Life has been a little complicated in the professor's kitchen of late. Sadly, my day job took up a lot of time last term (the injustice of it all!!!!). I can't promise I'll get the blog rolling like it does during the summer, but let's hope 2013 turns out to be better for a lot of reasons.
Right before Christmas, I decided I desperately needed gingerbread cookies. I was hoping to make old fashioned gingerbread, but unfortunately most of recipes I found made somewhere along the lines of 900 pounds of cake. I mean, I like gingerbread and all, but most of it was probably going to go to waste.
I opted for cookies instead. I would have rather had chewy cookies, but these were tasty enough that I didn't mind the crunch. I took my leftovers to work and they were snapped up fast.
Notes: I adapted my recipe from this one over at Smitten Kitchen. It wasn't my intention to roll and cut them, but I ended up doing it anyway because the dough was so cold. I used the only cookie cutter I have, which is an owl. So, Christmas owls? Well, why not.
You can make this dough a day ahead and chill it overnight, which is handy.
Ingredients:
3 cups all purpose flour (plus more for rolling out the cookies)
1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon cloves
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
Directions:
In an electric mixer (or using a whisk and a lot of elbow grease), cream the butter and brown sugar together. Beat in the egg and the molasses. Whisk together all the dry ingredients in a separate bowl and then add them into the mixer in batches of three.
When the dough is finished, lay out two pieces of plastic wrap. Divide the dough in half, putting each half onto a piece of plastic wrap. Flatten the dough into a disc, wrap it up, and chill for two hours.
When you're ready to bake the cookies, heat the oven to 350. Take one dough disc out at a time and roll it out on a floured surface until it's 1/4 an inch thick. Cut your shapes and lay them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Once you're done with one disc, put the baking sheet back in the fridge while you roll out and cut the second disc.
Bake the first sheet for 12-14 minutes until the cookies are crisp, but not darkened. While the first sheet it baking, chill the second sheet.
Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool. Store them in an airtight container between wax paper. They should last five days to a week. Enjoy!
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