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.

Random Caption... SUPER DONKEY BUSINESS MAN! I'm pretty sure no one reads these anyways...

These are the types of mistakes that I love.  I was most of the way done making these “Lime Tea Cookies” when I realized we didn’t have any real limes to zest.  We had some left over ginger on hand (see previous cookies), and I thought, “Hey why not.”  Lucky me, these cookies are great!  They are light and moist and  you can easily eat like 10 before you realize what just happened.  They are very quick and easy to make and they taste great.  They are definitely not as comforting as chocolate cookies, but they are perfect for a spring day or for taking on a picnic.

I didn’t end up taking a bunch of pictures this time around, so I am gonna steal a page from Zoe and put random pictures in my post to make up for it.

LOOK AT THE SILLY MONKEY…

INGREDIENTS

• 2 tspn. lime juice
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 2 tspn. minced ginger
• 1-3/4 cup flour
• 1 tspn. baking powder
• 1/4 tspn. baking soda
• 2 Tblsn. lime juice (for the glaze)
• 1/4 cup sugar (for the glaze)

DIRECTIONS

Preheat your oven to 350°F and prepare a baking tray with parchment paper.

In a small bowl combine the lime juice and milk and let stand for 5 minutes.  In a large bowl cream together the butter and sugar until its fluffy and smooth.  Add the egg and beat it in.  Then add the lime-milk mixture and the ginger.  Finally mix in the flour, baking powder, and baking soda.  That’s it for the dough. (optional) Let it cool briefly in the fridge (1-2 hours).  This will result in softer cookies.

When you are ready drop spoonfuls of the dough onto the tray and bake them for 8 minutes or so.  The edges will just start to brown when they are done.  Let them cool for a few minutes on the tray before moving them.

The last step is to glaze the cookies.  The glaze is made by mixing the remaining lime juice (2 Tblsn.) with the extra sugar (1/4 cup).  Just brush the glaze onto the cooled cookies and let it sit for a few minutes.

Ok I lied, the last step is to see how many of these you can get into your mouth at one time!  I’m pretty sure I saw Zoe with at least 8…

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