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.
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.
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