Soft and Chewy Gingerbread Men Cookies

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In general, I prefer soft cookies over crisp cookies. I love gingerbread cookies (especially along side a mug of hot chocolate) but they are always crunchy. Oh, how I've longed for a soft gingerbread cookie--one that could hold a gingerbread man shape. I've tried my hand at making gingerbread cookies from scratch before and haven't had success. Then I found this recipe and all my gingerbread dreams came true! A soft, delicious gingerbread man cookie!

Recipe slightly adapted from here.

Ingredients:

3 cups flour
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cup (1 and 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into approximately 12 pieces and slightly softened
3/4 cup unsulphured molasses
2 tablespoons milk

Directions:

Pour flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and baking soda into a food processor, and process until the ingredients are combined. Place the butter pieces on top of the flour mixture and process until the mixture is sand-like. With the food processor running, slowly add the molasses and milk. Don't stop the machine until the dough is evenly moist and soft.*

Remove the dough from the food processor and divide it in half. Roll one half between two large pieces of parchment paper (dough will be very sticky) to 1/4-inch thickness. Repeat with the other half. Without removing the parchment paper, stack the dough on a cookie sheet and place in the freeze for 15 to 20 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper or grease them with cooking spray. Remove one dough sheet from the freezer and remove the top parchment sheet. Cut dough into gingerbread people (or any other shape you desire; I also made snowflakes) and place them on cookie sheet, spacing them about an inch apart. Repeat with remaining dough. If the dough becomes too sticky, place it back in the freezer for 5 to 10 minutes. 

Bake for 8 to 11 minutes or until the center of the cookies set. Allow to cool on the cookie sheet for 2 minutes then transfer them to a wire rack.

Once the cookies have cooled to room temperature, decorate with royal icing, if desired. Store in an airtight container.

*The next time I make these, I'm not going to go it in the food processor. While it's easy clean up, my food processor barely accommodated all the ingredients. If you don't have a food processor, combine the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and baking soda with a whisk in a large bowl. Drop in the butter pieces and with an electric mixer, combine the ingredients on medium-low speed until the mixture becomes sand-like. Reduce speed to low and slowly add molasses and milk. Mix until dough is evenly moist and soft. 

 Eric told me that the cookies were really good and to prove it he was going to eat them. I married myself a strange man.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

Christmas 2013 Baking List

Cranberry Brownies

Chocolate Cover Cranberries

Honey Cake
Christmas Kiss Cookies 
Three Chocolate Truffles: Mint, Rum, and Orange

Cherry Snow Ball Cookies
The Best Sugar Cookies 
Stained Glass Cookies 

Honey Cake

Honey cakes are an acient dessert that can be traced back to Egypt, Greece, and Rome. It seems every culture has it's own verison: Arabs, Russians, Germans, even Brazilians. The Jews eat honey cakes for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The Celts left the cakes as an offering to the Faery for Beltane. I've had only one honey cake in my life and it was very disappointing. Dry and not very sweet. But if I had known honey cakes could taste like this, I would have started making them years ago. The outside of the cake is both crisp and chewy while the inside is oh so moist.

Eric came home from work and asked me what I was baking because it smelled divine. Then he kept asking if it was done yet. After he tried a piece, he must have told me how amazing the cake was at least three times.

Recipe adapted from here.

Ingredients:
3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1 cup vegetable oil
1 cup honey
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup orange juice
1/2 cup honey whiskey
3/4 cup warm water

Directions:
Preheat oven at 350.

Generously grease two 9-inch cake pans with cooking spray. (I actually halved the recipe--yes, I put one and a half eggs in it--and used one 9-inch cake pan).

In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, and all spice. Next, make a well in the center of the bowl and pour in oil, honey, white sugar, brown sugar, eggs, vanilla, orange juice, whiskey, and water.

With your electric mixer on low, blend the ingredients together until well combined. Pour the batter into your pans. Bake for 40 to 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center of the cakes comes out clean.

Allow the cake to cool for 15 minutes before removing it from the pan.

Garnish the cake with powdered sugar, if so desired. Eric desired, so to make it Christmasy, I made a paper snowflake (flashback to my childhood) and used it for a stencil when dusting the cake with sugar.

Enjoy!

~Krissy

More Cake Recipes:

An Apple Cider Birthday Cake
Chocolate on Chocolate Cake 
Chocolate Swirl Cake (Made with Swiss Cake Rolls)
Rice Crispy Birthday Cake 
Starlight Mint Cake
Three Layer Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frostin

Applesauce Cookies with Caramel Frosting

I will use just about any excuse to try out a new dessert recipe. Visiting my parents for Independence Day was the perfect excuse to test not just one recipe, but two. These applesauce cookies were the second batch of cookies I prepared, the Baileys Cookies being the first. Applesauce cookies don't exactly scream summer--they do, however, yell out for autumn--but I had all the ingredients and I didn't want to wait months to try them. And I'm glad I didn't wait. They are cakey, fully of spice, and super yummy.

I slightly adapted this recipe. It makes about 3 dozen cookies.

Cookie Recipe
Ingredients:
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup shortening
1 egg
2 cups flour
1 ts baking soda
1 ts baking powder
1 cup applesauce
1/2 ts cinnamon
1/4 ts ground cloves
 
Directions:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

In a large bowl, whisk flour, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon, and cloves together. Set aside.

In a second large bowl, cream the sugar and shortening with an electric mixer. Mix in the eggs and applesauce. Gradually stir in dry ingredients until well combined. Spoon a heaping tablespoon of dough on a cookie sheet, spacing the cookies about 2 inches apart. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to cool.

Naked Cookies

Frosting Recipe
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup half and half
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup powdered sugar

Directions:
Place the butter, half and half, and brown sugar in a saucepan. Heat over medium heat, stirring until the mixture boils.* Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla. Allow to cool and then stir in the powdered sugar. Spread over the cookies.

*The caramel taste of the frosting isn't really that strong. My mom commented that she thought it tasted more maple than caramel and I agree with her. The brown sugar just didn't get to caramelize long enough, so next time I make these, I'm getting my candy thermometer out and boiling the brown sugar mixture until its temperature reaches 248 degrees. That should give it a good, strong caramel flavor.

Applesauce and Baileys cookies

Enjoy!

~Krissy