Ginger and Molasses

November chewed us up and spit us out.  It has been a rough month.  However, the giant silver lining is we made it through and have come out the other side just in time to focus on CHRISTMAS!!!!!

And one of the first things Marnie and I did was to make ginger chewy cookies and gingerbread cookies.

It started with Marnie hauling lots of her cool baking equipment to my house.

 And then we got down to the business of baking.

 Marnie had to soften the butter because I forgot to leave it out.

We got to bake with molasses which made the batter lovely and dark.

 The batter smelled fantastic and when we baked the cookies the whole house smelled like Christmas.

We used two recipes for this baking session.  The first one was a Good Housekeeping recipe I've had for ages and it worked really well.  These cookies are delicious!

Seriously delicious.  I was fooling around with some icing sugar and a template but I could never get the star centered.  Baker and decorator I am not.

The next recipe was Pioneer Woman's gingerbread.  This dough was easy to make, rolled out like a dream and it was easy to create uniform cookies with it.

 The only flaw, and it was a tragic one, was they did not taste good.  I know, PW never lets me down! Unfortunately, I've noticed that some of her cookie recipes are not as good as I would hope.  This could have easily been baker error, but I had Marnie with me and her attention to detail around this kind of thing is spot on.  We ended up making a second batch of the ginger chews, adding more flour and rolling them out.  It sort of worked, this recipe poofs up and so our snowflakes looked like flowers because all the edges became rounded.  However, the most important detail was that they tasted really good.  And the kids sure loved decorating them.

Ta Da! The first gingerbread of the season!

Better Homes and Gardens Giant Ginger Cookies

Ingredients
4-1/2 cups all purpose flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves (we used allspice)
1/4 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups shortening
2 cups granulated sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses

1. In a medium mixing bowl stir together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt; set aside.

2. In a large mixing bowl beat shortening with an electric mixer on low speed for 30 seconds to soften.  Gradually add 2 cups granulated sugar.  Beat until combined, scraping sides of bowl occasionally.  Beat in eggs and molasses.  Beat in as much of the flour mixture as you can with the mixer.  Using a wooden spoon, stir in any remaining flour mixture.

3.  Shape dough into 2-inch balls using 1/4 cup dough.  Roll balls in the 3/4 cup coarse or granulated sugar. (We didn't do this - we used powdered sugar after they baked)  Place about 2-1/2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

4.  Bake in a 350 degree F oven for 12 to 14 minutes or until cookies are lightly brown and puffed.

These cookies can be frozen for up to 3 months according to BHG. I have not tested this out.