Gingerbread Kid Cookies

 

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon  
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, softened
• 3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1 egg
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Directions

• Cream the butter and sugar until smooth. 
• Add the molasses and continue to blend. 
• Mix in egg and vanilla until well incorporated. 
• Blend in spices, baking soda and salt.
• Once it's completely mixed, slowly start adding flour, one cup at a time.

Transfer dough to plastic wrap in order to chill overnight. Shape it into a flattened ball. You'll be rolling it out, so give yourself a head start by having it be flat. 

When you are ready to bake:

Preheat oven to 350*F

Roll the dough to 1/8-1/4 inch thickness. thicker if you are using larger cookie cutters. For my 2 inch gingerbread kids, I like thinner dough, closer to 1/8 inch thick. The thicker they are, the softer the finished cookie will be. 

Place cookies about an inch apart on parchment paper lined cookie sheet. They do puff up a bit. 

Bake 8-10 minutes, just until the edges start to brown. 

Pull the parchment paper onto the counter to cool cookies quicker. 

Store cookies in a closed container after completely cooled.

Decorate with royal icing, if desired. 

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• Getting ready to decorate with Royal Icing.

I use paste food coloring, starting with green. 

Sprinkling of green sugar for the scarves.

After allowing the green to set up and dry for a bit, 

I added the white icing. 

I sprinkled red sugar for the dresses. 

I will allow them all to rest on the kitchen counter 

for the day to set up solid before packaging. 

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Anise Seed Biscotti

Ingredients: 

6 Tablespoons butter

1/2 cup sugar

2 eggs

1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 Tablespoon Anise Seed

1 cup ground almonds

2 cups flour (or a little more until it's not too sticky to form into a loaf shape)

Almond bark or white chocolate for dipping

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Directions: 

Heat oven to 375*F.

Set chocolate into double boiler to melt.

Cream butter and sugar. Add each additional ingredient (except chocolate), in order, mixing well between each new addition.

Shape dough into 2 9-10 inch logs, flatten into a loaf shape, on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Bake at 375* for 18 minutes, or until lightly browned. Remove logs to cutting board. Let it rest for about 10 minutes, or until it's cool enough to handle.

Reduce oven temperature to 325*F.

Using a serrated knife, slice crosswise into 1/2 inch slices. Carefully transfer each slice back to another parchment lined sheet, cut side down. You can place them close, not touching, they won't spread.

Bake slices for 20-25 minutes, or until golden. Too cool quickly, slide parchment off the cookie sheet and onto counter. Once cookies are cool, they can be dipped in chocolate. Once they are dipped, lay them back onto a clean sheet of parchment. You can reuse the parchment, just shake off the crumbs.

Allow to cool before storing. 

After mixing up the dough, I like to divide it into two loaves for easier handling. 

I make a log almost as long as the cookie sheet, then pat it on top to flatten it out a bit. 

It might be 3 inches across. It does puff up while baking. Leave space between them.

Out of the oven after the first baking. 

I move the loaf to the cutting board, with hot mitts on. I only let it cool enough to move it. 

I slice into roughly 1/4 inch slices. It can be a little crumbly, so not TOO thin. 

I tip the slices onto the knife and move them to the cookie sheet again for the second baking. 

Here they are all ready to bake again. I try to give a little space between them so 

the heat and dry them. Sometimes it's a tight fit. Back into the oven they go. 

While the cookies are baking, I melt the almond bark for dipping. Make-shift double boiler. 

Once the cookies start to brown a little, they come out and cool completely. 

Then they get dipped and laid out on parchment paper to dry before packing 

away in an airtight container. 

Space between them so they don't stick together. 

Once they are cool and solid,they can be packaged for 

gift giving or storage. 

A lovely addition to my Christmas cookie ensemble. 

Vanilla Snowflakes

 

This is a pretty cut-out cookie that you can decorate in a snowflake pattern very easily. You can use any cookie cutter and let your creative side come out to play! 

Makes about 3.5 Dozen cookies - it depends what size you cut them. 

Ingredients:

3/4 c. Butter

3/4 c. Sugar

1 egg

1 Tablespoon Vanilla extract

2 c. Flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1/2 teaspoon Cream of Tartar (See P.S.)

P.S. If you don't have Cream of Tartar, you can use 1.5 teaspoons of Baking Powder in lieu of the baking soda & Cream of Tartar

Royal Icing to decorate  (See link below)

https://whats4dinnerbymarie.blogspot.com/2020/12/royal-icing.html

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350*

Cream softened butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add egg, vanilla, salt, baking soda and cream of tartar. Mix well. Add flour slowly and continue to mix until homogenized. 

The dough will be soft, so refrigerate for an hour before trying to roll it out. After an hour, I rolled out 1/2 of the dough at a time, leaving the other half in the fridge to stay cold. You can gather scraps and re-roll, but give them a little time back in the fridge to stiffen up. 

Roll out the dough to 1/4 inch thickness, on a well floured surface.  Dip your cookie cutter into flour before cutting the dough. Place cookies on parchment lined cookie sheet with an inch between. Allow cookies to rest in the fridge for 15 or so before baking. Bake 10-12 minutes, until edges start to brown. 

Cool completely before storing or decorating. 

I started rolling out on parchment, 

but working directly on the counter worked better. 

Just use enough flour. 

The cut out cookies need to rest in the fridge for a time before baking. I stacked them in there on sheets of parchment that I just slid onto the cookie sheet before popping into the oven. 

After baking, I slid the parchment off the cookie sheet and onto the counter to cool. That way you don't have to handle soft cookies before they cool and you can immediately use the cookie sheet again. 

The next day, I decorated with Royal Icing sprinkled with sugar, as well as some colorful sprinkles I have. It was a nice variety of color and textures. 

Sparkly Sanding Sugar

Sparkling sugar and nonpareils.

I had leftover Royal Icing, so I made some little colorful candies to add to the cookie plates I give away. I don't like to waste anything. 

The round button candies were much easier to lift from the parchment than the thin designs. I really liked the snowflakes, though. 

They turned out really cute!

Ready to store before plating out for friends and neighbors. 

The candy buttons.

The thicker designs worked out well. 

The thin ones broke when I tried to lift them off the paper. 

Standing Rib Roast

It sounds impressive, doesn't it? It's not difficult. Go ahead and try it for your next special meal. 

Standing Rib Roast - This is a Prime Rib roast. Have your butcher cut the ribs off, and then tie to the meat. It stays moist with the ribs on, but slicing around the ribs is tough. 

1/3 cup Bread crumbs
Dijon Mustard
3 sprigs Parsley
Teaspoon Rosemary
S&P

S&P the roast and roast in 325*F oven for 90 minutes. Combine bread crumbs with parsley and rosemary. 

Remove from oven, coat with Dijon mustard, and bread crumb mixture. Return to oven for an additional 90 minutes or until internal temperature of 145* is reached. 

Remove from oven, allow to rest for 10 - 15 minutes. Remove meat from ribs and slice for serving. Enjoy! 

Simple, huh? :)

Rib roast with ribs along the bottom. "Standing" on it's ribs.

The butcher cut them off and then tied them back on with twine.

See the twine? Salt and pepper to taste. OK, into the oven at 325*F for 90 minutes.

While the roast is cooking, prepare the crust. 1/3 cup bread crumbs. A couple nice springs for fresh parsley, cut up. A Teaspoon of dried rosemary. I also added in some chopped shallots.

When I took the roast out, I decided to cut the twice so I didn't muss the crust. I left it on last time. I'll leave it on next time too. The roast wanted to slide off it's ribs once I cut it. Don't worry about the crust. You're gonna muss it when you slice anyways. :) Live and learn.

Coat the roast in Dijon Mustard. It took a good 2 or 3 Tablespoons of mustard. Dab it all over.

Pat the bread crumb mixture onto the mustard.

Back into the oven for a while more. You want to roast until it reaches an internal temperature of 145*F. Mine was about 6.5 lbs and took an additional 90 minutes.

Once 145*F has been reached, checked with an instant thermometer, remove from oven and allow the roast to rest for 10 - 15 minutes before slicing.

I lifted the roast away from the ribs, placing it onto the serving platter. No, the ribs didn't go to waste. :) They were a special treat for hubby! Ribs are Yummy!

I used my trusty electric carving knife and sliced into slices about 1/2 - 3/4 inch thick. Remember, this is prime rib, the slices are fairly large, even if you cut them thin. You can see here, in the center, Medium Rare. Perfect! The edge slices were a bit more done. Choices for everyone!

Standing Rib Roast, Sauteed Garlicky Brussel Sprouts, Hot Rolls, Hot Fruit Compote, Parsley Red Skin Potatoes. Dessert? Pumpkin Pie with Whipped Cream. :D

Happy Family! :D