Thursday, December 30, 2010

Ginger Cookies

Makes 2-3 dozen (depending on size)

Our dear friend Nevena made these cookies for my defense presentation and I haven’t been able to stop making them ever since. They are a hit at our house and they are sure to be a hit at yours too. These cookies are super easy and really delish. The last time I made them they were gone within 36 hours (and I didn’t share many). These cookies are just awesome! They store well, and the dough is great to have on hand just in case you have an unexpected visitor or you need something sweet. Thank you Nevena for giving me this recipe!

What you’ll need:

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground mace
1 large egg
6 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup molasses
small bowl with additional sugar for coating the cookie

How you do it:

In one mixing bowl, cream the butter. Add the sugar and mix on medium until just mixed. Add molasses and egg to butter and sugar mixture and beat well. In anther mixing bowl add all the dry ingredients and stir up. Add the flour a little at a time to the molasses mixture until all gone. Easy enough, right? For an extra twist – try adding candied ginger to the mix. Cut it up into small pieces and mix into dough while adding the flour mixture.

The dough will be very soft and you need to harden it up in order to roll it into balls and coat with sugar. So you will split the dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap and put into the freezer for at least 30 minutes. You could keep it as one big mixture but freeze for at least an hour. At this point, you can store your dough like this for a few weeks/months until ready to use. If you want to store it, wrap it a few more times in plastic wrap to make sure it stays fresh.

When your cookie dough is good and cold, preheat the oven to 350° F. Take a spoon and scoop out small pieces of the dough (about teaspoon size for 3 dozen cookies and a little bigger for 2 dozen cookies) and form into balls. Roll each cookie dough ball a bowl with extra sugar to coat the cookie all around. Place the sugar coated ball onto the cookie sheet (no need to grease the cookie sheet, the sugar prevents cookie from sticking). Bake for about 10 minutes. I love my cookies a little soft, but these cookies will cook up nice and crunchy if you leave them for a few more minutes. Take out of the oven and after a few minutes, transfer to cooling rack. Be sure to eat a few as soon as they come out of the oven, with a large glass of milk!

-hayden

pics of these dishes will follow - I'm having technical difficulties but no one ever said I was a computer wiz (or a grammar wiz for that matter)

Tuesday, December 28, 2010

Spiced Cranberry Sauce


I LOVE cranberry sauce.  I've combined a few different recipes to come up with the mixture I always make.  One of the challenges for me of posting my recipes online will be measurements, I don't measure anything (except when I bake).  So feel free to tweak measurements any way you please.  I usually go heavier on the spices myself.  I also like my cranberry sauce thick and more jellied, so I mash the heck outta' those berries!

Look!  There's my cranberry sauce!

Ingredients:
1/2 c water
1/2 c orange juice
1/2 c white sugar
1/2 c brown sugar
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp allspice
1/8 tsp ground cloves
1/8 tsp ginger
1 orange, zested
1 (12-oz) package cranberries

Instructions: 
1) In a medium saucepan, combine water, orange juice, sugars, spices and orange zest (everything but the cranberries).   Heat on low, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
2) Add the cranberries and bring to a boil.  Cook over medium heat until the berries pop, about 10 minutes.  Mash the berries with a spoon (or fork or masher) to pop any unpopped berries.  The more you berries you pop, the thicker the sauce will be.  Reduce the heat to low and simmer up to 10 more minutes (the longer you simmer, the thicker it gets).
3) Remove from heat, pour sauce into a bowl and chill until serving time.  The sauce will thicken more as it cools.

enjoy!
 ~ j