At Christmas one of my most beloved traditions growing up was to decorate gingerbread houses. I know it is not exactly original, but it was fun. My mother baked, cut out, and assembled about 14 houses a year and we each decorated 1 or 2. Then my mom would deliver the houses to all of our friends. (We continue this tradition with our family, too.)
What could be more exciting for a munchkin? Cookie houses, covered in frosting and bowls upon bowls of brightly colored candy.Uh, yeah, for me that was paradise.
However up until I was married and Justin and I started making them did I realize you could actually eat one of these… we just always decorated them for the fun of it and gave them away.
Only recently did my mom tell me about how good the dough was as cookies.The houses get a bit more flour and cooking time to help them hold their form (see the recipe and baking tips here), but the cookies are soft and delicious.
So, when you’re baking up your other Christmas cookies like peanut butter blossoms, snowball cookies, or your other favorites, try adding these delicious gingerbread cookies to your list.
Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl, mix with a whisk and set aside.
In another bowl cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and molasses, combine thoroughly. Add the flour mixture into the wet mixture, till combined.
Scoop out the cookies and roll in brown sugar. Freeze or bake at this point. If baking, place on a cookie sheet and bake for 10 minutes. (I used a small scoop and it made 4-5 dozen) If frozen simply pull them out and place on cookie sheet and bake.
Food memories are a big part of our family. We love having a big family party and making great food, or heading to Disneyland and trying all the things. Why not allow food to be a happy part of your life. That is what this blog is about. I hope you enjoy our recipes.
“This is ultimately my first choice of molasses,” Bourdon said. “It adds enough bold flavor and sweet notes with a hint of bitterness to any recipe, which is exactly what you want for making gingerbread cookies.”
Unsalted butter adds flavor while shortening helps these hold their shape and the combination of the two gives the best texture. Salted butter will work in place of unsalted (skip the salt in the recipe), but the shortening is needed for the right texture on these cookies.
Should gingerbread cookies be hard or soft? Soft gingerbread biscuits are ideal. They ought to be flexible. However, they should still be somewhat elastic, and if you hold them too firmly because you're so excited to eat them, you might even be able to leave your fingerprints on the cookie!
“There are some gingerbread recipes that are hard right after baking and need to sit for a few days to soften. Molasses and honey hardens gingerbread, but as the sugar absorbs moisture, it will get softer.”
Unsulphured molasses can be light, dark or blackstrap, as long as it hasn't been treated with sulphur dioxide. Most commercially produced molasses is unsulphured.
Why don't my molasses cookies crack? Molasses cookie dough won't have those signature cracks on top if the dough is too wet. The cracks happen when the surface of the dough dries up. Rolling in sugar really helps this because the sugar binds the moisture and dries out the dough.
The butter cookie provides better flavor and a crispier exterior with browning around edges and a chewy interior; the shortening cookie spreads less, holding its shape better while baking.
Too much butter made for sticky dough, but delicious cookies. I had to use a spatula to lift these people-shaped cutouts from my flour-dusted countertop and onto a baking sheet. The dough was sticky, which resulted in slightly swollen cookies, but the finished product was nearly perfect.
If you want to add additional flavor to the dish, lard is the right choice. Shortening is ideal for its neutral flavor, many professional bakers use it for icing.
So how do you know that they're done? Here's how to tell if gingerbread cookies are done: They'll be firmly set.They'll be a lovely medium-brown color.
Additionally, refrigerating the dough up to a certain point will firm up the fats in the recipe (butter, etc), which will make the dough less mushy and will making rolling out the dough evenly a bit easier. Unless the dough is so firm it becomes brittle, refrigeration will make the dough less fragile in most cases.
Introduced in colonial times, the main differences between Gingerbread and Ginger Snaps are a longer bake time for an extra crisp and the use of molasses versus sugar. Molasses was used as substitute for sugar as it was the more affordable alternative to sweetening.
Put the dough on a sheet of baking parchment, shape into a rectangle, and lay another sheet of parchment on top of it. Roll the dough out to a thickness of ½cm. Transfer to a baking sheet to keep it flat, leaving the parchment in place, then chill in the fridge for 1 hr.
Light, mild, or baking molasses ($11; Amazon) is what you get after the first boiling process. It's the sweetest of all types of molasses, because it has the most sugar left in it. It's most commonly used for desserts like molasses cookies, cakes, and gingerbread.
It's dark, dense, and comparatively dry, thanks to the lower moisture content of blackstrap. It's also bitter and salty, so there's nothing to temper the heat of the ginger, making it all but inedible.
Light molasses tastes the sweetest and is most commonly used in baking.Dark molasses is a little less sweet, and is mostly used in gingerbread cookies. Blackstrap molasses is the thickest and most also most bitter type of molasses.
Address: 743 Stoltenberg Center, Genovevaville, NJ 59925-3119
Phone: +2202978377583
Job: Administration Engineer
Hobby: Surfing, Sailing, Listening to music, Web surfing, Kitesurfing, Geocaching, Backpacking
Introduction: My name is Rubie Ullrich, I am a enthusiastic, perfect, tender, vivacious, talented, famous, delightful person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
We notice you're using an ad blocker
Without advertising income, we can't keep making this site awesome for you.
