. Very nontraditional but it actually made a really good pre-workout snack. ;)

Gingerbread Cookies By King Arthur

Ingredients

6 ounces unsalted butter

3/4 cup brown sugar

9 ounces molasses

1 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1/4 teaspoon allspice or cloves

1 large egg

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

14 3/4 ounces unbleached all-purpose flour

In a saucepan set over low heat, or in the microwave, melt butter, then stir in the brown sugar,molasses, salt and spices.Transfer the mixture to a medium-sized mixing bowl, let it cool lukewarm, and beat in the egg.

Whisk the baking powder and soda into the flour, and then stir in these dry ingredients into the molasses mixture.

Divide the dough in half, and wrap well. Refrigerate for 1 hour or longer.

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Take out baking sheets and lined with parchment paper for an easy clean up. Something easier to do is roll out your cookies onto parchment, cut into shapes, peel away the scrapes and then transfer cut cookies on top of parchment to baking sheet.

Once the dough has chilled, take one piece of dough out of the refrigerator, and flour a clean work surface, and the dough. Roll it out as thin or as thick as you like; for slightly less crisp cookie, roll it out more thickly.

Use flour under and on top of the dough to keep it from sticking to the table or rolling pin. Alternatively, you could place the dough on parchment, and put a sheet of plastic wrap over it as you roll, pulling the plastic to eliminate wrinkles. Cut cookies into shapes and as close as possible to minimize waste.

Transfer the cookies to the baking sheet. Bake the cookies just until they’re slightly brown around the edges 8 to 12 minutes, or until they feel firm. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheets for several minutes, or until they’re set. Transfer to a rack to cool completely. Repeat with remaining dough.

The little gingerbread men were my favorite!

You can either decorate with royal icing or a cookie glaze. I opted to leave mine plain and enjoyed them a smear of nut butter and dried fruit. They are also good dunked into coffee! Although if you are baking these cookies with kids, decorating the cookies makes for a fun activity.

Glad to be back!

Fallon

PS: Check out the giveaway going on at Healthy and Sane!