Gingerbread Cookies

All right. I have to post this because we just made such a cool gingerbread house! Follow this recipe exactly to make cookies. To make a house, you'll probably have to double the recipe (or more) decrease the baking soda, and bake it twice as long so it will get good and hard.

Have fun!

GINGERBREAD COOKIES

1 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 cup molasses
2 Tbsp. vinegar
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3 tsp. ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
5 cups flour

Cream shortening and sugar; add egg, molasses and vinegar and beat until fluffy.
Beat in the soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and cloves.
Mix in the flour by hand.
Refrigerate at least one hour.
Heat oven to 375.
Roll out dough to about 1/4-inch thick and cut out with cookie cutters.
Bake on very lightly greased cookie sheets for 5 to 6 minutes.

Cool and decorate as desired.

* For a gingerbread house: Roll the dough directly on lightly floured cookie sheets; cut out the patterns and remove excess dough. [I do not remove the dough from windows and doors before cooking—they will hold their shape if you cut them out, but leave the pieces in. While the pieces are still hot and fresh from the oven, re-cut them and remove them.]
Or you can fill the empty window spaces with crushed hard candy (like Jolly Ranchers) to make a stained glass effect, but you have to be careful not to burn your dough or the candy turns brown too.
Or, better yet, cook the house with the window-dough cut, but not removed. Remove the dough and let it cool. Now fill in the windows with home-made hard candy.

HARD CANDY

2 cups sugar
1 cup water
2/3 cup corn syrup
flavoring
food color

Combine sugar, water and corn syrup in a heavy saucepan.
Bring to a boil and cook until it reaches 300 degrees.
Add flavoring and coloring if desired. [I didn't do this, because I don't plan on eating our windows. Although maybe the kids do.]
While the syrup is still very hot, spoon it into your gingerbread house window spaces. Keep little kids away from this until it is completely cooled!

Now you can build your house! I just looked up "Gingerbread House Frosting Cement" online for a good glue recipe—it was easy to find.

Have fun!

Gourmet Granola Bars

When Bruce started a new job that didn't allow him much time for breakfast in the morning I, being the wonderful, devoted wife that I am, started looking for recipes for stuff that he could grab and take with him. And, since he has to spend a BIG portion of his day driving around, I also wanted to come up with some easy snacks. These chewy granola bars qualify on both counts.

This recipe is for a basic, chewy granola bar. You make it gourmet by adding your favorite stuff: chocolate chips, raisins, Craisins, sunflower seeds, dried fruit, nuts, coconut* . . . Whatever sounds best to you. And I'll tell you, I've come up with some killer-good creations!

GOURMET GRANOLA BARS

2 Tbsp. melted butter
2 Tbsp. corn syrup
3/4 cup sugar

1 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1/3 cup wheat flour
1 1/2 cups Rice Krispies
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1 to 1 1/2 cups add-ins [the creative, gourmet stuff—see intro*]

1/4 cup melted butter
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
In a small bowl, mix together the 2 Tbsp. melted butter, 2 Tbsp. corn syrup, and 3/4 cup sugar. It will turn into a big, wet glump of sugar. Set aside.
In a large bowl, mix together the oatmeal, wheat flour, Rice Krispies, salt, cinnamon and whatever gourmet add-ins you want.
With your fingers, mix the sugar stuff with the oatmeal stuff. You will have to work it in with your fingers to make sure it's evenly mixed. [Yes it is sticky and messy, but worthwhile—just keep repeating to yourself, "No more stale, cardboard, granola bars!" ]
In the small bowl that is now empty, mix the 1/4 cup melted butter, honey, water and vanilla until it's homogenized [how's that for using a big word?].
Pour this mixture over the oatmeal mixture and mix well—Yep! With your hands. It's just easier that way, and your hands will wash!
Spray a 9 x 13-inch baking pan with cooking spray.
Pour the granola mixture into the pan. Press it down firmly and evenly.
Bake for 25 minutes.
Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes.
Now you have a 9 x 13-inch granola bar. If you want smaller granola bars, cut it into pieces the size you like (I make 24 bars with a pan this size, which is comparable to store-bought bars). But leave the bars in the pan because they fall apart if you remove them while they're hot!
When they're mostly cooled you can take the bars out of the pan and put them into snack baggies, or an air-tight container.

Now you have a terrific, made-to-order snack for your family, you gourmet chef, you!
Bon appetit!

Guests and Brownies

Last night Ben and Tami and their cute little girls came over for dinner. Did we think to take pictures of them (or at least the cute little girls)? Well, no. But here is the brownie recipe Ben asked for.

The first time I made these they were yummy and gooey; the second time not so much. But I think the difference was this: The first time I made them was for a big party, and the recipe didn't make enough. So I mixed up a cheap (and I mean probably the cheapest one available) brownie mix and added it to the home-made recipe—but I didn't use a bigger pan. So they were thicker, which probably added to the gooeyness factor. Well, try it out either way—it's a yummy recipe.

BROWNIES

1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
2 Tbsp. cocoa powder
1 Tbsp. warm water
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. instant espresso powder [I am not about to pay for espresso powder just to make brownies with! Instead, I borrowed some Pero powder from my mom—which I'm sure coffee-people would say is NOT the same at all, but I don't know the difference.]
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter [I never remember to buy unsalted butter, but if I have it I use it.]
3 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped fine [buy baking squares, don't use chocolate chips]
1/2 cup sugar
1/8 tsp. salt
1 large egg

Heat oven to 350 degrees.
Whisk flour and baking powder together in a small bowl; set aside.
In a separate bowl, whisk the cocoa, water, vanilla and espresso powder together; set aside.
MIcrowave the butter and chocolate together at 50% power until melted, about 1 minute; whisk until smooth. Whisk in sugar and salt until completely incorporated. Whisk in the cocoa mixture, then whisk in the egg. [whisk, whisk, whisk!] Stir in the flour mixture until just incorporated (do not overmix).
Spray an 8-inch square baking pan with cooking spray (like PAM). Pour the batter into the pan and smooth the top.
Bake until a toothpick comes out with a few moist crumbs attached, about 20-25 minutes.
Cool for as long as you can stand to wait. Eat them up!

Applesauce Cookies

I see that I've gotten lazy about posting recipes. Mostly because I don't know what to post. But this is a good one. Bruce and I discovered this recipe for Applesauce Cookies before we were married, and it was a favorite of Bruce's for a long time. Of course, now that he's turned into a total chocolate fiend, chocolate chip cookies may be his favorite. I still prefer these. (But Bruce really did enjoy these a lot when we made them last night.)

APPLESAUCE COOKIES

1 1/2 cups applesauce
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups flour
3/4 cup raisins (optional)

In a medium bowl, mix applesauce with baking soda. In a large bowl cream together butter, sugar and egg. Add cinnamon, cloves and salt to butter mixture. Add applesauce to the butter mixture; mix thoroughly. Stir in flour; add raisins, if using.

Drop by tablespoonsful onto greased cookie sheets. Bake at 375 degrees for 12 to 14 minutes.

Very tasty! And you can pretend like they are more healthy than your average cookie! ;-)

Molasses-Spice Cookies

Well, I had to put in my cookie recipe after all. But I didn't have to bake my pitas, so you won't mind baking some cookies.
Huh?
Pepperidge Farms Orange Milano Cookies are the best factory-made, store-bought cookies on the planet! But this recipe is not a copy-cat for those. This is the recipe for the best home-made cookies on the planet! I know some people think chocolate chip cookies are the only cookies that a person can eat, but they are dead wrong. These are the best cookies on the planet!

MOLASSES-SPICE COOKIES

2 1/2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ginger
3/4 tsp. cloves
1/4 tsp. allspice
3/4 cup unsalted real butter, softened
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2cup white sugar
1 large egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/3 cup unsulphured molasses
additional white sugar

Adjust oven racks to upper- and lower-middle positions. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Whisk together flour, soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves and allspice in a medium bowl; set aside.
In a large bowl cream butter, brown sugar and 1/2 cup white sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla and molasses. Beat until combined; scrape sides of bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture until just combined. [Mixing by hand works great!]
Roll dough into about 2-inch balls [about the size of a golf ball]; roll balls in additional white sugar and place on ungreased cookie sheets----about 2-inches apart. Put one cookie sheet on each oven rack. Bake for about 6 minutes, then switch the cookie sheets' places (bottom to top, top to bottom) and rotate them (front to back). Continue baking 6 to 7 minutes longer (bake a total of 11-13 minutes) or until the edges begin to set and centers are soft and puffy.

So way, way yummy you'll hardly believe it!