Christmas cookies, part 1

Lately, I've been making a lot of cookies.  I mean, a lot of cookies.  I think the inspiration comes from two or three things:

1) We are not going back east this year to visit Scott's family and friends in Massachusetts for the holidays.  When we are back there, one of our dear friends Rachel (plus other friends) usually makes lots of cookies (esp. the gingerbread men) which we feast on to our heart's content.  Since I won't be having Rachel's cookies this year, I decided to make my own.

2) A desire to use my standing mixer again.  Lately, it's just been sitting in the corner gathering dust.  Time to break it out.

3) They're cookies!  How can one say no to cookies?  Plus the oven warms our house up nicely (we've been  having heater troubles lately).

Okay, back to the blog.  Let's start out with the original inspiration: Gingerbread men

My rather mutated looking gingerbread men.  See notes on decorating below

Gingerbread men from http://www.recipelink.com/msgbrd/board_2/2006/NOV/19982.html

Notes from author:  For a hotter effect, try adding more ginger to the recipe you usually use.

This is the recipe I like to use. It has a nicely balanced flavor, but you can add more ginger if you like. Bake only about 8 minutes for softer cookies. 

GINGERBREAD MEN (SOFT) WITH ROYAL ICING
Makes about 1 1/2 to 2 dozen cookies

A good, soft gingerbread men cookie recipe.

1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
2 1/2 cups sifted flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet.

Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl until fluffy. Add molasses and egg. Beat until smooth.

In a medium bowl, combine remaining ingredients. Add to creamed mixture and stir until a soft dough forms. On a lightly floured surface, use a floured rolling pin and roll out dough to 1/4 inch thickness. Use a floured cookie cutter to cut out the men. Transfer to a greased cookie sheet.

Bake 10 to 12 minutes or until edges are firm. Transfer to a wire rack with waxed paper underneath to cool completely.

Ice with royal icing, or decorate before baking with cinnamon candies, nonpareils, etc., or after baking with decorating icing.

FOR THE ICING:
Royal icing follows, but this icing tastes AWESOME on the gingerbread. Dries to a smooth, shiny finish that can be stacked:

ICING FOR GINGERBREAD COOKIES

1 cup powdered sugar
2 tsp milk
2 tsp light corn syrup
1/4 tsp almond extract
food coloring, if desired

Beat all ingredients together until smooth. Add more corn syrup to thin, if necessary. Paint on baked cookies.

ROYAL ICING

2 2/3 cups sifted powdered sugar
4 Tbsp. warm water
2 Tbsp. meringue powder
1/2 tsp. lemon extract

Beat sugar, water, powder and lemon extract in a medium bowl with electric mixer 7 to 10 minutes or until stiff. Spoon icing into a pastry bag fitted with a medium round tip. Pipe icing on cookies, outlining features of gingerbread men and decorating tops. Allow icing to harden. Store in airtight container.

Notes from Katie/Rachel: For the icing, use 2 tbsp. of milk, not 2 tsp.  Also, add three drops food coloring into the icing if desired.  You can use milk instead of corn syrup to thin and pipe or squeeze the icing onto the gingerbread men.

These are the cookies that I absolutely love eating when we visit Rachel and Darren over the holidays.  However, the dough is damn sticky to work with.  It took way more flour than I thought it would to get it to not stick to the table or the rolling pin.  Also, trying to transfer gingerbread men from the table to a cookie sheet was rather tricky.  It was only long after the last gingerbread man was gone that I read another recipe where it says that you have to refrigerate the dough first before you work with it.  I think next time (and there will be a next time...), I will do this and it should make a big difference.  I used the Brer rabbit molasses full flavor, which I read later has a stronger taste, so I think that's why the cookies tasted a little molassesy for me.  However, Scott absolutely loved the flavor and called them the best gingerbread men he had ever had.  If you remember to, pull out the molasses ahead of time so it comes to room temperature.  There is a reason behind the saying "slow as molasses."  

I also realized I am not a cookie decorator in any way, shape, or form.  Every time I tried to make a shape on the cookies, it just came out demented (see above picture).  However, all hope is not lost.  Upon further reading on cookie decorating, I discovered that I should have let the cookies completely cool off before I started.  Also, my icing was way too thin.  Plus I didn't have a good decorating tool (just a cut off plastic bag).  Learn from your mistakes (and research to see what went wrong).  Till next time...

White Christmas Dream Drops

I first saw this recipe in a Sunset magazine in the waiting area of the doctor's office.  It looked so good that I wrote it down and looked it up later.  A nice variation on traditional meringues (and especially easy using a standing mixer).

White Christmas Dream Drops

Note from recipe: Unlike traditional meringues, which are crisp all the way through, these are still chewy on the inside, like mini pavlovas—but with white chocolate chips and plenty of peppermint. For an elegant touch, dip the edges in melted dark chocolate.

Ingredients: 

• 2 large egg whites, at room temperature 
• 1/8 teaspoon cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup sugar 
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1/3 cup plus 1 1/2 tbsp. coarsely crushed peppermint candies
• 
  
• Procedure: 
• 
  
• 1. Preheat oven to 250°. Beat egg whites and cream of tartar in a deep bowl with a mixer, using whisk attachment if you have one, just until soft peaks form. Add vanilla and salt. With motor running and mixer on high speed, pour in 1 tbsp. sugar and beat 10 to 15 seconds, then repeat until all sugar has been added. Scrape inside of bowl and beat another 15 seconds. At this point, meringue should form straight peaks when beaters are lifted. Fold in chocolate chips and 1/3 cup candies with a flexible spatula.
• 2. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper, using a bit of meringue at corners as glue. Using a soup spoon, drop meringue in rounded 1-tbsp. portions slightly apart onto sheets, scraping off with another spoon. Sprinkle with remaining 1 1/2 tbsp. candies.
• 3. Bake until meringues feel dry and set when touched but are still pale, 30 to 35 minutes, switching pan positions halfway through. Turn off oven, open door, and let cookies stand about 10 minutes. Let cool on pans.
• Make ahead: Up to 2 days, stored airtight.
• Dustin and Erin Beutin, Tustin, CA, Sunset 
• These were delicious, especially dipped in dark chocolate as recommend.  I really liked how they were soft on the inside and crispy on the outside.  The white chocolate chips never seemed to melt but just stayed there on the inside (waiting to be eaten).  Yum! 

Persimmon cookies

Closeup of cookie with persimmon goodness...

I first tried persimmons (the fruit) a few years ago when Scott introduced me to them.  I couldn't say I cared much for them then.  However, this year, I decided to give them another try.  Well, after having one that Scott didn't want to finish (it dried his mouth up way too much), I concluded that I still didn't like them that much.  However, my father happened to mention that he liked persimmon cookies when I told him about my persimmon problem.  Persimmon cookies?  I had never even heard of such a thing!  So, I let the persimmons sit and sit and sit (apparently you are supposed to use super ripe persimmons) and looked up a recipe.  Here is that recipe:

Persimmon Cookies from http://allrecipes.com/recipe/persimmon-cookies-i/

INGREDIENTS:

2 ripe persimmons, pureed 1 teaspoon baking soda 2 cups all-purpose flour 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon salt 1 egg 1 cup white sugar 1/2 cup butter 1 cup raisins 1 cup chopped walnuts

DIRECTIONS:

1.	Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (180 degrees C).
2.	Dissolve baking soda in persimmon pulp and set aside.
3.	Sift flour, spices and salt together, set aside.
4.	Cream together butter or margarine and sugar until fluffy, beat in egg and persimmon. Stir in dry ingredients. Stir in nuts and raisins.
5.	Drop by teaspoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes.

These are amazing!  Having never had persimmon cookies before, I can't compare them to anything but themselves, but I can tell you is that they were all gone within twenty-four hours (then again, so were the rest of the cookies I made. Hmmm....).  Anyways, Scott called them "horribly addicting."  And they are!  Plus, they give the illusion of being healthy for you because they have persimmons in them.  They can't be that bad, right?  Well, I'll let you judge that for yourself.  Here are a couple of things to keep in mind:

1) Use very ripe persimmons.  I used the two common type found here, the heart-shaped hachiya and the tomato-shaped fuyu.  The fuyu persimmon is good for eating all on its own, but the hachiya persimmon is best for baking.  This is because a) it breaks down into a very nice goo that makes it easy to puree and b) if you try to eat it on its own when it is under-ripe it has a very astringent quality that you will not forget (which is why Scott didn't finish his first persimmon).  

2) I used a food mill to make the persimmon puree.  It worked a lot easier with the over-ripe hachiya than the fuyu.  The fuyu stayed firm even though it was equally as old as the hachiya (which is why there are bits of persimmon in the cookies [see picture above]).  Remove the top from the persimmon, cut it into quarters and and process it using the smallest holes in the food mill.

3) Some people found it too spicy.  I, however, found it just right.  It had kind of a similar texture to oatmeal cookies but a taste all of its own.  I think I am going to add more persimmons the next time I make it.

There you go!  I hope you enjoyed my Xmas cookies, part 1.  There will be a part 2, but I am still waiting to make some cookies.  Now, go out there and enjoy them!  Oh, and share some with me...