Milk & Cookies

Okay, I have been really craving sweets so I bought some baking chocolate and was going to make brownies this weekend. But we ran out of eggs! D’oh! Instead, I remembered that we had some leftover gingerbread dough in the freezer from Christmas AND still had that fresh ginger from the past two cookie recipes. Ginger lasts for a really long time in the fridge. So I decided to make the gingerbread cookies, adding some fresh ginger and some extra spices for more flavor.

I was also excited that I baked these during the day so there was some natural light for the photography. I discovered a secret of some of the food blogs out there – they use special, expensive flashes instead of the one that comes on their camera. I always wondered about that… most people cook at night but the cooking blogs have these beautiful pictures that look like they are naturally lit. Anyways, this blog let me in on the secret. For now I am stuck with natural light (and not much of it) or the regular flash.

Chopped ginger

First, I defrosted the dough and let it come to almost room temperature so it was roll-able. Meanwhile I chopped the ginger, watched some winter olympics (biathlon!), took a shower, and took some pictures of my cats. Some of these steps are optional – use your judgement.

Maya, the photogenic one

Once the dough was  ready, I rolled it out a little and carefully measured a pinch of nutmeg, a pinch of cloves, and 2 pinches of cinnamon onto the dough. Then I added the fresh ginger and kneaded it all together a few times.

That looks about right

Then I rolled out the dough and cut out some shapes. I made some hearts, a dog, 2 cats, a flower, a moon, the state of California… then by the end I got tired of the shapes and made Colorado, Wyoming, and some coastal states that might have existed had we drawn the lines differently. One of them looks like Kentucky but that was an accident. Then instead of frosting I pressed each one into a pile of sugar and baked them for 7 minutes at 350 F.

There's Wyoming in the middle, and part of Kentucky in the bottom left

Then I ate them and ruined my dinner.

Mmm. I ate four of these today, and four yesterday. At least. It’s hard to keep track after four (and embarrassing).

These cookies sparkle in the sunlight. The main difference between these cookies and a vampire is YOU get to eat THEM. (Also, note to producers, next time try rolling him in sugar for a more believable effect.)

Okay, so here’s the recipe:

• 3/4 cup butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 Tbsp water
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 Tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
• 3/4 cup raisins
• Additional 2 Tbsp white sugar for rolling cookies in before baking

Brilliant idea from the vegan.

I found this recipe on Recipezaar (here). I noticed that the description mentioned that it had been modified to be vegan, but I figured I would just unmodify it by changing the margarine back to butter and all would be good. Well, I got halfway through the recipe when I realized the other vegan change: there were no eggs! I love eggs! I know some cookies don’t have them but I would never take eggs out of a cookie just so it could be vegan. (Plus, this way my cookies have “protein” and “nutritional value”.) So I went back and I think I found the unvegan recipe this had been modified from. From Allrecipes (here). Apparently the vegan had made a few changes: changed butter to margarine, used 1/3 cups of water instead of 1 Tbsp, 2 1/2 cups of flour isntead of 2 1/4, and 1 1/2 tsp baking soda instead of 1 tsp. The vegan had also added fresh chopped ginger (brilliant)! By the time I looked at the recipe it was too late to change the amount of baking soda or flour, but I decreased the water, added the one egg, and kept the fresh chopped ginger. Everything came out great, but you could play with the amount of flour, baking soda, and water if you wanted and maybe it would turn out even better. I actually think you could decrease the amount of sugar as well and it would still be good.

Do what I say, not what I do (I combined steps 6 and 7). Or you'll get flour stuck in your raisins!

Okay, after that long literature review, here’s the instructions.

1. Preheat oven to 350 F
2. Chop ginger until you get 1 Tbsp
3. Mix dry ingredients (flour, soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, salt)
4. Cream sugar into butter
5. Add egg, molasses, and water to sugar/butter and mix.
6. Add dry ingredients and mix.
7. Add raisins and chopped ginger and mix.
8. Form walnut-sized balls and roll them in the additional 2 Tbsp of sugar.
9. Bake for 10-12 minutes.
10. EAT EAT EAT. OW! Let cool first.

Cookie cutting without cookie cutters

Along with rum balls, we made gingerbread cookies with icing! We used Paula Deen’s gingerbread recipe. The flavor was okay but not great, I thought it was too molasses-ey and not enough ginger-ey. Thusly, I won’t describe the cookie recipe in detail.

The fabulous part about these cookies was our total lack of cookie cutters, forcing us to use our own ingenuity to make cookie shapes. I think we did quite well. Here are some of our ideas:

• We used a snowman head-shaped measuring cup to make snowman head-shaped cookies!
• A champagne glass to make round (ball, ornament) shaped cookies
• For the rest, a knife – some good shapes were stars, christmas trees and probably the winner of the creativity contest, Johnny 5.

Assorted

Johnny 5, or as I sometimes call him due to my 80's-specific cultural ignorance, Jackson 5

Moonie, Wormtail, Padfoot, and Prongs ... ok, just Moonie

Good things are a-brewin’. First of all, Switzerland was awesome! A giant thanks to Jan and Kim. I am still living on a little bit of a high from that trip, so I am taking all of life’s little annoyances in stride. I am also getting very close to making a large shift in my career path. Just knowing what is on the horizon is giving me daily energy and a better outlook on life. Last, and certainly not least… look at those cookies! I think these are the most amazing cookies I have made to date. I absolutely do not want to wait to eat one! The marshmallow filling is perfect. These cookies are a pretty large time commitment since they are completely from scratch, but man, is it worth it. Seriously…. these cookies will make you a star.

Big thanks to Nan Slaughter @ Pots and Pins for this recipe.

INGREDIENTS (makes 12-15 cookies)

Cookies:

• 1 cup sugar
• 5 tbls butter, softened
• 1 tspn vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 5 tbls unsweetened cocoa
• 1 tspn salt
• 1 tspn baking soda
• 1 tspn baking powder
• 1 cup buttermilk

Filling:

• 1 envelope unflavored gelatin
• 1/2 cup cold water
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup light-colored corn syrup
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup cold water

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 375ºF.

First thing to make will be the cookies. In a large bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat it together until blended. Add in the eggs and vanilla and beat it together until it is fluffy. In a separate bowl combine the flour, cocoa, salt, baking soda, and baking powder. Whisk it together until its all nice and mixed.

Now go back to your first bowl with the wet ingredients and start adding the dry ingredients and buttermilk a little bit at a time. Do this while mixing the batter, and alternating buttermilk and dry ingredients as you go. Scrape down the bowl a few times and make sure that the batter is well mixed.

On a parchment lined cookie tray, start spooning heaping tablespoon sized cookie batter. Leave a couple of inches between the cookies so that they don’t touch while cooking. Bake each tray for 9-10 minutes until fully cooked (use a toothpick to test). Let the cookies cool for a few minutes and then move them to a cooling rack. Keep baking until all the batter is used up. (should be about 30 cookies)

The filling is the fun part of these cookie sandwiches. First put the 1/2 cup of water in medium to large mixing bowl. Sprinkle the gelatin powder into the bowl and set it aside.

In a small saucepan put the other 1/4 cup of water, sugar, corn syrup, salt, and vanilla. Heat it on the stove until it reaches 244ºF. Apparently some people have a thermometer in their kitchen, so use that if you got it. I just waited for it to just start to simmer and then called it a success (my filling turned out great). Pour the hot liquid into the gelatin bowl and start mixing. Start by mixing on low for a little bit and then turn up the speed to max. The mixture will start to froth a bit and eventually will work itself into a thick foam. It supposedly takes anywhere from 6-10 minutes for the filling to get thick enough to use, but for me it took a little bit longer.


I think it has to do with the temperature… it needs to cool adequately before it will start to set. Anyways, you’ll get there. Now start spooning giant blobs of fluff onto the bottom of your cookies, using a second cookie on top to make a heavenly sandwich. Let the cookies set for an hour (or less if you are impatient).

Now pour a glass of milk and eat up!

blah blah blah... more cookies

No insights, no gimmicks, nothing fancy what-so-ever. Also, I am late posting this. Not my best job so far. Whatever… the cookies turned out really good so what more do you expect? Just eat…

These cookies come from Average Betty, who did a much better job capturing these cookies on film than I did. In fact, I am pretty embarrassed… maybe you should just read the recipe from there instead.

The results of this week’s baking experiment are below:

INGREDIENTS (makes ~4 dozen cookies)

• 3/4 cup salted butter (1 1/2 sticks)
• 1/2 cup granulated white sugar
• 1 cup light brown sugar (lightly packed)
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 large eggs
• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 2 cups roasted, salted macadamia nuts (chopped)

DIRECTIONS

In a large mixing bowl beat together the softened butter and the sugar on medium speed until it is fluffy and smooth. Then add in the vanilla extract, salt, and baking soda and mix it a bit more until it is evenly blended. Use a spatula to scrape down the sides and add the eggs. Beat on medium until it is creamy.

Lastly, add the white chocolate chips and fold/mix them in. Once this is done, you are going to want to cool the dough down considerably. Either give them 24 hours in the fridge, or put them in the freezer for 1 hour. Make sure the dough is covered with an air tight seal.

When you are ready to bake the cookies preheat the oven to 300°F and prepare a couple of baking trays with parchment paper. Now, chop the macadamia nuts. Just put them in a food processor and chop chop until they are a good size for sprinkling on top of cookies.

Start making little ~1 tsp. sized balls of dough. Take each ball and press it into the bowl of macadamia nuts. The goal is to coat the top half of the dough in nut chunks and even get some pressed into the dough. Then place the dough on the baking tray with the nut-side up.

Once your tray is covered in little dough bowls bake them on the top rack for 12 minutes. That’s it. Easy, delicious, cookies.