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!

Fallon’s Favorite Holiday Candies and Cookies!

I wanted to share with you some of my favorite holiday treats I like to make. Year after year you start realizing what people enjoy more of and then you’ll notice they will ask you, “Hey Fallon, are you making peppermint bark this year?” “Fallon, what were those one cookies with the dried cherries?” It is obvious I have some favorites and I can’t go a year without making them. It’s good to know I have people reminding me what I need to make as well. ;)

Maybe there will be something here you can start a new tradition with!

Enjoy!

Apricot- Pecan Thumbprint Cookies

Caramel Popcorn Brittle

 

Dark and Milk Chocolate Brownies

Fantasy Fudge

Frito Bark

Gingerbread Squares

 

Old Fashion Gingerbread

Italian Sprinkle Cookies

Mandel Bread

Nestle Toll House Chocolate Chip Cookies

Peanut Butter Cookie Dough Balls

 

Peppermint Bark

Pumpkin Biscotti

Smoked Almond Turtles

Snickerdoodles

Toffee Biscotti

Vegan Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

White Chocolate Chip Cherry Cookies

Fallon

Old Fashion Gingerbread!

Hey Bloggers! I'm back today to share with you the other recipe I found for gingerbread. I definitely got my gingerbread fix solved this season! The only thing left is to try a gingerbread latte from Starbucks! ;) The first recipe I showed you were for Gingerbread Squares. This cake was light, moist and fluffy, and would crumble in your hand. Butter was the fat used in this recipe.

Today I share with you from Cooking Light, Old-Fashioned Gingerbread. This recipe was slightly different from the other. It used more spice with the addition of cloves to give it that spiciness gingerbread is known for. The fat used was canola oil in place of butter. Canola oil is very light in smell and taste. The spice and molasses were the stars of this bread compared to the last one. One last thing that really made me want to try this recipe was the addition of applesauce! Applesauce is great in baked goods because it brings so much moisture to the cake and you would never guess it was a low- fat baked good. I made no adjustments to this recipe, I followed as is on the site. Except I used an 8 inch pan because I don't have a 9 inch!!! I should put that on my Christmas list ;) Or maybe someone should surprise me with one! Click here for the recipe for Old-Fashioned Gingerbread.

I had 25 pieces but used the biggest/prettiest ones for pictures! 

So festive with the dusting of powdered sugar. 

So which gingerbread was my favorite? I loved both, but when I make gingerbread again I'm going for the old fashion version! It was more dense but it was still light in taste with the use of canola oil and applesauce. The cake was so moist, it would melt in your mouth. It held it shape better and didn't crumble as easily when picked up to eat. The spice again wasn't over powering! It was the right amount of cinnamon, clove and ginger. You remember when I said my father is not a fan of the spice but liked the gingerbread squares? He liked this cake too!! So I don't know what his deal is with the whole "spice" thing, but I think I have made him a fan. :) So what is next for me?

Well tomorrow, Sunday 13th will be 1 week till my boyfriend is on a plane coming home for Christmas! It is actually happening. My family and I are invited to his parents house once again for Christmas this year. Sometime this week I will show you this CAKE I brought to his parents last year. It was a huge crowd pleaser. This year I decided to go a different route and bake items I truly enjoy doing every year. Which is making candy and cookies! I'm going to make a huge platter spread of all my favorite goodies that I know people love like fudge, peppermint bark, biscotti, and several new cookies I'm trying out this season! Can't wait to share everything with you guys.

Have a wonderful weekend,
Fallon

Gingerbread Squares

If there is ANYTHING about this time of the year with the holidays here and such, the one thing I love most is gingerbread. Cookies, cakes, breads, drinks etc. I love the taste, the smell, the spice it brings. It makes me feel warm and happy inside. The downside is that not many people love the taste of gingerbread. Some gingerbread recipes can be very strong in taste. Like my father he said he doesn't like gingerbread. I was in the mood for gingerbread last week. I went on a search to find all gingerbread recipes that I would enjoy. At the moment I'm trying to watch my weight so I can look extra good for my honey when he comes home in 3 weeks. I didn't want something super fattening but I wanted to have the moistness and flavor of gingerbread. First I skimmed some of my cookbooks and nothing fantastic. Then I checked some blogs and had no luck with any gingerbread recipes. I looked at some gluten free/vegan type breads but nothing of interest. So I went with the next best thing, Cooking Light. I know they have good recipes, they show calorie count, and I can easily substitute anything in the recipes. I found 2 recipes I really liked and today I'm going to share the first bread I made. I plan on making the second bread tomorrow and will share that one this weekend. The original recipe for Gingerbread Squares is here, and below I will share my slightly modified version. Gingerbread Squares (Adapted from Cooking Light)  
Ingredients
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup all purpose-flour
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 cup light brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup molasses ( I used Grandma's Molasses)
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
Pinch of salt
1 large egg
Cooking spray (I used EVOO in my Misto)
Powdered sugar to coat the top

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prep an 8-inch baking pan with cooking spray and line the inside with parchment paper to easily lift the bread out of the pan. Lightly spoon flours into dry measuring cups, and tap lightly to level. Combine flour, ginger, cinnamon, and baking soda, stirring with a whisk. You could also sift the ingredients together. Combine brown sugar and next 5 ingredients (brown sugar through egg) in a large bowl, stirring with a whisk. In a separate bowl I beat the egg and added the buttermilk. (So it would be ready to add to the remaining ingredients.) Then stir in the flour mixture. Pour batter into a 8-inch square baking pan coated with cooking spray. Bake for 25 minutes (my bread took 30 minutes) or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool in pan on a wire rack. Sprinkle gingerbread with powdered sugar. 

I've been drooling over the huge gingerbread slice Starbucks has right now, but when I saw that monster had almost 400-500 calories, I knew I could find a less caloric gingerbread and at around 85 calories a slice, give or take I was very happy with the Cooking Light recipe. I think this bread was great. The flavors were mild and had just enough spice. I think the brown sugar helped the molasses from not being as strong and helped on the sweetness factor. Plus it helped make the gingerbread very moist.

I didn't have a 9-inch baking pan, so I had no choice but to use the 8-inch. I still managed to get 25 squares out of it (tiny slices but if I wanted 2-3 I wouldn't feel so bad). Remember how I said my father doesn't like gingerbread??? WELL! I told him to try a small piece and he was surprised at how good it was. He was expecting a strong ginger taste that he despises and in return it was a light, moist and slightly spicy cake. No joke, I had maybe 4-5 squares and the rest was finished off by my parents in no less then 2 days! That why I'm going to make the other gingerbread recipe tomorrow! Check out what I received in the mail the other day.


A FRENCH PRESS! I ordered it through Open Sky on KERFs page. Her coffee always look so delicious and I couldn't miss the opportunity to order it with a $20 off coupon. After I publish this post I'm off to make some decaf Christmas blend coffee! Too bad I don't have anymore Gingerbread Squares to have with my coffee, boy was that a treat!

Happy Monday!
Fallon