Beautiful Food

Oh my… who knows all the words to SUPERCALIFRAGILISTICEXPIALIDOCIOUS!?

Ok, ok, I do!

(please ignore my poor icing job here^)

It’s mostly because I just wrapped up being a part of the ever popular Mary Poppins at a community theater right across the river from me.  Well, you may not know that the stage version features a quirky family by the name of the Corrys, who own a “talking shop”.  In that magical talking shop, they turn, let’s say cookies, into letters, which in turn spell words, and further more turn into conversation which people can stop in to buy.  Cute huh?  Well, I got to have the one line in the play which exclaimed “GINGERBREAD STARS!” when Michael Banks was curious about what we had for sale.  It only seemed appropriate then to make gingerbread stars for the entire cast for in-between scene snacks 😉

 

On with the show then!

 

These cookies are SOFT AND CHEWY –not hard and crunchy.  Perhaps I’ll post a different recipe in the future which features a different texture altogether 🙂

You will need: 

A large mixing bowl – one that goes with a stand mixer

Stand mixer with paddle attachment

A fork

A rubber scraper

Cookie sheet

Parchment paper

A smaller mixing bowl

Piping bag

Cooling rack

Ingredients: 

3 cups flour

3/4 cup dark brown sugar

1 Tablespoon cinnamon

1 Tablespoon ground ginger

1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

1/2 teaspoon salt

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

12 Tablespoons (1 1/2 sticks cut into pats) unsalted, softened butter

3/4 Cup dark unsulphered molasses – My favorite is Brer Rabbit Blackstrap

2 Tablespoons milk

Icing:

2 cups powdered sugar

3-4 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

1 Tablespoon of corn syrup

Directions: 

• Using your stand mixer, add the dry ingredients to the bowl and mix on a low setting until combined.

 

•  Turn the setting to a medium-low speed and slowly add the pats of butter a few at a time until combined into the flour mixture.
• Reduce speed and add the molasses and the milk until mixed completely.  You may have to give it a final bump in speed to be thoroughly mixed.  It should resemble a fine meal.

•  Turn mixer off and scrape the sides with a rubber scraper and turn dough out onto an even surface, such as a silicone baking mat.
•  Divide dough into two balls and cover with parchment.

• Carefully roll the dough out with parchment remaining on top, until it is flat and about 1/4″ thick. Turn dough upside down with parchment now on the bottom, and place onto a cookie sheet and chill for 30 minutes (if you have room in the fridge!)  This is highly recommended as it is much easier to cut shapes from.

WARNING– it will be hard to resist eating this dough …I just about ate all of it before baking.  Also- I doubled the recipe for a cast of 35 people.  The entire batch only lasted about 10 minutes…

PREHEAT OVEN 350º F

Make the icing in the mean time! 

In a small bowl, combine powdered sugar, milk, vanilla, and syrup.  Mix with a fork until thick and creamy.  Pour into a piping bag and set aside in the fridge.  Cool icing works best — but if it’s too cold, it may be hard to pipe out of the bag.  Use your best judgement.  

~~~~~

•   Remove sheets from fridge and make sure the dough is cold to the touch.  It is easier to leave the dough in the parchment-lined cookie sheet and cut out shapes from there.

•  Using a cookie cutter, press into dough and carefully remove the surrounding dough from the cutter using a fork.  Continue until you have enough shapes to cover the entire sheet.  Make sure you space them at LEAST an inch apart.  They will spread.  
•   Bake at 350 for 8-11 minutes.  I think I let mine bake for 10.  It depends on the oven!
• Cool sheets on a rack for at least 15-20 minutes.  The icing works best if cool, and likewise on cool cookies.  You may transfer the sheets to the fridge to hasten the cool-down process.

I made my piping bag literally from a sandwich baggie with a knot tied in one end.  I snipped a TEENY, TINY little hole at the other end for super fine writing 🙂

I got pretty creative with my icing obviously, but I could tell when it started to warm up…Can you tell?

Anyhow, it was a super fun experience that yielded DELICIOUS and perfect cookies.  I will definitely make these again and again.  Probably for Christmas next time 😉

This should yield about 2 dozen, but I doubled mine, so I got about 4 dozen! 

 

Enjoy!

 

-K

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