Monthly Archives: December 2018

Gingerbread Cookies

Cookies and Brownies

Hello, all! The countdown to Christmas is on! Hopefully you’re all getting to spend some time with family and/or friends over the next few days. I know for many people, that involves Christmas cookie baking! I personally do not enjoy making roll-out cookies, but I usually break out the cookie cutters around Christmas time for the tradition of it. As mentioned in my previous post with the chocolate truffles, I had several parties in the same week so I needed to make a huge batch of treats to feed everyone. I pulled out my mom’s old recipe for gingerbread cookies and got fantastic reviews, so I figured I would share it with you all!

Ingredients:

  • 5 + 1/2 cups flour
  • 2 tsp ginger
  • 2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp nutmeg
  • 1 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 cup vegetable shortening
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup molasses
  • 2 eggs

Sift together flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, nutmeg, cloves, and salt. Set aside.

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Melt shortening; stir in sugar and molasses. Stir in eggs.

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Beat in half of flour mixture, then stir/beat in remaining half. Side note- you may need to mix this by hand as the mixture gets stiffer. I actually made 1.5 times this recipe to make even more cookies and almost broke my stand mixer. Hooray for manpower!

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Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill ~ 1 hour (as mentioned above, I made extra mix so I actually divided mine into thirds- one third for each party that week!).

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Roll dough, one chilled section at a time, onto a flour surface, to about 1/4″ thick. Cut out shapes and place on a greased baking sheet (can also use a silicone baking mat instead of greasing).

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Bake at 375°F for 6-8 minutes. Let them cool on a cooling rack and then decorate. I topped some of mine with powdered sugar and some with icing (recipe below).

Icing Recipe: 1 cup powdered sugar, 1/4 tsp vanilla, and milk to desired consistency. Beat with hand mixer or whisk until smooth. Pipe or spread onto cookies as desired.

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I hope you all enjoy this Christmas with your friends and family! Happy baking!

 

 

Chocolate Truffles

Chocolates

Hi, everyone! Happy holidays! I hope you’re all enjoying this holiday season and getting to spend time with lots of friends and family! Per usual, our calendar is filling up quickly with Christmas parties and work potlucks galore, and I find myself baking more and more treats to bring to each event! This week, I have three different events that require treats- so I knew I needed a good recipe that made a ton of whatever I chose so that I could just make one batch and get it over with for all the parties! I found this recipe for chocolate truffles and decided to give it a try, and was pleasantly surprised with the results! Be warned, it makes about 100 truffles, so I would recommend recruiting help for all the rolling (fun family activity, anyone?).

Ingredients:

  • 8oz cream cheese, softened
  • 3 cups powdered sugar, sifted- DO NOT SKIP THE SIFTING!!
  • 3 cups melted semisweet chocolate chips
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla
  • Toppings of choice- cocoa powder, powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, melted chocolate of all varieties, Oreo crumbs, sprinkles….

First, beat the cream cheese with a hand mixer just to get some air into it. Then, gradually add in the powdered sugar and beat with a hand mixer until fully combined. I usually turn the speed up on the mixer for a few seconds to get the mixture a bit more aerated and light.

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Next, melt the chocolate. I always put the chocolate chips in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave for 30 seconds, stir, and repeat until the chocolate is fully melted and smooth. Pour the melted chocolate and the vanilla into the cream cheese mixture and beat with the mixer until fully mixed. The mixture does tend to stiffen up quite a bit, so if needed, feel free to stir by hand if the mixer isn’t strong enough.

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Chill the mixture for a maximum of 1 hour. Definitely set a timer or something- I lost track of time watching The Great British Baking Show and left the mix in for more like an hour and a half, and I had to then wait for the mix to soften so that I could roll the truffles! The goal is to get the mixture firm enough to roll into balls without it sticking to your hands.

Next, roll out truffle after truffle! I used a 1/2 tbsp measure to scoop the mixture so that I had fairly uniform truffles. I then rolled them into balls and put them on a cookie sheet to await toppings. All told, I ended up with 103 truffles.

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Now for toppings! I tried toffee bits, sweetened shredded coconut, mini chocolate chips, cocoa powder, powdered sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and chocolate sprinkles. The toffee, coconut, and chocolate chips didn’t stick very well, so I went with the other four ingredients and had much better luck. You could definitely also try melted chocolate or Oreo crumbs.

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Now all that’s left is to package them up for each holiday party, and eat the few that I saved for me! Happy holidays, and happy baking!