Gingerbread Cookies

Note: I recently asked bloggers to share some of their favorite Christmas cookie recipes, along with memories of making them, with the hopes it could be an online version of a Christmas cookie exchange party.

Today's recipe is from yours truly, with a holiday classic: Gingerbread cookies!

If there's a kind of cookie out there that's synonymous with Christmastime, it has to be gingerbread.

As a kid, I always loved getting the gingerbread house kits sold at stores, complete with the thick, rectangular pieces, generic gumdrops in plastic baggies, and the glue-like icing to hold it together. Somehow I would always have selective amnesia after Christmas, thinking the gingerbread house was going to taste awesome after sitting out and getting stale for weeks.

This same thing happened a couple years ago, when childhood reminisce got the best of me and I couldn't resist buying a kit. I had been duped with stale, cardboard tasting gingerbread. AGAIN.

To combat these gingerbread atrocities, or just the fact that I wanted to make gingerbread myself, I made this kind of cookie from scratch for the first time last year. The process is about the same with cutout sugar cookies; the dough is best to work with when refrigerated overnight. It's a detail I almost always forget.

Anyway, I made this particular batch of cookies last week to bring to a little work Christmas potluck, and they were the first thing to go.

Mark also contends it's the best gingerbread he's had, with the perfect balance tang and sweetness. That means a lot, considering he's the biggest food snob I know. (I love him dearly, but his mom spoiled him with confections growing up. She had her own baking business at one point.)

Besides molasses being pretty hard to come by in the store this time of year, this recipe was pretty easy. I might also lighten up on the baking powder, since my men puffed out a bit more than expected.

But I think that smelling these through the house and tasting them is something I would like to do each year. If I were to make only only holiday cookie each year (though doubtful), I think this one would be it. Anyway, enjoy!

Gingerbread Cookies
Recipe via The Taste of Home

Yields about 18 cookies

Ingredients:

• 2/3 cup shortening
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon each ground cinnamon, cloves and ginger
• red and green sugar (optional)

Directions:

In a large bowl, cream shortening and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and molasses. Combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices; gradually add to the creamed mixture and mix well. Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

On a lightly floured surface, roll dough to about a quarter inch thickness. Cut with a floured cookie cutter into desired shapes. Place two inches apart on baking sheets. (I swear by parchment paper!)

Bake at 350 degrees for 8 to 10 minutes or until edges begin to brown. Remove from pans to cool on wire racks.

This recipe also list a buttercream frosting to use, but I think the cookies taste great as is. Personally, I doubled the recipe so we'd have these cookies for awhile. I also have a preference for these with a softness in the middle, rather than a crunch, so I don't leave them in as long.

Laura's Saltine Toffee

Note from Kate: I recently asked bloggers to share some of their favorite Christmas cookie recipes, along with memories of making them, with the hopes it could be an online version of a Christmas cookie exchange party. Today's recipe comes from Laura, of The Pittsburgh Kitchen, who is actually my real-life friend!

I've gotten some great cooking ideas and tips from her over the last few years, and this saltine toffee she made sounds like the most satisfying salty-sweet combo. Enjoy!

Recently, I've suffered through a series of baking fails. Not just once but two or three times I've unsuccessfully creamed butter and sugar - this is something I've done without problems many many times, but apparently I'm off my game. Then the other night my friend Sarah came over and I wanted to make these cookies, which call for vanilla pudding mix. I texted Sarah to bring some, but I didn't add any explanation so, not surprisingly, Sarah very kindly brought actual, prepared pudding packs. Just so you know, you cannot substitute prepared pudding for pudding mix. Not good.

You might notice that Saltine Toffee is not actually a cookie and is in fact only barely a baked good at all. Perfect for the inexperienced or formerly-acceptable-but-currently-terrible baker! So I'll be bringing these to Christmas this year, and everyone is going to love them because they are extremely delicious.

Saltine Toffee

Ingredients:
• 2 sticks (1 cup) butter
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 1/2 sleeves Saltines, maybe about 50 crackers
• 2 cups chocolate chips (all chocolate or mixed with white, butterscotch or peanut butter)
• 1 cup crushed pecans, toasted (or crushed heath bars, Oreos, maybe pretzels?)
• a couple pinches of sea salt, optional

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil and coat it with cooking spray (or just thinly spread some vegetable oil around with a paper towel like I usually do rather than ever buy cooking spray). Arrange the Saltines tightly on the baking sheet, fitting in as many as you can.

Melt the butter in a saucepan. Once it's completely melted, add the brown sugar and stir occasionally until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is bubbly and a little thickened. Pour the mixture over the Saltines and bake it in the oven for 8 minutes.

Take the baking sheet out and scatter the chocolate chips over the toffee-covered crackers. Put it back in the over for another 2 minutes. When you take them out, spread the chocolate out with a butter knife or thin spatula. Sprinkle the nuts on top, sprinkle with some sea salt if you want, and let cool until set. Then break it up into pieces and eat!

Thanks, Laura!

Below, you'll see her adorable dog Twilly, who is pretty much the face of The Pittsburgh Kitchen. And below that is a picture of Laura and I at my wedding last year. :)

Femme Frugality's Peanut Butter Blossoms

Note from Kate: I recently asked bloggers to share some of their favorite Christmas cookie recipes, along with memories of making them, with the hopes it could be an online version of a Christmas cookie exchange party. Today's recipe comes from fellow Pittsburgh blogger Femme Frugality.

She's making peanut butter blossoms, which were a staple at my house growing up, too. My mom just made a fresh batch over the weekend. Enjoy!

When Kate asked me to participate in her Christmas cookie series, I was so excited. Who doesn't like cookies? Who doesn't like holiday memories?

There's only one little problem. I stink at making cookies. I'm pretty confident in my cooking abilities. And I can bake a pie like nobody's business. But for some reason cookies are not my forte.

My mother, on the other hand, is a fabulous baker. We'd always have baked goods overflowing when I was a kid as she tried new recipes. Extras would go to church with us, get sent into work with my dad, or be delivered to the neighbors. But those recipes that she was trying? None of them were handed down from generation to generation. While she always baked from scratch, her recipes often came from the back of a box.

For the series, I decided to make my favorites. Peanut Butter blossoms made with Hershey's kisses. There's no secret recipe. It's on the back of the bag. When I went to make them, I noticed the bag was half empty. I almost went postal on my husband, who admitted to scarfing them down, but then I remembered it's Christmastime and we're supposed to be making happy memories. So I halved the recipe. I measured out 1/6 c sugar and tried to figure out how the heck to only mix in half an egg.

When all was said and done, the cookies turned out pretty great. My oldest only ate the chocolate kisses off. And my husband, who had previously eaten half the bag, preferred the cookie itself to its chocolate ensemble. The rest of us enjoyed them whole with smiles on all of our faces.

I think it's the quirky things that make our holiday memories memorable. Special. Worth repeating. Maybe next year the husband can "secretly" inhale half the bag again. My oldest will happily smear warm chocolate across their face and throw the peanut butter goodness on the floor. Why not? I've already mastered the art of splitting an egg in half.

Without further ado, here is our super secret Peanut Butter Blossom recipe, brought to you by warm, quirky memories and, of course, the back of the bag:

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:

1/2 c shortening

3/4 c creamy peanut butter

1/3 c granulated sugar

1/3 c brown sugar

1 egg

2 T milk

1 t vanilla extract

1 1/2 c all-purpose flour

1 t baking soda

1/2 t salt

Additional granulated sugar

Directions:

Heat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Remove wrappers from chocolate.

Beat shortening and peanut butter in a large bowl until well blended.

Add 1/3 c granulated sugar and brown sugar. Beat until fluffy.

Add egg, milk, and vanilla. Beat well.

In a separate bowl, stir together flour, salt and baking soda. Then gradually beat it into your peanut butter mix.

Shape the dough into 1 inch balls. Roll those balls in the "additional granulated sugar" until they're fully covered. Place on an ungreased cookie sheet

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until lightly browned.

Remove from oven, and immediately press one Hershey's kiss in the center of each cookie.

Carefully remove from the cookie sheet and onto a cooling rack. This helps make sure the kisses don't just melt everywhere. Cool completely, then enjoy!

 

Angela's Pizzelles

Note from Kate: I recently asked bloggers to share some of their favorite Christmas cookie recipes, along with memories of making them, with the hopes it could be an online version of a Christmas cookie exchange party. Today's recipe comes from Angela, of The Passionista.

I'm actually a recent pizzelle convert myself, since my mother-in-law makes them around the holidays every year. :) I'm sure Angela's family recipe is just as good. Enjoy!

Hi there! I'm Angela from The Passionista, and I'm thrilled to be sharing one of my family's cookie recipes here on Kate's blog.

I have to admit, my Italian family goes way overboard every holiday season with cookies... we're busy in the kitchen from the 1st of December until a couple days before Christmas baking up a storm. We change up the assortment yearly, but these pizzelles are a staple. They are a light, less sugary cookie and very simple to make, too!

Pizzelles

Ingredients:
• 6 large eggs
• 4 cups flour
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups sugar (depending on how sweet you like them)
• 1 cup oil
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 bottle anise extract (you can use any extract flavor you like here)
• Pizzelle Iron, found here

Directions:
Step 1// Beat all of the eggs together in a large bowl. Then, add your oil & sugar and mix until evenly distributed. Next, add the extracts.
Step 2// Add your flour, mixing in each cup as you go. The consistency should be pretty wet, but not runny.
Step 3// Heat up your iron until the light turns on. Take a tablespoon or a small ice cream scooper and place the batter in the middle of the pizzelle iron, to get that pretty design nice and even on your cookie.
Step 4// Close the iron, squeeze it together for about 20-30 seconds, depending on how "brown" you like yours.
Step 5// Open the iron when it's done cooking, and slide the cookie off of it using a spatula.
Step 6// Let cool & enjoy.

Pizzelles are an unusual cookie for those who have never tried them. But, they are a nice change from all of the rich sweets we eat around this time of year and go perfectly with your morning coffee. I hope all of you are enjoying this month with your loved ones! Thank you, Kate, for allowing me to share this!

** Pizzelle iron gets VERY hot and often leaks oil from the batter off the sides, please be careful!**