Tonight I baked gingerbread cookies, and as usual had to make a few modifications/adjustments due to living here in Switzerland. I can't recall that I've ever made gingerbread cookies, but I wanted to do something "Christmas-y" for the packages I'm preparing. I also can't really recall making Christmas goodie bags with baked goods before either, but I figure I have the time now, so why not?
I started tonight so that my cookies would have ample time to cool, then tomorrow I will embark on icing them. I'm not sure where that will take place, as I have another cookie recipe I'll be working on tomorrow to include as well. I'm guessing I'll take over the dining room table? I can't really think of anywhere else that they will fit…
I mentioned that I had to make a few modifications. I seem to have stumbled upon another ingredient that we can't get here in Switzerland: molasses. Not that I bake with molasses a lot, but sometimes I wonder how people bake over here…no brown sugar, no baking soda and no molasses. At least I remembered to purchase a large box of baking soda when I was in the US recently, so I did have that.
After reading a number of forums online, I decided to try and mix my own concoction of items available to try and come up with what we consider American molasses. It consisted of melasse, the German word for molasses, which is essentially a very diluted form of molasses. It tasted kind of like liquid brown sugar, if that makes any sense, and is sold by the honey. From the label, it appears that people may put this on toast? Not sure what I think about that.
The other ingredient is British dark treacle. This is basically super-concentrated molasses. I tasted it, and I have no idea what to relate it to, but it would be something that doesn't taste all that great. My homemade molasses turned out great though!
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| Creating molasses, and yes, it looks like some sort of tar |
One of the other first steps is to soften the butter to blend with sugar. My only problem? No microwave, and I forgot to set the butter out ahead of time. My solution? Turn on the oven and just set the dish in there for a couple of minutes. The key here is not to forget about it and let it become melted butter. Also, just for the record, nothing I make is diet. You should let that expectation go.
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| 225 grams of butter (1 cup) |
After everything is mixed up, you have to let the dough sit in the fridge for one hour (giving me time to take the boys to pick up BK from work and do some ironing), then you can roll it out on a "lightly" floured surface. I never really know how much to put on the counter, but I figure better safe than sorry.
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| Rolled out dough with cookie cutters |
Since we've been in Switzerland the dogs have obviously been a big topic in our life, with many people hearing about our ups and downs with them. I thought it was fitting to make gingerbread cookies with various dog shapes, such as a dog, a bone, a paw print and a heart. Hopefully BK's team finds this amusing.
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| Just before heading into the oven |
Another good thing about this recipe is that the cookies take virtually no time to cook in the oven- about 7 minutes total. I was worried about the small cookies cooking faster than the bigger ones, but it didn't seem to be a problem. I was hoping to find a weenie dog cookie cutter while in the US, but no such luck. That might be a good stocking stuffer for me (hint, hint).
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| Cooling on the dining room table |
The last thing for tonight was to let these guys cool. Like I mentioned above, tomorrow I'll embark on icing the cookies. The recipe says to work fast with the icing, as it dries fast, so my guess is that I'll have to do a couple of trial runs, which I have a feeling may be a little frustrating for me. BK will be working late, so at least I can be alone when I go a little crazy because my icing is not working as perfectly as I want.
Think positive thoughts! I'll let you know how it goes tomorrow :)
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