But the Fire is so Delightful!

I have about a dozen different recipes for gingerbread cookies, all from sources that are either reputable or as yet, completley unexplored. Last year, I broke our food processor with a recipe that called for way too much flour.

I decided to make some little gingerbread men for work to add a little bit of holiday spirit to our baked goods, but when I remembered the incident with the food processor, and believe me, it was a sight to be seen, I became skeptical of all my gingerbread recipes.



It was then that I realized the molasses jar would surely have a tried and true gingerbread cookie recipe on the back; when I checked, I found I was right. My hesitation was completely gone and I made some delicious gingerbread angels and Christmas trees. Because I was selling them to customers, I didn't want to use anything to decorate them that people could dislike/be allergic to. So, I just sprinkled all of the shapes with some sugar before I baked the cookies, and the result was subtle, festive, and successful.



Gingerbread Cookies
Makes 1 dozen

1/2 cup butter or shortening, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves (or allspice)

Beat butter with sugar and molasses. Mix in egg completely. Sift dry ingredients together and add to wet mixture. Mix well. Chill in freezer for 1 hour or in refrigerator for 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Roll out a portion of the dough 1/4 inch thick on a lightly floured board. Be sure to keep dough you are not working with cold. Cut with cookie cutters and place on greased baking sheets. If decorating with raisins or sugar, add them at this time.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool. Pipe on royal icing and add candy pieces, if desired.

Baby, Ginger, Sporty, Scary, and Posh

I found a recipe for a Starbucks-inspired Chocolate Cinnamon Bread a long time ago and saved it to my computer. Unfortunately, I didn't keep track of the original website, so I can't properly give credit; however, I did find a number of sites with the exact same recipe as the one I received, and I think this one is the most likely candidate for being the source.



I tend to add at least a little bit of cinnamon to just about everything I bake, so the idea of chocolate and cinnamon combined into a dense, moist quickbread with a crispy sugar-spice topping is pretty exciting to me.



As I said before, I've had this recipe for almost a year and have hesitated to use it; possibly because it takes so much butter and butter is getting more expensive each week. The point is, my finals today were postponed until Thursday and I baked all day long, eventually getting around to this recipe.



I am so happy we had frigid weather; otherwise, it might've taken me another year to taste the thick, warm, chocolate deliciousness that is involved with eating this bread. The bread is soft and moist while the crust is sweet and crunchy; the loaves don't rise as much as my other quick breads, but the actual texture is dense and compact, and you definitely get as much bang for your buck as you would with, say, banana bread. I cannot honestly recommend any quick bread more than this one. Bake this!


Chocolate Cinnamon Bread
Makes 2 nine-inch loaves

1 1/2 cups unsalted butter, at room temperature
2 1/2 cups granulated sugar
5 large eggs, at room temperature
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/8 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Dutch-processed cocoa powder
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves or allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Grease two 9-inch loaf pans and line the bottoms with parchment paper.

Make the chocolate batter: in the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together the butter and sugar with the paddle attachment on medium speed, until light and creamy, about 5 minutes. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until each egg is completely incorporated before adding the next and scraping down the sides of the bowl several times.

Meanwhile in a medium bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, salt, baking powder, and baking soda. In another bowl, whisk together the buttermilk, water and vanilla. With mixer on low speed, alternately add the flour mixture and buttermilk mixture to butter, beginning and ending with the flour and beating just until blended. Divide the batter between the two pans; shake the pans to even the tops and set aside.

Make the cocoa-spice sugar crust: In another bowl, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, cocoa, ginger, and cloves. Sprinkle the surfaces of both batters with the cocoa sugar mixture, dividing evenly. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 to 50 minutes. Let cool complete, run a thin knife around the sides to release the breads, and remove the loaves from the pans. This is the hardest part: half of your crispy sugar topping will fall off. I don't yet know how to remedy this.

Ginger-iffic

When I make a batch of cookies, I usually have to split it in half or in thirds because I don't really have anyone that I can push three dozen cookies on once a week. Since my grandpa got out of the hospital, he has steroid-induced diabetes, so the number of baked goods I have been able to give him has decreased significantly.



Anyway, I made these ginger cookies because I really like molasses-based goodies and it originally makes 18 cookies, which meant that I didn't have to deal with weird measurements like 5/16ths of a teaspoons.



The only problem I ever really have with ginger and molasses is that I can never really tell when they're done, which can lead to some overcooking. I think these were just about perfect though; the crunchy sugar topping really brought out the spice of the actual cookie.




Ginger Nuts
Makes 1 1/2 dozen cookies

1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and cooled
2 tablespoons molasses
1/2 cup unrefined dark brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
Granulated sugar, to decorate

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter, molasses, brown sugar, and egg in a large bowl. Sift the remaining dry ingredients together and sitr into the butter mixture.

Using about 1 1/2 tablespoons of dought at a time, form the dough into balls. Place the balls 2 inches apart on a non-stick baking sheet or a standard baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Lightly press the cookies into 1 1/4-inch rounds.

Refrigerate the cookies for one hour before baking. Then, sprinkle with granulated sugar and bake for 10 to 12 minutes; the cookies will puff up, then settle when cooked. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool.