I finished my holiday baking last weekend, just in time to get a package of cookies in the mail to a friend and so that my family members could bring trays in to share with coworkers during the holiday week. We added in molasses spiced cookies, white chocolate cherry cookies, snickerdoodles, and my favorite butterscotch chip cookies to complete the mix.
My favorite part of baking is trying new cookies. I have to say the spiced molasses cookies turned out to be way better than the molasses cookie recipe I used last year. This one incorporated orange zest and unexpected spices such as black pepper. The dough had to chill for a good six hours, but it was worth the wait for these unique cookies.
When the baking was done, my friend and I also tackled decorating our gingerbread cottage. This was also an activity that took a lot of time and patience. We had our gingerbread walls and roof baked last weekend so we were ready to go once we made a batch of royal icing. We also made a few funny gingerbread men to go with the house – a friend sent me some ninja-shaped cookie cutters for Christmas. We chose royal icing because even though it doesn’t taste great, it hardens up well enough to hold the pieces of gingerbread together. We made white icing and colored some with blue and green food coloring. We also picked up ready-made icing in black and red at Michael’s. It’s hard to get a true black and we wanted to be sure we had some for the ninjas.
The recipe I found for the gingerbread cottage had suggestions for some decorations such as pretzels, Frosted Mini Wheats, licorice and more. We also added in Jelly Bellys, buttermints, wafer cookies and a few other things.
The waiting came in when we had to decorate the walls, then allow them to dry for one to two hours before assembling the walls. Once we had the walls up, we used canned goods to hold the walls in place as they dried for another one to two hours. We put the roof on and waited another one to two hours before we could decorate the base around the house. It was a time-consuming process, but it was a lot of fun to work together on creating a house from scratch. Next year we might get a little more elaborate, and we will definitely spread the decorating time across a few days.
Gingerbread cottage
Recipes courtesy of “Cuisine: Holiday Cookies”
Makes enough for one cottage, six pieces.
Total time: about three hours, plus chilling, decorating and assembling
¾ c. sugar
½ c. unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp. each ground cinnamon, ground ginger and baking powder
½ tsp. each ground cloves and baking soda
1 egg
¼ c. molasses
1 tbsp. cider vinegar
2 c. all-purpose flour
½ c. whole-wheat flour
Cream sugar, butter, cinnamon, ginger, baking powder, cloves, and baking soda with a mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, three minutes. Mix in egg. Beat in molasses and vinegar. Gradually beat in both flours. Chill dough in plastic wrap for three to four hours. Divide dough in half. Wrap half in plastic; set aside. Roll remaining dough on floured parchment paper to ¼ inch thick.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Arrange two pattern pieces on dough, with at least a ½ inch between pieces. Cut dough around patterns with a sharp knife. Remove and reserve excess dough. Slide parchment with dough cutouts to a large cookie sheet. Bake cutouts until firm in the center, 8-10 minutes. Repeat process with remaining dough and scraps until all six pieces are cut and baked.
Arrange pattern pieces again on top of baked cutouts and carefully trim with a sharp knife for straight, even edges. Remove pattern pieces and return cutouts to oven until dry and lightly browned, two to four minutes more. Transfer parchment with cutouts to a cooling rack to cool.
Assemble and decorate cottage.
Royal icing
4 ½ c. powdered sugar, sifted (about 1 pound)
1/3 c. plus 2 tbsp. warm water
3 tbsp. meringue powder
½ tsp. cream of tartar
For the royal icing, beat the powdered sugar, water, meringue powder and cream of tartar in a bowl with a mixer on low speed. Increase speed to high and beat icing until very thick and stiff, about seven minutes; cover with plastic wrap to keep from drying out and chill to keep firm.
Molasses spiced cookies with orange zest
2 ½ c. all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. table salt, ground cloves, and freshly ground black pepper
1 c. packed dark brown sugar
½ c. shortening
4 tbsp. unsalted butter, softened
1 egg
½ c. full-flavor molasses
Minced zest of one orange
Granulated sugar
Whisk together flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, cloves and pepper in a bowl.
Cream brown sugar, shortening and butter with a mixer on high speed until light a fluffy, five minutes.
Add egg to butter mixture and mix until combined. Beat molasses and zest into creamed mixture, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the flour mixture, beating just to combine.
Chill dough for at least six hours or overnight.
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop dough using a #100 scoop or a teaspoon. Roll in granulated sugar and drop onto prepared baking sheets. Bake cookies until the edges are set, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on baking sheets.
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