The Great Savvy Bake-Off Recipe #6

December 10, 2009

Despite the fact she works from her home office, when Holly, our Production Manager and EatSavvy photographer, discovered that we were having the SavvyMom bake-off at the office she did not want to be left out. She chose to submit one of her children’s favourite holiday recipes—gingerbread. We thought about asking Holly to courier the cookies to the office for testing, but figured her own children would be the best judges. Both of her kids loved the cookies (and took some for their school snack). So did Alice (the kitten), who snuck away and was found snacking on a gingerbread Christmas tree.
Holly’s Gingerbread Cookies

Makes 3 dozen cookies

You’ll Need

Cookies

¼ cup trans-free margarine or butter, softened
½ cup packed brown sugar
¾ cup dark molasses
⅓ cup cold water
3½ cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground allspice
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp ground cloves
Smooth vanilla frosting (optional)

Smooth Vanilla Frosting

2½ cups confectioners’ sugar
¼ cup hot water
1 teaspoon light corn syrup
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract

Prep and Cook

Cookies

Beat margarine, sugar, molasses, and water with electric mixer or by hand until smooth. In separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, allspice, salt, and cloves.
Add flour mixture to molasses mixture, stirring by hand just until soft dough forms.
Divide dough in half, shape each piece into a disk, wrap in plastic, and refrigerate 2 hours or overnight.
When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350°F.
On lightly floured surface or between 2 pieces of wax paper, roll out one disk about 1/8″ thick. Cut out cookies using 5″ gingerbread man cookie cutter.
Place 1″ apart on baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake 10 to 15 minutes, until set. (Bake a few minutes longer for crispier cookies).
Transfer to rack to cool. Repeat with remaining disk, re-rolling scraps once to get as many cookies as possible. When cookies are completely cool, decorate with smooth vanilla frosting, if using.

Icing

Combine all ingredients until smooth. This makes enough for 4 dozen cookies.

Good to know: For added nutrition, use half whole wheat and half of Robin Hood’s Nutri-Flour Blend instead of all purpose flour. If you want to use the cookies as ornaments, cut a small hole near the top with the end of a straw before baking. Once the cookies have cooled, thread a ribbon through the hole. To save time, Holly used Cake Mate cookie icing.

What is your favourite holiday cookie?

Photo copyright Holly Sisson Photography