Gingersnaps

This recipe is the cookie part of the Gingersnap-Raspberry Sandwiches recipe.

What You Need
1 stick unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar (plus more for rolling the dough in)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
1 large egg

Heat oven to 375 degrees with one rack positioned in center of oven; line a baking sheet with parchment paper, and set aside.

Cream butter, shortening, and 1 cup sugar on medium speed.

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and ginger.

Add maple syrup to butter mixture; beat to combine. Beat in egg until well combined. Reduce mixer speed to low; slowly add the reserved flour mixture, a little at a time, until well blended.

Place some sugar in a bowl. I had some colored sanding sugar that I used. I used a tablespoon scoop to shape the dough and rolled it in sugar.



Transfer to sheet. Repeat, spacing balls 3 inches apart. Bake until golden, about 12 minutes.



Transfer cookies to a wire rack to cool.



I used plain white sugar too.



Lessons learned:
After the first day, these cookies became rock hard. Not sure if it's because the recipe was meant to be part of a cookie sandwich and had I made them into cookie sandwiches, they would've stayed soft. I usually don't store bread with cookies, but I had to with these to keep them soft. They were still delicious when they were crunchy, but I like my cookies soft.

Snickerdoodles

I have a myriad of Snickerdoodle recipes, but this recipe from Better Homes and Garden has never failed me.

For the Cookie 1/2 cup butter, softened 1 cup granulated sugar 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/4 teaspoon cream of tartar       1 egg 1/2 teaspoon vanilla 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

For the Cinnamon Sugar 2 tablespoons sugar 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium to high speed for 30 seconds.

Add the 1 cup sugar, baking soda, and cream of tartar. Beat until combined.

Beat in egg and vanilla.

Beat in the flour Cover and chill in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

In a small mixing bowl combine the 2 tablespoons sugar and cinnamon. I use a tablespoon scoop to shape the dough. Roll balls in the sugar-cinnamon mixture to coat. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake for 10 to 11 minutes or until edges are golden brown. Transfer cookies to a wire rack; cool.

Anise Drops

I hadn't taken out butter before leaving for work to soften, and I was short on time for making a variety of Christmas cookies and saw that these Anise Drops didn't require any butter, so I went for it.

I don't like the taste of black licorice, but I love anise cookies. An ex-boyfriend's mother used to make anise cookies for him and I loved those cookies. The anise drops have a different texture than her cookies, but definitely the same flavor.

What You Need
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
3 large eggs
1 1/4 cups sugar
1 teaspoon anise extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt into a medium bowl; set aside.

Put eggs in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Mix on medium speed until eggs are fluffy.

Gradually beat in the sugar until incorporated. Mix in anise extract.

Reduce speed to low; mix in flour mixture.



I used a tablespoon scoop to transfer the mixture onto baking sheets lined with parchment paper.



[If you want to get all fancy, the instructions tell you to transfer to a pastry bag fitted with a coupler or a 1/2-inch plain tip (such as an Ateco No. 806) and pipe 1 3/4-inch rounds, spacing about 1/2 inch apart.]

Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through, until tops crack and cookies are very pale, 8 to 9 minutes.



Transfer to wire racks using a spatula; let cool.



What I like about this recipe is you can basically use any flavor extract. I've got some langka extract I can wait to try with this recipe!

Chocolate Gingerbread

I made this for my work husband's birthday. The recipe used to be available on Nigella's site, but it has since disappeared. This recipe was adapted from the original which is from Nigella Lawson's Feast.

For the Cake 1.5 sticks unsalted butter 1 cup + 2 Tbsp dark brown sugar 3/4 cup light agave 3/4 cup amber agave 1/4 tsp cloves 1 tsp ground cinnamon 2 tsp ground ginger 1.25 tsp baking soda 2 Tbsp warm water egg replacer for 2 eggs 1 cup skim milk 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup white wheat flour 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa 1 cup semisweet chocolate bits	For the Frosting 2 cups confectioners' sugar* 2 Tbsp unsalted butter 1 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa 1/4 cup Sprecher ginger ale

* I most likely used less, I never use the exact amount of confectioners' sugar that frosting recipes call for.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. The instructions tell you to use a 12x8x2 roasting pan and line it with parchment paper. I ignored the parchment paper for this round and used a 9x13 pan that I sprayed and floured.

Melt the butter along with the sugar, the agave (both), cloves, cinnamon, and ginger in a saucepan.



While that's going on, dissolve the baking soda in the water in a cup.

Take the saucepan off the heat and beat in the eggs, milk, and baking soda in its water. Make sure the melted butter/sugar with spices goodness isn't too warm, or it will cook the egg as you beat it in.



Stir in the flour and cocoa and beat with a wooden spoon to mix. Fold in the chocolate bits.



Pour into the pan and bake 45 minutes until risen and firm.



It will be slightly damp underneath the set top. Remove to a wire rack and let cool in the pan.



Once cool, frost it, baby!

1. Sift the confectioners' sugar.
2. Heat the butter, cocoa, and ginger ale in a saucepan.
3. Once the butter is melted, whisk in the confectioners' sugar.
4. Pour the frosting on top and make sure it covers the top.

The end product was quite delicious, but here are my lessons learned:

• Line the pan with parchment paper. I had no idea how sticky the bottom would be! Serving the cake was adventurous because chunks of the cake would come out of the pan, and the bottom was just stuck there. I made this cake again for the family dinner at Christmas and I lined the pan. Problem solved!
• The chocolate bits. The recipe calls for chocolate chips, and I chopped the chocolate into bits that were relatively similar in size to chocolate chips. Those sank to the bottom both times I made this cake. The batter is quite thin, so maybe using mini chocolate chips would be better.

Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

This makes me think of Christmas 2008. I made cookies and muffins to give to friends that I don't normally do gift exchanges with last year, and one of the cookies I made was Nigella's Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies. These cookies are insanely good. They're slightly cakey, so it's like getting your cake and cookie fix at once.

When I found out Elvis was coming into town, I wanted to make those cookies for him. Then I thought about it and realized that I didn't want to do the work for them in someone else's kitchen. My mom doesn't bake and thus, lack many of the same utensils and equipment that I generally have available in my kitchen.

I looked online and found this Chocolate Chocolate Chip cookies recipe. Seemed much more manageable to do in someone else's kitchen and it's pretty straight-forward.

I think I made these cookies four times in less than a week. Between my pregnant sister-in-law, my brothers, and random people, these cookies did not stick around too long. What I like about this recipe is it's a sturdy enough cookie that it can take all kinds of goodies instead of just plain chocolate chips.

This time, I used peppermint bark that Jo had made and given me when she and JP came to visit me.

Side note: I had the write-up above written out from when I first drafted this but didn't post it because I couldn't figure out what I did with the pictures I took. I was going through my old phone's memory card and found them. I apologize for the poor quality, but my camera battery was totally dead and this was my only option.

What You Need
2 1/4 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 sticks butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
2 cups chocolate chips, chopped chocolate, M&M's, etc.

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. In a bowl, stir together flour, salt, and baking soda.

3. Cream the butter, both sugars, eggs, vanilla and cocoa.

4. Gradually add the flour mixture into butter mixture and mix until combined.

5. Add in the chocolate chips and stir to distribute evenly.



6. Drop dough by tablespoonfuls onto greased baking sheets and bake about 10 minutes.



7. Cool on a baking rack.

Cake in a Mug

I've been meaning to create a post about this since I made it over a year ago. Plus Anup asked me for the recipe, thus the twofer. The original recipe was from a Wired article, then the article disappeared online. This is what I've pieced together based on other online sources.

What You Need
microwave
large microwaveable mug
4 tablespoons of flour [1] 
9 tablespoons hot chocolate mix [2]
pinch of salt
1 egg
3 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons oil [3]
cooking spray



For Healthier Options
[1] Use white wheat flour or spelt flour.
[2] Use mix that need milk instead of water. Plus, this would result in dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate.
[3] Use 1.5 tablespoons oil, 1.5 tablespoons unsweetened applesauce.

Make It Happen
1. Spray the inside of the mug.
2. Add the dry ingredients into the mug and mix.



3. Add the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

4. Put into the microwave for 3 minutes and you're done, son!

Overall, this wasn't a bad cake, considering you can eat cake in 5 minutes, from start to finish. It made a lot more than I expected, and my only criticism is it was a little bit dry. If your microwave cake ends up a little dry, a little whip cream or ice cream should help.

Yet another baking blog...

I tried using a current blog I have as a baking blog, but the format of it didn't really work for me. For one thing, that site forces you to start an account before you can comment, and well, most people I know wouldn't want to create an account just to drop a line.

So, through encouragement from my brother RJ (Borjadamus himself), here I am with a blog solely dedicated to my baking endeavors. And maybe foodie field trips. We'll see.

With the holiday season upon us, I'll be doing a lot of baking in the next few days. Now I just have to be more diligent about documenting this instead of tweeting it, as well as providing photographic evidence. That should help me keep my kitchen clean too. :D