Grandma Tillie's Gingerbread

So simple, so easy. It's not fancy, but it is spicy delicious, great in the Fall and Winter.

GRANDMA TILLIE'S GINGERBREAD

• preheat oven to 350 degrees

• butter well a 9 x 9 baking pan
  

In a large bowl, whisk together:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt (note: reduce this amount by half if you use salted butter in the next step)
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
pinch of ground cloves
1 teaspoon baking SODA
Set aside for now.

In the bowl of an electric mixer, beat:
1 stick unsalted butter (if you use salted butter, reduce the salt in the flour mixture above by half)
3/4 cup dark brown sugar

Beat at medium speed until pale and fluffy.

Add:
1 egg
Blend well.

Then, slowly add in:
1/2 cup molasses (I highly recommend Brer Rabbit Molasses -- nothing else is quite the same)
3/4 cup well-shaken buttermilk
Mix until well blended.

Scrape the bowl down.

Add the flour mixture on low speed until smooth, then add:
1/2 cup hot water
Beat for 1 minute. (mixture may look curdled, but that's ok.) 

Scrape the bowl and mix a little longer if there are unincorporated bits.

Spread in the well buttered 9 x 9 pan, then bake for 40 - 45 minutes. Cool in the pan on a rack.

Cover tightly with foil when cool. Cut into large squares and serve with a dollop or so of whipped cream.

Gingerbread Men

My intrepid sister-in-law, Debbie, asked me for the Gingerbread Men recipe we have been using for eons; somehow, the shreds of paper with loved recipes always disappear. As it turns out, it was published in the December 1982 issue of Gourmet magazine. It's still the best recipe, and so the tradition of making and decorating them continues as she bakes them with her grandson (my great nephew) Colton. Have fun, Mimi and Colton!

Gingerbread Men

1 cup unsalted butter, softened to room temp

1 cup FIRMLY packed brown sugar

1 large egg

1 cup molasses (I use Brer Rabbit)

2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

5 cups flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Sift together the flour, spices, baking soda and salt and set aside.

Cream the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Slowly beat in the egg, molasses, and vinegar.

Stir the flour mixture into the butter mixture a little at a time. Dough will be soft. Divide dough into 4 balls, dust lightly with flour, flatten each ball, then wrap each in wax paper or plastic wrap and REFRIGERATE AT LEAST 6 HOURS or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Remove a ball of dough and roll it out on a floured surface to 1/8" thickness or less. Cut with floured cookie cutters (mine are 4" tall gingerbread men). Transfer with a spatula to parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake for 7 - 8 minutes or until no imprint remains when touched lightly with your finger. Remove and cool the cookie sheets on racks. Pipe with sugar icing (recipe below); let them set 20 minutes or so before storing -- icing must be dry. Makes about 60 4" men, so your mileage may vary depending on the cutters you use.

Store in a tightly covered tin.

Sugar Icing:

2 egg whites*

pinch of cream of tartar

2 teaspoons water

3 cups confectioners sugar, sifted

Beat the egg whites, cream of tartar and water together until frothy, then add sugar gradually until it forms stiff peaks. Use a pastry bag to pipe the cookies. 

*you can use powdered egg whites if you want, and make enough per directions for 2 egg whites -- this recipe was published long before a salmonella problem existed.

Traditional Italian Christmas Cookie: Pizzelles

I just want to say that I love pizzelles. There are many, many recipes for them, and I have tried a good many myself. But I keep coming back to one that I was introduced to decades ago: a traditional recipe, made with butter instead of oil (as many modern variations seem to do) and anise seed instead of anise extract or oil. The resulting pizzelle is tender and subtly flavored, perfect with tea, coffee, or a glass of dessert wine. 

Tender Traditional Italian Pizzelles

6 eggs, room temperature 
1 1/2 cups cup sugar
1 cup butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract 
2 tsp. anise seed
3 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt

Preheat your pizzelle iron/maker and follow the mfrs. directions for preparing the grids.

In a large mixing bowl, beat the eggs and sugar. Add the cooled butter,
vanilla, and anise seed. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together and add to the egg mixture, mixing until very thick and smooth. (Batter will be slightly glossy.)


The batter should be stiff enough to be dropped by a scant tablespoon into the center of a preheated pizzelle iron/maker. Close and clamp the lid; bake until steaming abates, about 30 to 45 seconds. Cookies should be very pale golden or barely browned at all.  Remove carefully to a wire rack; cool completely before storing. 

This cookie is somewhat fragile, so handle with care. Store in a tightly covered tin with waxed paper between layers. The flavor improves overnight. An excellent make-ahead cookie that keeps well for a week to ten days.

NOTE: The batter can be covered tightly and refrigerated to be used up to 24 hrs. later, if desired. 

Makes about six dozen.

Holiday Classics: Pizzelles, Butterballs, Peanut Butter Blossoms

Now that it's December, officially holiday season, it's time to post some of the other requisite Christmas cookies we make each year, as requested by my eldest daughter, Julia. My sister-in-law, Debbie, makes the BEST pizzelles, and we use her recipe as our standard. We also never fail to make my mom's Butterball recipe, sometimes as balls and sometimes as crescents. And who doesn't love the peanut butter cookie with the  chocolate kisses in them?

DEBBIE'S PIZZELLES

6 eggs
1 cup Wesson vegetable oil or Mazola corn oil
2 tsp. baking powder
1 1/3 cups sugar
4 cups flour
1 tblsp. anise seed
1 tsp. salt
2 tsp. vanilla

Sift the flour, baking powder and salt together; set aside. 

Beat the oil and sugar together, and then add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add dry ingredients gradually, then anise seed and vanilla. Bake in preheated pizzelle iron until pale golden or until steaming dies down ( matter of 30 seconds =/-). Makes 4 dozen. 

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BUTTERBALLS
not one Christmas in my lifetime has passed without these!

1 cup butter (2 sticks, or 8 oz.), room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. water, room temp
2 cups flour
1 cup finely chopped pecans
powdered sugar for coating cookies (about 2 cups)

Cream the butter and sugar, add water and vanilla nad beat well. Add flour and blend well. Add pecans, mix until just incorporated. Shape into small balls or roll into small logs with tapered ends and bend into crescents, and bake on ungreased cookie sheets at 325 degrees for 20 about 20 minutes. Bottoms should be pale golden. Cool slightly, then roll in powdered sugar until well coated, and place on racks to cool completely. 
Makes 4 dozen crescents or 5 dozen balls.


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PEANUT BLOSSOMS
from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion book

1/2 cup (1 stick, or 4 oz.) unsalted butter
3/4 cup creamy peanut butter
1/3 cup sugar, plus additional for coating dough
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
2 tblsp. milk (2% or whole, not nonfat!)
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups flour
7 ounces (48) chocolate kisses, unwrapped 

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

In mixing bowl, beat butter and peanut butter together until well blended. Add the sugars, and beat until light and fluffy. Add the egg, milk, baking soda, salt and vanilla and beat well. Gradually add the flour on low speed, mixing well to incorporate. 
Shape the dough into 1" balls and roll them in granulated sugar. Place the balls on the baking sheets.  
Bake for 10 mins. or until a very pale golden brown. Remove from the oven and IMMEDIATELY press a chocolate kiss into each cookie. Work quickly! Cool slightly, then transfer to a rack to finish cooling. Makes 48 cookies. 

Headstart Holiday Baking: Vanilla Pillows

One of our favorite Christmas cookie recipes that I'm NEVER allowed to skip are the wonderful, tender, melting and vanilla-laden Vanilla Pillows. Far from being a boring or plain cookie, these have amped up vanilla flavor and a divine texture. I'm putting them up here now, because while they are easy to make, there is a certain amount of lead time needed to make the Vanilla Sugar that coats them. Like two weeks, minimum. That, and making them in advance actually improves their flavor. 

Here is the Vanilla Sugar recipe. Make it in a large glass jar with a screw on lid and you can keep the jar going all the time for Vanilla Pillows whenever the mood strikes you:

Vanilla Sugar for Vanilla Pillows

(requires a minimum of two weeks for flavors to marry properly)

2 cups sugar

1 vanilla bean

Cut a slit in the vanilla bean, and place it in a large GLASS jar with a tight fitting lid (tall enough for the vanilla bean -- like a peanut butter jar) and scoop the sugar in around it. Shake the jar every couple of days for at least two weeks to marry the flavors. Use to coat Vanilla Pillows.

VANILLA PILLOWS

great Christmas favorite, makes 180 cookies!

4 1/2 cups flour

1 tsp. cream of tartar

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. baking soda

1 cup (2 sticks, or 8 oz.) unsalted butter, room temperature

1 cup shortening (Crisco)

1 cup confectioners (10X) sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

4 egg yolks

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Sift together the flour, cream of tartar, salt and baking soda; set aside.

Cream the butter and shortening together until fluffy, and add the confectioners sugar a little at a time until all is added, then beat for 2 additional minutes. Add granulated sugar a little at a time until it is all added, then beat an additional 2 minutes. Add yolks one at a time, beating well between each addition; add vanilla and beat one additional minute. Add flour in 3 additions, blending at low speed until it is just combined after each addition. Chill dough, covered, for 2 hours.

Have ready a wide flat bowl with Vanillla Sugar (see recipe above). Roll a teaspoon of dough into a ball, then roll in vanilla sugar, coating completely. Place on a parchment lined cookie sheet, 1.5" apart, and flatten slightly with a cross hatch design with the tines of a fork. Bake at 375 degrees for 8 to 9 minutes. Cookies should be very pale golden on bottom.

Transfer to racks to cool. Store in AIRTIGHT tins/containers (important to develop flavor!) overnight before serving.

These keep very well, with the flavor improving over time. Keeps up to two weeks.

Makes 180 cookies.

The Zebras are Out! - Eight Layer Shortbread Cookies

We're reaching the end of November, and fast approaching Christmas. One constant in our family is the almost obscene amount of baking we do. Cookies, cookies and more cookies! Here is one recipe that is a "must make" every year.

EIGHT LAYER SHORTBREAD, AKA “ZEBRA SHORTBREAD”

Everyone’s Christmas favorite

2 ¼ cups flour

½ cup cornstarch

1 ¼ cups butter, room temp

1 cup powdered sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

¼ cup unsweetened cocoa powder

1 egg white, whisked

Sift flour and cornstarch together and set aside. Beat butter and sugar in a bowl until blended. Add vanilla. Gradually beat in flour mixture to make a soft dough. Divide in half. Knead cocoa powder into half the dough, adding a tablespoon of butter if necessary to keep from being too crumbly. Flatten both doughs and wrap separately in waxed paper, then chill at least an hour. Roll each batch of dough between two sheets of waxed paper into an EXACT 10” square. (Make a 10” square cardboard template for this) Push dough sides in to make absolutely even using the blade of a chef knife or wide long spatula. If dough gets too soft or sticky, refrigerate on a cookie sheet for a half hour and resume. Remove top sheet of waxed paper from the vanilla dough. Brush top with the egg white. Remove waxed paper from the chocolate dough, and brush top with egg white. Let stand a few minutes to set egg white. Invert the chocolate dough onto the vanilla dough, matching up the sides exactly. Cut into 4 EQUAL 10” X 2 ½” strips. Brush with egg white. Stack dough strips neatly to make eight alternating layers. Wrap each stack in plastic wrap and chill several hours, up to one week.

To bake: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Slice dough with a very sharp knife while dough is very cold into 1/8’ thick slices and transfer onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 9 to 11 minutes, until set and slightly pale golden at edges. Transfer to a rack to cool. Store in tins a cool, dry place up to a week.

Makes about 5 dozen shortbread