Gingerbread People

from the kitchen of a friend

3-4 dozen good-sized ginger people

My modification: I took a hint from lebkuchen and let the dough rest in the fridge or a cold room for 3-14 days before baking (in other words, you can easily bake the cookies in batches). Doing this with honey/molasses/syrup cookies turns a sticky, messy dough into a wonderfully plastic dough which is a dream to roll and cut! The syrup, sugar and spices preserve the dough -- I've never had a hint of rancidity. Who knew...

150z/425g bleached all purpose flour
1/4tsp salt
1 tsp/5g baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon1/2 tsp ground nutmeg (fresh grated even better!)
1/4 tsp ground cloves (omit for Japanese or replace with ground
allspice/pimiento)
6.25 oz/180g dark brown sugar (muscovado, powdered kurozato etc -- ordinary
kurozato has lumps in it)
6 oz/170g unsalted butter
5.5oz/160g unsulfured molasses (Grandma's brand recommended, apparently...)
1 large egg (50g)

Mix dry ingredients.
Cream butter, add sugar, cream till fluffy, beat in molasses and then egg, adding a little of the dry ingredients occasionally to prevent separating. Put dough in a plastic bag or wrap, squeeze out air and refrigerate for 2 hours (or 2 weeks, as the case may be...)

Roll on a floured pastry cloth (this really is the best way to roll cookies -- buy canvas or use a tea-towel if you haven't got one) to 1/8" thick. I roll mine a touch thicker. Cut into desired shapes.

Bake small cookies 8-10", larger ones up to 12" in a moderate oven, 350deg. F. I would say about 170 deg. C, depends a little on your oven.

Cool for a minute on the tray so that they firm up a little, then transfer to cooling racks. If you can buy racks with folding legs, you can stack 'em up in limited counter space.

Lazy Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

from the kitchen of a friend


One cocoa or chocolate drop cookie recipe. A candy cane or two, or failing that, hakka candies. Crush candy into large chips.

Prepare drop cookies as usual. Before baking, drop a few chips of candy onto each cookie (don't press down) and bake. Candy will melt to make chewy peppermint chunks in the cookie.

Rugelac

from the kitchen of a friend

8 oz/227g cream cheese
8 oz/227g unsalted butter
1.75oz/50g sugar
1 tsp pure vanilla extract (less if using vanilla oil)
8 oz/228g bleached all purpose flour
pinch salt if desired

Cream the fats together, beat in the sugar, then the flour. Divide in four and refrigerate overnight in plastic wrap. This dough is devilish to handle but delicious to eat!

Prepare filling:
2.5oz/75g sugar (or less)
2 oz/54g light brown sugar
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
3.75oz/108g raisins, preferably golden raisins, sultanas
3.5oz/100g walnuts, coarsely chopped
4 oz/113 apricot preserves (jam), stirred up
Topping: Mix 2 tab sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon

Take out one portion of dough and place on a lightly floured board. Flour rolling pin and roll out into a 1/8" thick circle about 9 inches across. Rotate dough as you roll to prevent sticking. keep flour handy. Spread circle with 2 tsp of apricot jam, smoothing out with back of spoon. Sprinkle about 1/2c of the raisin/walnut mixture over. Press firmly and evenly into dough, and cut circle into 12 wedges. Roll up each triangle from the outside in, to make croissant shapes. Slip a sharp knife under the dough if needed to loosen as you roll. Puton baking sheet (baking paper is good here!), point down to prevent unrolling. Cover with wrap and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Clean away split filling and repeat with remaining dough. I bet you could freeze these guys at this point and bake later.

To bake, brush rolls with milk and sprinkle with topping. bake 16-18 minutes, until evenly browned in 350 deg F oven. Can be frozen after baking.

Cranberry Bread Recipe

from the kitchen of a friend


Sift: 2 cups flour (sifted), 1 cup sugar, 1 and 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt (I never use it), and 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Cut in 1/4 cup butter (I use Promise Extra Light margarine sticks-it makes the bread really moist) until mixture is crumbly (I use a mixer to crumble-ize it)

Add 1 beaten egg, 1 tsp grated orange peel (I use a grater/peeler doohickey and grate an entire orange for every two loaves.), and 3/4 cup orange juice. (If you can get your Elves to do the grating, it will help) mix until
mixture is evenly moist.

Fold in as many light raisins as you think looks good (the recipe calls for 1 and 1/2 cups, I never measure) and about a half bag of chopped cranberries per loaf. spoon into a greased 9 x 5 x 3 loaf pan bake at 350' for 1 hour
and 10 mins or until toothpick in center comes out clean. I never use the toothpick test, but I suppose it is a good idea.

Cool out of pan on a wire rack. keep stored in aluminum foil, unless you eat it all before it cools.