I just wanted to wish you all Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!
We have been busy getting a sugar rush… 🙂
{on a side note…I know my gingerbread looks terrible. I used a new recipe and really should not have.}
spending time with dear friends, and drawing closer as a family.
As our youngest placed the new star on our tree as a sign of Jesus’ birth, my heart was filled with gratitude for the birth of our sweet Savior.
I hope all of you are uplifted and edified by the joy of this season of celebration.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
What a lovely post!!
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and your cute family!
I think your gingerbread actually looks delicious, like a chewy oatmeal cookie…and it’s all about the candy anyway. Merry Christmas!
The most awesome gingerbread recipe is America’s Test Kitchen’s. It works great for building (bake it till crisp) or don’t bake it as long and it makes great cut-out cookies.
I came up with an awesome trick to make the rolling out easy. Here’s the recipe. Enjoy!
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From America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook
3 cups all purpose flour
3/4 packed brown sugar
1 tbsp cinnamon
1 tbsp ginger
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp cloves
1/2 tsp salt
12 tbsp (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces and softened
3/4 cup molasses
2 tbsp whole milk
1) Process the dry ingredients in a food processor until combined.
2) Scatter the butter over the dry mixture and process until it forms a very fine meal.
3) Mix the molasses and milk together, then with the food processor running, pour the molasses/milk into the dry ingredients. Process until the dough forms a soft mass.
4) Turn the dough out into the counter and knead in anything that didn’t get incorporated well in the food processor.
TO ROLL:
Put a good blob of dough (room temp at this point) onto a piece of parchment paper. Cover it with a piece of plastic wrap, and roll it out until it’s about 2/8″ thick (thicker or thinner if you choose). Take your flat sheet of dough and put it on a metal cookie sheet and stick it in the freezer for 10-15 minutes. If you don’t have a cookie sheet that fits in the freezer, a piece of cardboard works well too. Repeat with the remaining dough.
TO CUT:
Working with one sheet of dough at a time, lay it plastic wrap side DOWN on your counter, peel off the parchment, and use your cookie cutters to make the shapes. Work fast — the dough is really easy to handle when it’s really cold. If it gets to warm, stick it back in the freezer for a couple minutes. Peel the plastic off and put your cookies onto a parchment lined cookie sheet with at least 3/4″ between the cookies. Dough scraps can be rolled together and chilled in the freezer as many times as you need. The dough never gets tough.
TO BAKE:
Bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes. Note that this dough has no eggs, so there is no need to bake it forever to kill egg germs. 🙂 10 minutes makes a nice snappy yet chewy cookie, longer makes a crisp cookie. I baked my gingerbread house pieces for about 12 minutes and they worked great. Allow the cookies to cook in the pan for a couple minutes and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely.
merry christmas, delia! made the distressed canvas prints for my husband for christmas. 3/4 turned out great, but the other is a redo. no problem, he loves them!