Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Gingerbread Shoe Cookies

I'm Jewish so I don't make Christmas cookies. But over Thanksgiving, when I received the new Baked Explorations cookbook as a gift from my mom, I could't resist trying out the chocolate gingerbread cookies, with a bit of a twist. You could certainly make this recipe using regular gingerbread man cookie cutters, sure, but instead I decided to make some fun shoe cookies using my shoe-shaped cookie cutter. The end result looked quite cool as expected, but also tasted delicious. So, these cookies are great for the holidays, but also as a girl's night treat. I also mixed in a few moose shaped cookies as well.

I am in Mexico on vacation right now, so there will be less posts over the holiday. But, never fear because I did set a couple things to post (including this very post) for while I am away. Wishing everyone who reads A Kitchen In Brooklyn all the best for all the things you wish for in 2011!

Baked's Chocolate Ginger Molasses Cookies
3 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 T ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 T baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 T unsalted butter, softened
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup vegetable shortening
1/2 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
2 oz bittersweet chocolate, melted

Icing
1 1/4 cups confectioner's sugar
1 large egg white
1 tsp lemon juice

To make the cookies, combine the dry ingredients in a medium bowl. In your stand electric mixer, beat the butter and shortening at medium speed until smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy, for about two minutes.

Add the egg and beat until incorporated. Then, beat in the molasses (which smells horrible all by itself, but don't worry as it will smell great in the end) and melted chocolate. Add the flour mixture in three parts, beating between additions. Divide the dough into three parts and chill for about two hours.

Preheat the oven to 350. Roll out the disks of dough, about 1/4 inch thick (I was lucky to have my mom around, as we made this over thanksgiving so she helped out with this), and cut the dough with your desired cookie cutters - I used a cute pair of shoe cookie cutters. Bake the cookies at 350 for seven minutes until the tops are dry. Allow the cookies to cook for five minutes before transferring to the rack, and allow to cool completely before glazing.

To make the icing, combine the confectioner's sugar, egg white and lemon juice until smooth. Decorate the cookies as desired, either using a brush to glaze or a frosting bag. Enjoy!

Sasha's Kitchen: Chocolate Gingerbread Shoe Cookies

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Panna Cotta with Gingerbread Crust

I first made panna cotta for Thanksgiving last year, but it was just a plain panna cotta with a gingerbread/walnut crust. This year, I decided to instead go with a lovely pale orange pumpkin flavored panna cotta with a gingerbread/almond crust. This was a bit hit with the family at the Thanksgiving dinner that Brad and I hosted at our place with some of the people we are most thankful to have as part of our lives. This is quite easy to make. Other than baking the crust, it is no bake, and firms up fairly quickly in the refrigerator.  I am a huge fan of pumpkin anything this year, and so incorporating pumpkin into a dessert was a no-brainer. I had considered doing a pumpkin cheesecake (which I may do soon, regardless) but this is much healthier, but still showcases fall's favorite vegetable, the pumpkin.

Sasha's Pumpkin Panna Cotta With Almond-Gingerbread Crust
Crust
20 gingersnap cookies
2/3 cup almond slivers
1 T brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3 T butter, melted
Filling
1 packed unflavored powdered gelatin
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 T honey
1 1/2 cups 2% Greek yogurt
1/2 cup organic pumpkin puree
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup brown sugar
3 T water

Preheat the oven to 325. In a food processor, separately puree the almonds and cookies. Combine in the food processor with the brown sugar and salt. Mix in the melted butter until the mixture has a wet but sandy texture. Press crumbs into the bottom of a 9 inch pie plate that has been sprayed with PAM or Canola oil. Bake until golden brown for about 25 minutes and allow to cool.

To make the filling, place the water in a bowl with the contents of the gelatin packed and let stand for five minutes. In a small saucepan, add the cream, honey and salt and bring to a simmer. Add the gelatin and stir until dissolved. In a large bowl, combine the Greek yogurt, vanilla and pumpkin puree. Add the hot cream mixture to the bowl, and whisk to combine. Pour the mixture into the crust/pie plate. Allow to chill in the refrigerator, covered, for at least two hours.

Sasha's Kitchen: Pumpkin Panna Cotta with Gingerbread Crust

Sasha's Kitchen: Gingerbread Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

I know how popular cupcake posts seem to be, but as much as everyone seems to enjoy reading them, I can't just make cupcakes every weekend. I did make some cupcakes recently that I haven't posted yet, that I'd like to share with readers.  Gingerbread cupcakes is really a fall recipe, but when I saw the recipe in one of my cookbooks, Dishing Up Vermont, I knew I had to try it anyhow. I did some research for gingerbread cupcake recipes out there and this one seemed like the best one to try. I liked how the recipe made the gingerbread the genuine way, using a combination of spices and unsulfured molasses. Just be forewarned: unsulfured molasses has an unpleasant oder, but that all goes away when you mix it with the other ingredients.

I'm not making any more cupcakes until next weekend, when I'll be doing coconut cupcakes. This weekend, I plan to make cheesecake and a seasonal strawberry rhubarb crumble.  I should add that only the cupcake recipe is from the cookbook - I developed my own orange frosting recipe that is a bit simpler and plenty fresh orange.  So what happened to these cupcakes? Well they look like normal cupcakes in these pictures, quite a few of them (I made a double catch) got turned into my signature Alice in Wonderland Cupcakes.

Gingerbread Cupcakes with Orange Cream Frosting (recipe adapted from Dishing Up Vermont)

1 1/4 cup flour

1 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp ground allspice

1/4 tsp ground salt

4T butter

1/2 granulated sugar

1/2 cup unsulfured molasses

1 egg

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup boiling water

Sasha's Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

2 T orange zest, freshly grated

1 8 oz package of cream cheese

1/2 stick of butter

3 cups confectioner's sugar

drop of orange food coloring

Preheat the oven to 350 and line a muffin tin with paper cupcake liners. Mix the dry ingredients together (the flour, spices and salt). Then, in the basin of your mixer, beat the 4 tablespoons of butter with the granulated sugar.  Add the molasses and the egg, continuing to beat until smooth. Be warned that the mixture may appear to curdle slightly and this really isn't a problem at this point in the recipe. 

In a small bowl, whisk together the baking soda with 1/2 cup of boiling water. Combine into the main mixture, whisking until combined.

Divide among the cupcake holders, filling each until about 3/4 full.  Bake for about 20 minutes until firm to the touch and lightly browned.  Like I have said before, you can use a toothpick to test the inside of the cupcake - it comes out clean when they are ready to come out of the oven.

Allow the cupcakes to cool completely before you frost them.  To make the frosting, zest the orange and beat the confectioner's sugar, butter, cream cheese and butter for several minutes on high speed until the frosting has the right consistency.  Add a drop of orange food coloring to get the color. 

And yes, these tasted as good as they look.

Sasha's Kitchen: Gingerbread Cupcakes with Orange Cream Cheese Frosting

Margie’s Kitchen in Boston: Rum – Part II

Gingerbread with Rum Butter
There are some interesting rum-based recipes in the Beatrix Potter’s Country Cooking (1995) by Sara Paston-Williams. A word of warning, the recipes are reflection of the Lake District area where Potter lived. Some people might be offended by the recipe for RABBIT CASSEROLE WITH CHEESE AND HERB DUMPLINGS!

Warm Sticky Gingerbread with Cumberland Rum Butter (page 111)
1 cup black treacle (molasses)
1 cup demerara sugar (raw cane sugar; I used brown sugar)
1 cup butter (I used 1 and ½ sticks)
2 large beaten eggs, beaten
2 ½ cups “strong plain flour”
Pinch salt
1 ½ tablespoons ground ginger
1 ½ tablespoons ground cinnamon
Sprinkle nutmeg
1 ¼ cup warm milk
2 teaspoons baking soda

Rum Butter (1/2 recipe)

½ cup soft brown sugar
⅛ Whole nutmeg, freshly grated (1 ½ teaspoons)
2 Tablespoons dark rum (less for more solid butter mix)
¼ unsalted butter

Some of the terminology used in this cookbook may require a British reference source.

Pre-heat oven to 300° F.

“Put treacle, sugar and butter in saucepan and melt over a gentle heat, stirring all the time. Remove from heat and stir in the beaten eggs. Sieve the flour with the salt and spices into a large mixing bowl and stir in the melted treacle mixture. In a separate bowl, pour the warm milk over the bicarbonate of soda and stir well. Add the flour and treacle mixture and mix together well.”
“Pour into greased and line 20-cm (8-inch) square cake tin and bake in the centre of a cool oven for about 1 hour, or until firm to the touch.”
“Meanwhile, to make the rum butter, mix the sugar, nutmeg and rum in basin. Melt the butter and pour over the other ingredients. Mix well, then pour into a bowl and leave to set. The butter is ready to use, but can be kept in a cool place, well-covered, for several weeks. If you find it too sweet for you, reduce the quantity of sugar by half.”

Serve gingerbread warm with the rum butter. I also like serving it with lemon curd or hot lemon pudding.

Margie’s Kitchen in Boston: Rum – Part II