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What Are You Baking?

What's on the docket for your oven this holiday season?

I'll be baking up jam cakes and gingerbread, as my specialties. How about you?

For those who are interesting in making your own little gingerbread boys (or perhaps gingerbread men), you'll need:


1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup of butter

cream the butter and sugar together, then add:

1/2 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

mix until well blended.



now separately, sift:

3 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon of baking soda
1 teaspoon of cinnamon
1 teaspoon of ginger (or 2, if you like a big ginger kick like a ginger snap)
1/2 teaspoon of salt
1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves


You'll want to add the dry to the liquid in three parts, blending it in well before adding the next. Add it all at once and you'll have trouble mixing, especially if you do it by hand. While adding the dry ingredients, add in 1/4 cup of water. Add this with the second or third part of the dry.

Once you have this mixed and kneaded well enough, roll the dough out to desired thickness. I like them about 1/4 inch thick, but you can make them thinner or thicker at your option. Once it's all rolled out, cut out shapes with your favorite cookie cutter (traditionally, a man-shaped cutter). Place these evenly over a couple of cookie pans, with about an inch between them. Bake at least 8 minutes if they're 1/4 inch thick, or longer as needed if they're thicker. To check if they're done, press your finger against the belly of one of the little men. If the belly pops back out and the cookie says "hoohoo!", it's ready. It's also ready if it just pops back out without saying anything (though it's not nearly so entertaining).

While you let these cool, mix powered sugar with just a few drops of milk. It's about 1/2 a teaspoon of milk for every 1/4 cup powdered sugar. Mix in your favorite food coloring, and you have icing for your cookies. Now just have fun doctoring them up, once the cookies have cooled. Start to finish, these shouldn't take you more than an hour to prepare and have ready to serve. Finally, you can have your own gingerbread men for the holidays!

Baking You What

That sounds like an amazing recipe! I don't live in the US but I love Gingerbread men, any ingredients of this recipe I can leave out? What type of ginger are you referring to?

Edited: LDS_forever on 23rd Dec, 2006 - 12:37pm

What Are You Baking? Christmas

My mother just taught me how to make peanut brittle (or bark, as it's sometimes called) which is much easier than I expected. She uses the Martha Stewart recipe:

Makes 2 pounds
3 cups sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
4 1/2 cups salted, fresh roasted peanuts (about 1 pound, 7 ounces), skinned
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
2 teaspoons baking soda
Nonstick vegetable oil spray

1. Coat two 12-by-17-inch baking sheets with vegetable spray.

2. In a heavy 5-quart saucepan with lid, combine sugar, corn syrup, and water. Cover pot, and bring to a boil over high heat, about 5 minutes. Dissolve sugar by carefully swirling pot often over burner. Keeping lid on will prevent sugar crystals from forming; however, should crystals form, wash down sides of pot with a wet pastry brush.

3. Once steam just begins to escape from pot, remove cover and reduce heat to medium. Insert candy thermometer, and continue to boil until temperature reaches 230° (thread stage), about 1 minute.

4. Add peanuts, stirring constantly with a metal spoon until mixture reaches 300° (hard crack stage) and is a rich golden brown, 13 to 18 minutes.

5. Immediately remove from heat, and quickly add butter, vanilla, and baking soda. Stir with a metal spoon until butter melts; mixture will become foamy. Pour half of mixture down center of each pan, spreading evenly with a spatula. Allow to cool for at least 1 hour.

6. Turn brittle out of pan, and snap it into shards. Store in an airtight container for several weeks.

https://www.marthastewart.com/

Delicious!