Gingerbread cookies

I don't recall having much (if any) gingerbread growing up, but over the past few years, I have developed a reverence for the stuff. I was fortunate enough to find this recipe, titled "The Most Wonderful Gingerbread Cookies," on my first attempt at making gingerbread. It always turns out beautifully for me.

I like my gingerbread cookies nice and soft. I also like to use my special Williams Sonoma Message In A Cookie Cutters to stamp Christmas messages into them. They make the perfect neighbor gifts. I make several batches of this each December.

Gingerbread Cookies
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 Tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
6 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature
3⁄4 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
2 tsp vanilla

1. In a medium bowl, whisk dry ingredients until well blended. 
2. In a large bowl, beat butter, brown sugar, and egg together until blended. Add molasses and vanilla; mix until well blended. 
3. Gradually add dry mixture to wet ingredients; mix until smooth. 
4. Divide dough in half and wrap in Saran wrap. Let stand at room temperature for at least an hour.
5. Preheat oven to 375°F. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. 
6. Lightly flour a work surface and rolling pin. Roll out one portion of dough to about 1/4" thick. It helps to also sprinkle a bit of flour on the dough. 
7. Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes, and place them on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets about 2 inches apart.
8. Bake 7-8 minutes for soft gingerbread.

Chicken Tikka Masala

This recipe for chicken tikka masala is slightly adapted from Mel's Kitchen Cafe. It is spicy, flavorful, totally delicious... and a great way to use up plain yogurt ;)

For this India-inspired British dish, begin by marinating chicken in yogurt and pungent spices for one hour. Start some rice. Then, while pan-frying the chicken, cook up a creamy, spicy, tomato-based sauce which pairs beautifully with the chicken, and serve it up over rice. I almost can't eat it without some naan on the side, too!

Chicken Tikka Masala
(serves 3-4)

Chicken Marinade ingredients:

2 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
1 cup plain yogurt
1 Tbsp lemon juice
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 1/2 tsp paprika
2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp salt

1. Slice raw chicken into strips or bite-sized chunks.
2. Combine yogurt, lemon juice, spices, and salt in a large bowl. Add cut-up chicken, stirring to coat well. Refrigerate for an hour (or up to 8 hours).
3. Heat frying pan and cook chicken over medium heat until done.

MEANWHILE....

Masala ingredients:

1 Tbsp butter
1/2 to 1 tsp garlic powder (or 1 clove garlic, minced)
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
8 ounces tomato sauce (one small can. I use the no salt added variety)
1 cup milk/cream (or Mexican crema worked really well)

1. Melt butter in a small saucepan. 
2. Add spices and heat until aromatic. 
3. Stir in tomato sauce and milk or cream. Milk is likely to curdle, but this is fine. 
4. Cook over low heat until sauce is hot and thick. Pour over chicken in its entirety, or serve separately if preferred. 

Serve hot over rice and ideally with naan -- yummy!

Horchata Mix

Have you ever had horchata, the sweet Mexican rice drink? I think it's delicious. It seems like most people either love it or hate it.

I tried to make horchata from scratch several years ago and it was horrible. Just disgusting.

But fortunately, a few months ago, Thomas tracked down a recipe for horchata mix, which actually makes a yummy horchata. Real horchata does not have milk in it, but this is so good that I do not care that it is less than genuine :) We made a big batch last night for when we hosted our ward's weekly (during the summer) lemonade social.

You can either mix it with water right away, or make the dry mix and store it until your next fiesta.

Also, a note on rice flour: you can buy this product at your grocery store, but if you cannot find it or if you do not want to purchase it in the quantity available, you can take some (dry, uncooked) rice and stick it in your blender. It will make a terrible sound, and you will probably have varying sizes of rice granules in the end, but if you are ok with that it works just fine for horchata.

Horchata
yields one gallon

6 Tbsp. nonfat dry milk

1/4 cup rice flour

1 1/2 cup sugar

1/2 tsp.+ cinnamon
1 tsp. vanilla 
1 gallon water

1. Mix all dry ingredients thoroughly.
2. Add vanilla.
3. Mix into one gallon of water.
4. Chill for at least an hour for optimal flavor.
5. Serve cold, with ice if desired.

Cinnamon Rolls

"It's Conference once again!" The first weekend of every April and October, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints hosts General Conference, a meeting where our present-day prophet and apostles address the world.

Last Conference, we enjoyed these yummy cinnamon rolls, found here at By Common Consent. They were very tasty and warm and perfect for a day at home, especially considering it snowed that morning.

Cinnamon Rolls

Rolls
1/2 cup warm water
2 packages dry yeast (4 1/2 tsp)
2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 cup instant vanilla pudding powder
1 c warm water
1/2 cup melted butter
2 lightly beaten eggs
1 tsp salt
5-6 cups all-purpose flour

Cinnamon mixture
1 cup melted butter
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 Tbsp cinnamon
Optional: raisins (say, 1/4 cup?), chopped nuts

Icing
8 oz. softened cream cheese
1/2 cup butter
1 tsp vanilla
3 cups confectioners sugar
1 Tbsp milk
(As I recall this made way too much icing so if you can, go ahead and halve this)

1. Dissolve yeast in the 1/2 c warm water with the 2 Tbsp sugar and let rise/froth.
2. In another bowl, combine pudding and water; mix well. Add butter, eggs, and salt; mix well.
3. Add flour; once mixed, knead until smooth.
4. The original recipe says to let rise for 2 hours. We probably let it rise for only half an hour and it turned out well.
5. Once approximately doubled in size (or less if you're impatient like we were!), roll out into a large rectangle. Pour melted butter from "cinnamon mixture" heading over dough rectangle. Combine cinnamon and brown sugar and crumble over the top.
6. Roll rectangle into a nice cylinder. 
7. Slice cylinder into rolls. Ours were probably too tall which made them doughy in the middle when we baked them. The original recipe recommends 2-inch heights.
8. Place in baking dish... leave space in between since they will rise.
9. Let rise. Again, the original recipe says 2 hours, but we skimped on this and it worked out.
10. Bake at 350°F for 15-18 minutes.
11. Combine icing ingredients and spread over the top of rolls when they are out of the oven.

Bread Pudding

We frequently scout the Walmart bargain rack when we go shopping - and usually, if there is French bread, we get it! The problem with French bread is that it gets stale really fast - that is just the nature of the stuff.

A couple weeks ago, we tried out this recipe for bread pudding, using the remainder of a loaf of French bread we had in our fridge. The original recipe can be found here; we altered it a bit so we could use ingredients we had on hand.

Bread Pudding
2 cups milk (the original recipe calls for whole milk)
1/4 cup butter
2/3 cup brown sugar
3 eggs
2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 tsp vanilla extract
3 cups bread, torn up into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup raisins

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Tear bread and place in a lightly greased baking dish (I used a 9*9 square pan). If you like raisins, put them in the baking dish as well. You might need to hand-mix them so they are evenly distributed.
2. Heat milk and butter in a medium saucepan, stirring so it does not scorch. Let butter melt completely. Cool to lukewarm.
3. Combine sugar, eggs, spices, and vanilla and mix with an electric mixer. Add milk/butter mixture; combine well.
4. Pour this mixture on the bread and raisins in the baking dish. Try to get all of the bread wet with the batter.
5. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until set.

We enjoyed it warm, with ice cream!!

Molasses Cookies

Today we release another delicious dessert. These are a bit like moist gingersnaps, only better. Make sure to taste-test the dough as well...this is always a necessity when making cookies.

Stack of Molasses Cookies we made at Lisa's parents' house summer 2009

Molasses Cookies
yields about 5 dozen cookies
2 cups oil
3 cups sugar
3 eggs
3/4 cup molasses
6 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp ginger
A little more sugar, in which to roll cookies

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Combine ingredients above. We add flour last. The recipe we have suggests adding the molasses last.
3. Roll cookie dough into 1.5" balls; roll these in sugar. Place on baking sheet and bake for about 9 minutes.
4. Let cool; enjoy; share with your neighbors!

ingredients, minus flour

ingredients, mixed, plus flour

yummy cookie dough!

rolling balls of cookie dough in sugar

Ready to cook!

Ready to eat!

Ready to give away so we don't eat all 5 dozen alone!

Variation on a Theme

In case you have not already noticed, we have two recipes for chocolate chip cookies (Chocolate Chip Cookies and Zucchini Chocolate Chip Cookies). Why shouldn't we add a third?

I got this recipe from a packet of recipe cards I received in the mail. I like the texture and the toned-down sweetness.

"Secret Recipe" Chocolate Chip Cookies
1/2 cup rolled oats (regular or quick)
2 1/4 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp lemon juice
2 eggs
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts (optional)

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
2. Put oats in a food-processor, chopper, or blender. Process until finely ground. You will basically end up with an oat flour.
3. Combine list items from oats to cinnamon.
4. In a separate bowl, cream butter (softened) through eggs. Beat until fluffy with a hand mixer.
5. Combine dry ingredients and wet ingredients, blending well. Add chocolate chips and nuts.
6. Scoop out small portions onto baking sheet. We lightly greased ours; the original recipe suggests using parchment paper. The original recipe also calls for making each cookie from 1/4 cup dough; I used less. 
7. Bake until cookies are lightly browned. Makes about 45 cookies. Enjoy!

oxox

Carrot Cake

 

This was introduced to Thomas by a missionary roommate and adapted to U.S. specifications. It's been much enjoyed by many a person, but the most devout connoisseur would be my brother-in-law, Saki (blog).

Carrot Cake

Cake
1 C sugar
1 C brown sugar
1 C oil
4 eggs
2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1 t salt
2 t cinnamon
3 C shredded carrots (about 3 large carrots)

1. Mix sugar, oil, and eggs together.
2. Add dry ingredients and then carrots.
3. Pour into a 9x13 pan.
4. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes at 350°F.

Frosting
1/2 C soft butter
8 oz. cream cheese
2 C powdered sugar
vanilla

1. Beat soft (but not melted) butter and cream cheese together.
2. Mix in vanilla and powdered sugar.
3. Spread on cooled cake.
4. Chill the tempting delicacy in the fridge.

David G., Lisa's friend's husband (the couple with which we had dinner a couple weeks ago) enjoying our carrot cake