Ok. Full disclosure. Camera angles were fully and completely manipulated for this post. I am good at many things, patience in baking and fine detail are not on the list. Making gingerbread, or in this case "Ninjabread," men is a multi-day process. But when I agreed to make cookies for the charity, Cookies for Kids Cancer, I knew these would be perfect. So, after work, I proceeded to make the gingerbread.
I modified a recipe from Epicurious (Gingerbread Skeletons) by adding a bit more spice. The recipe is as follows
1/2 cup sugar
1 stick of unsalted butter
1/2 cup molasses
1/4 cup water
2 1/2 cups flour, sifted
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
Cream the butter and sugar, using a hand or free standing mixer, if available. Add molasses and water and mix fully. In another bowl, mix flour, salt, baking soda and spices. Slowly add the flour into the butter/sugar/molasses mixture. At the end, the dough will be sticky. Put in the refrigerator to cool overnight.
The next day, get out your rolling pin and some flour. With a spoon (I used a large wooden spoon), take a ball of dough. I use between a baseball and softball sized chunk. Lightly flour the outside, and roll out. It shouldn't stick, but add a bit of flour to the dough and your pin if it does. I roll out to a pretty thick slab - about 1/3 inch (thicker cookies seem to be easier to decorate).
I bake 6 at a time, on parchment paper, for approximately 10-12 minutes at 375. The cookies don't spread much.
I doubled the recipe for this batch and it made a lot of cookies. About 5 dozen good sized gingerbread men.
1 tablespoon cinnamon
1 tablespoon pumpkin pie spice
Cream the butter and sugar, using a hand or free standing mixer, if available. Add molasses and water and mix fully. In another bowl, mix flour, salt, baking soda and spices. Slowly add the flour into the butter/sugar/molasses mixture. At the end, the dough will be sticky. Put in the refrigerator to cool overnight.
The next day, get out your rolling pin and some flour. With a spoon (I used a large wooden spoon), take a ball of dough. I use between a baseball and softball sized chunk. Lightly flour the outside, and roll out. It shouldn't stick, but add a bit of flour to the dough and your pin if it does. I roll out to a pretty thick slab - about 1/3 inch (thicker cookies seem to be easier to decorate).
I bake 6 at a time, on parchment paper, for approximately 10-12 minutes at 375. The cookies don't spread much.
I doubled the recipe for this batch and it made a lot of cookies. About 5 dozen good sized gingerbread men.
Let these cool overnight. See I told you this was a multi-day process.
Then it's time to frost. Instead of whipping real egg whitI use powdered merangue. You can buy this at a craft store, like Michaels.
2 cups powdered sugar
2 tablespoons merangue powder
Up to 1/4 cup water.
Mix, but slooooowwwwwllllyyyy add the water. It can be deceptive and it is better to have a little bit thicker consistency. I find that the best consistency is kind of like tacky glue. Not Elmer's, though. That is a bit too runny. Add some food coloring and away you go.
I started with the face and hands. Then did each group one color at a time.
I let these dry overnight (2 overnights are even better). Then I finish them off by adding eyes, sashes, and details with food color pens (which I also found at Michaels).
Like I said, this was a labor of love. I started on Monday, and finished Friday morning with a few details and wrapping them up. I had a bit of a mess in the kitchen for a few days. But, it is all for a good cause. Check them out. http://www.cookiesforkidscancer.org
No comments:
Post a Comment