It's been a couple of weeks since I last had time to share. I hope everyone is continuing to enjoy the holidays. I recently spent some quality time with Terri creating ginger bread cookies. Of course we couldn't just make conventional ones we chose to make ABC cookies. I have to give Terri full credit for the choice of cutters.
I had never made ginger bread before and being the purist that I am I decided to make them from scratch.
We went on a pilgrimage to Winn-Dixie for supplies and immediately we were thrown by the choices of molasses. Heck if we knew which to get so...black strap it was. Note black strap is VERY strong in flavor and lends an almost licorice flavor to the finished product. Next time I'll get regular to tone it down a bit. It almost overpowers the ginger flavor.
Another thing we didn't realize is afteer you make your dough it has to sit in the fridge over night! Oh, and I don't recommend using a small hand mixer. Smoke gets in your eyyyeeesssss! I will either haul my Kitchenaid toTerri's or make them at my place.
The recipe we chose was on the cookie cutter box and yes Terri I know you gave me a copy but in true form and style I misplaced it. Next day we break out the dough. It looked like S*&t, literally! took the mass and tossed it onto the floured counter top and rolled it out to 1/4 in thick. Note to self, break dough into 3 or 4 seperate pieces. The recipe rolled out a really large sheet of dough.
Another neat quality of ginger bread cookie dough is you can play with the thickness to make either a really crunchy product or if you prefer cut thicker cookies for softer ones.
After the baking frenzy we ended up with some pretty creepy Already Been Chewed cookies.
The edges weren't as sharp as I envisioned but I think if I rolled the dough thinner I'd get the desired effect.
Not being satisfied with beheaded and amputee cookies we decided to dress them up a bit.
Evil aren't we?
As you can see we kind of over did it but what a ball!!
"Chow For Now"
Pete
Most excellent post! And, yes, it was a blast! Especially liked the decorating part - lots of red icing to bloody up the missing stumps and sutures on the cookie victims. I shared some with my mom (of course she loved them - anything sweet) and with my co-workers (om nom nom). Great comments from all tasters! Lots of fun.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, the taste was superb, which, of course, is the most important element. But the look of these poor little creatures..."maimed gingerbread persons" I called them in my Tweet earlier. And, again from the Tweet, "Our perversions are in sync," I think. Keep on rockin' in the cooking world, Peter. Kudos for getting Queenie to venture outside her white-vegetable safety zone.
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