Gingerbread men

Continuing the search for the ultimate gingerbread man... another contender.  This is pretty good!  Of the 14 recipes I looked at, this one had the most spice relative to flour.  It's intended for a 7" snowflake cutter; my large gingerman was just about that size.

I cut the original recipe in half; this gave me 9 large men and 22 small.  I followed some of the comments that recommended less flour, but otherwise stuck pretty close.  Here's what I used:

3 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for work surface

1/2 cup whole wheat flour 

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter

1/2 cup packed dark-brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon finely ground pepper

3/4 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt

1 large egg

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

Sift together flour, baking soda, and baking powder into a large bowl. Set aside.  In a large mixing bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium speed until fluffy. Mix in spices and salt, then eggs and molasses. Reduce speed to low. Add flour mixture; mix until just combined. Divide dough in half; wrap each in plastic. Refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour.  (I did overnight.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out dough on a lightly floured work surface to 1/4-inch thick and cut into shapes. Space 2 inches apart on greased baking sheets, and refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes.  Bake cookies until crisp but not dark, 10 minutes for the large men, 8 minutes for the small. Let cool a few minutes on sheets, then move to wire racks. 

I was surprisingly pleased.  The dough was quite spicy, but the resulting cookies not as much so.  At times I thought they needed more spice, other times I thought they were fine.  Sometimes I thought they had too much salt, other times not.  They had noticeable spice, but not as much as ginger snaps.  I'm glad I reduced the flour-- the dough wasn't too difficult to handle and I wouldn't have wanted the flavor diluted any.  

Conclusion:  Very good!  They weren't too hard, and could probably be softer if baked slightly less.  They maybe could use a tad more ginger, but it's not necessary.  I would consider adding a little orange zest, though, and perhaps some anise, just to mix it up a little.  They weren't too sweet for icing, but were plenty sweet plain.

Recipe:  Gingerbread Snowflakes via martha stewart

Decorated Sugar Cookies for Christmas

In search for a recipe to replicate the amazing sugar cookies someone brought to work last Christmas.  With cream cheese and an extra egg yolk, I thought this might come close, but it doesn't.  This recipe follows a list of tips to make the best sugar cookies, some obvious, some a little unusual (like the inclusion of cream of tartar.)  Below is the full recipe, but I cut it in half, which produced 11 med large cookies (snowmen, trees, snowflakes), 6 standard (snowflakes), and 2 small (Christmas stars).  (I could have cut even more if I'd rolled the dough to "normal" cookie thickness instead of the advised 1/4".)  My changes are in italics.

1½ cups (3 sticks) unsalted butter, softened

1½ cups granulated sugar

1½ ounces (3 tablespoons) cream cheese, softened

1 large egg

2 large egg yolks

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

½ teaspoon almond extract

3½ cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting

½ teaspoon baking powder

1 1/2 teaspoon salt

2 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

 

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, sugar, and cream cheese with an electric mixer on high speed for about 5 minutes, until fluffy and the sugar is mostly dissolved.  Add the egg, egg yolks, vanilla, and almond extract and mix well.  Sift together the flour, baking powder, salt, and cream of tartar into the bowl and fold to incorporate some of the flour, then beat on low speed, just until incorporated.  Shape the dough into a flat disc and wrap tightly in plastic wrap. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours, or up to 3-4 days.

Preheat the oven to 350˚F (180˚C).  Let the dough sit at room temperature for a few minutes to soften slightly.  On a lightly floured surface, roll out the cookie dough with a rolling pin to ¼-inch thick and cut out desired shapes. Gather any excess dough into a ball, chill to firm, then re-roll and cut out more cookies.  Place the cookies on a greased baking sheet and chill for at least 20 minutes to ensure they hold their shapes.  Bake for 10-12 minutes, or until the edges just barely start to turn golden brown.  Cool completely on a wire rack before decorating with royal icing or frosting.

These cookies weren't bad, per se, but certainly weren't to my taste. They were extraordinarily sweet, so sweet that the browned edges tasted like those lace cookies that spread and bubble with all their caramelizing sugar. Also, even though I cut the cream of tartar in half, it was still detectable, and wasn't pleasant. (Sort of like baking soda.) That definitely needs to be omitted. There was a slight egginess to them, nice in a custard, but not in a cookie. Lastly, all that sugar gave an unusual crispness to the cookies, almost toffee-like. They are sort of a cross between a cookie and a candy. I had intended to decorate these further with frosting, but there's no way I'm putting frosting on candy. (I can't comprehend the person who said they were floury and tough or someone else who said they weren't very sweet. Did I mess up??? I'm sure I would have hesitated before dumping 1½ cups of sugar into the bowl.)

 

The other disappointment was that they spread substantially, as one might expect from a high-butter-content cookie. These would have to be cut thinly in order to retain their shape at all, certainly not 1/4".

 

Conclusion: This is not a recipe I'll make again. It was overly sweet, overly crisp (for a sugar cookie), can't be decorated, and didn't have a particularly nice flavor. All in all, they tasted very commercial, probably due to the sugar content.  I consider it a fail because it was so far from what I desired.

 

Recipe: The Best Sugar Cookies via Buzzfeed 

Other recipes to try: Betty Crocker; allrecipes; Tastes of Lizzie T

Buttery Pumpkin Pecan Bread

 

I cut this recipe out of a magazine probably back in the '80s.  It's been one of my Christmas favorites, light and buttery with a mild pumpkin flavor.  The original recipe makes two loaves; I've cut the recipe in half here.

1¾ cup flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

3/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons pecan halves

1/2 cup golden raisins

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons sugar

2 large eggs

1/2 cup butter, melted

1/2 cup canned pumpkin (one-quarter of 15-ounce can)

2 tablespoons apple cider (see note)

In a mixing bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, and allspice.  Coarsely chop the 1/2 cup pecans and add to the flour mixture along with the raisins and sugar; stir to combine.  In another bowl, combine thoroughly the eggs, butter, pumpkin, and apple cider; add to the flour mixture and stir just until blended.  Pour batter into a greased 8¼ x 4½ x 2½-inch loaf pan.  Decorate with remaining 2 tablespoons of pecan halves and bake at 350 degrees for 50 -- 55 minutes until wooden pick inserted into the center comes out clean.  Cool pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then turn out and cool completely on rack.  Serve with lemon-honey butter.

Lemon-honey butter

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons honey

1 teaspoon lemon zest

 

Note:   I've always made this with cider, but I didn't have any this year.  I've never thought that small amount of cider makes a difference in flavor, so any liquid would probably work fine, so I used orange juice. 

This baked up fine in a 7⅜ x 3⅝  x 2¼-inch loaf pan. In fact, I might even like it better than in a larger pan.  However, I'm not sure what happened this time, but the batter was super thick, which produced a denser crumb.  The flavor was off as well--- it was missing that delicate, buttery flavor I've loved.  It tasted wheaty, like it was made with whole wheat flour.  The only other change I made this time was to leave off the extra 2 tablespoons of sugar; they're needed.

Julekake (Norwegian Christmas bread)

I used the recipe from my cookbook Christmas:  a Cook's Tour.  It came together easily enough, but the dough felt dense and heavy.  I added more water, which helped, but suspected it still was the wrong texture.  After 5 hours rising in a warm oven with barely a budge, I made up a plain water and flour dough from about 1/2 - 3/4 cup of flour and a little more yeast and kneaded it into the dough until it felt right.  That allowed the dough to rise properly, but it was very soft and loose and made the braid difficult.  (This is supposed to be a round loaf, but I wanted something more decorative.)

I thought it had over proved the second time because I didn't turn on the oven until the loaf already looked plenty large, but the crumb looked okay.  The loaf was too large, soft, and heavy to rap on the bottom after it looked baked enough (it started to break), so I used a thermometer.  I read that enriched breads need to bake to a higher temperature, 200 degrees; that brought the loaf to a darker crust than I would have liked.  And as it turned out, the bread was very dry.

It was still very good with a nice buttery flavor.  It was too sweet to glaze, as I had originally intended, but was very good with just a light spread of salted butter.  I used golden raisins and half candied lemon peel/half candied red cherries chopped small.  I would eliminate the lemon peel, simply because it turned it from cardamom bread to something almost identical to stöllen.  (However, I don't know that I would increase the cherries to make up the difference.  If I did, I think I would reduce the sugar slightly.)

Conclusion:  Delicious, but not far enough from my stöllen.

Recipe:  Julekake via  Christmas:  a Cook's Tour

Vegan Persimmon Apple cake

I'm not a fan of vegan baked goods, but this sounded doable. I did make some adjustments in the ingredients, and used a cakelet tin.

3/4 cup persimmon pulp (from one large persimmon)
1 large apple, peeled & cut into ½” dice
1/8 cup agave nectar
1/8 cup water
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger

1½ cups white whole wheat flour
1¼ teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup water
1/4 cup orange juice
1/2 cup agave nectar
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 cup soy yogurt or applesauce

Preheat oven to 350F. Oil a 8- or 9-inch baking dish or cake pan. Place the apple into a saucepan along with the 1/8 cup agave nectar, water, cinnamon, and ginger. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring, until the apple softens, about 10 minutes. Add the persimmon and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon. In a large measuring cup or small bowl, mix together the water, orange juice, 1/2 cup agave nectar, cider vinegar, and vanilla. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and add the wet ones along with the soy yogurt or applesauce. Stir until well-moistened. Fold in apple mixture.  Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Cool in the pan for at least 15 minutes before removing from pan.  Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving, if desired.

I used half white flour and replaced the agave nectar with sugar. (3/4 cup of nectar equals 1 cup of sugar plus a little more liquid.) I also added a small amount of molasses, but was cautious because I didn't want to disrupt the acid/base balance. (I could probably use more molasses and skip the vinegar.) In place of the yogurt or applesauce, I used 2 tablespoons of plain oil and about two tablespoons of date paste. For extra flavor, because I doubted that small amount of orange juice would be noticeable, I added a splash (probably less than 1/8 teaspoon) of orange essence. One could also use the peel and/or use all orange juice and no water (although that also might disrupt the chemical balance.) I checked them at about 23 minutes and they seemed done.

The batter started reacting immediately, so the pan has to be ready to go as soon as the batter is mixed. I wanted to add nuts, but wasn't sure about the strength of the rise or whether they'd sink to the bottom. I think they would have been okay. These would benefit from some sort of topping because they're quite plain. Either sprinkling with cinnamon sugar before baking (or maybe during, just before they firm up) or a streusel... maybe that's where the nuts could go. The author used a decorative pan, which would help.

Conclusion: These were okay. They were too moist and a little gummy--- that could have been my fault. And perhaps they could have used a few more minutes baking. Even though I used half the whole wheat flour, I could detect an unpleasant graininess to them. The flavor was pretty good, not very spicy but very persimmony with bites of apple (I could have cooked the apples less), but I prefer the recipe from Marion Cunningham's The Breakfast Book.

Recipe:  Fall Harvest Fruit Cake via Fat Free Vegan Kitchen