New England Molasses Gingerbread Cookies

Another standard member of my repertoire ever since it was published, lo these many years ago. These are, quite frankly, amazing, and the recipe is large. I usually only make one batch of these every holiday season, and dole out a few in every box of cookies I give away.

They freeze very well, although be careful of the shapes you choose if you're planning to do that -- I love making these in snowflake shapes, but they tend to lose a point or two. 

Here is a link to the source.

Cookie Ingredients

6 cups (about) all purpose flour
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt
11 tablespoons (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, room temperature
2/3 cup solid vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 cup mild-flavored (light) molasses
1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon peel
1 large egg
1/4 cup buttermilk
2 teaspoons water
1 teaspoon baking soda

Icing Ingredients

3 cups powdered sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 teaspoons light corn syrup
Water
Food coloring (optional)
Decorations (such as colored sugar crystals)

Instructions
These are the original instructions, to which I have only added numbers for readability. Personally, I do not fuss around with waxed paper, nor do I have the fridge space to tuck sheets of cookies away while they await their turn in the oven. My cookies have never seemed to suffer for this shoddy treatment.

1. Combine 5 1/4 cups flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt in medium bowl; whisk to blend well. 
2. Using electric mixer, beat butter and shortening in large bowl to blend. 
3. Add 1 cup sugar, molasses, and lemon peel and beat until smooth. 
4. Beat in egg and buttermilk. 
5. Stir 2 teaspoons water and baking soda in small cup to blend; beat into butter mixture. 
6. Beat in flour mixture in 2 additions. Stir in more flour, 1/4 cup at a time, until slightly firm dough forms. 
7. Divide dough into 3 equal parts. Shape each into disk. Wrap disks and chill until firm enough to roll, at least 2 hours. (Can be made 2 days ahead. Keep refrigerated. Soften slightly before rolling out.)
8. Working with 1 disk at a time, roll out dough between sheets of waxed paper to 16x12-inch rectangle, occasionally lifting paper to smooth out wrinkles. Using 4- to 5-inch cutters, cut out boy and girl gingerbread people. Pull away excess dough around cutouts; flatten, wrap, and chill excess dough. Slide rimless baking sheet or inverted baking sheet under waxed paper with cutouts and chill until firm. Repeat with remaining dough disks, refrigerating cutouts on waxed paper on baking sheets. Roll out excess dough and make more cookies, using all of dough. (Cutout cookies can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; keep chilled.)
9. Position rack in center of oven and preheat to 350°F. Using thin metal spatula, lift chilled cookies off waxed paper and transfer to baking sheet, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake until darker at edges and just firm to touch in center, about 12 minutes. Cool on sheet 5 minutes. Transfer to rack; cool completely. Bake remaining cookies, 1 sheet at a time.

For icing:

1. Sift powdered sugar into medium bowl. 
2. Mix in lemon juice and corn syrup. Mix in enough water by teaspoonfuls to form smooth icing soft enough to pipe but firm enough to hold shape. Divide into 3 or 4 portions and tint with food coloring, if desired.
3. Spoon icing into pastry bag (or bags if using more than 1 color) fitted with small (1/16- to 1/8-inch) plain tip. Arrange cookies on work surface. Pipe icing onto cookies in desired patterns. Apply decorations as desired. Let cookies stand until icing is dry. (Can be made 3 days ahead. Store cookies airtight between sheets of waxed paper at room temperature.)

Lemon Poppy Seed Cookies

This is the other recipe I make from Mrs. Fields. Lemon and poppy seeds are one of my favorite flavor categories for baking. These cookies are light, not too sweet, excellent with a cup of tea, and add visual interest to any baked goods platter. (Yes, I sometimes get fancy enough to think about that kind of thing. Sometimes.)

Ingredients
2 c AP flour
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp freshly grated lemon zest
1 tsp ground coriander
2 Tbsp poppy seeds
3/4 c salted butter, room temperature
1 c granulated sugar
2 large egg yolks
1 whole egg
1 1/2 tsp lemon extract

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F. 
2. In a medium bowl, combine the dry ingredients (flour through poppy seeds). Mix well with a wire whisk. 
3. In a large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until thoroughly combined. Scrape down the bowl. Make sure to really thoroughly mix the butter in; pockets of butter in this dough will be obvious in the finished cookie. 
4. Add the egg yolks, egg, and lemon extract. Beat at medium speed until light and fluffy. 
5. Add the flour mixture and mix at low speed until just combined. 
6. Drop rounded tablespoons onto cookie sheets, leaving about two inches between them. You can round them by hand if you want them to look more regular. 
7. Bake 23-25 minutes, until slightly brown along the edges. Immediately transfer cookies to a rack to cool. 

Mrs. Fields Sugar Cookies

Are mail-order book clubs still a thing? I belonged to several back in the 90s. You would get five books for $5, and have to buy a book every so often after that. Also they would send you catalogs forever. For a kid living in small towns and cities where there was no decent bookstore, this didn't seem like a bad deal, and even after I moved to Boston, those initial offers successfully tempted me.

One of the books I got this way was the Mrs. Fields Cookies Book: 100 Recipes from the Kitchen of Mrs. Fields. Come to think of it, are Mrs. Fields cookies still a thing? I have used this book so much that the pages are falling out, and I know this particular recipe by heart. I often double it, and every year during the holidays end up making six batches of these easy cookies. These days that means decorating them with the kids.

Note that this calls for salted butter, unlike most baking recipes. 

Ingredients
2 c AP flour
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 c granulated sugar
3/4 salted butter
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract

Instructions

1. Mix the dry ingredients and set aside. 
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together. 
3. Add the egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly. 
4. At low speed, add the dry ingredients and mix just until combined. 
5. Gather the dough, flatten into a disk, and wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate at least one hour until firm (you can keep it like this for a couple of days, but it may need to sit out for a bit to soften before rolling). 
6. Preheat the oven to 325 F.
7. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to about 1/4 inch thickness. Cut into shapes and transfer to a baking sheet. 
8. Bake for 13-15 minutes (don't let them brown - I start checking at 11 min). Let them cool on the sheet for a couple of minutes (otherwise they'll break when moved), then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. 

I use a simple icing of milk and confectioners sugar to decorate these, but you can get all fancy if you like. 

Sweet and Spicy Nuts

Hello! I've been neglecting this space lately, but since it's the holidays and I always make this recipe, I thought it would be nice to post here. Unfortunately I don't remember where it came from -- Bon Appetit, probably, it's from a time in my life when I used that a lot.

Sweet and Spicy Nuts

1 C sugar
2 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 large egg white
6 C unsalted nuts - walnuts, pecans, natural almonds, cashews

1. Preheat to 325. Grease 2 jelly roll pans,
2. In small bowl, stir first 5 ingredients together. In large bowl, with wire whisk, beat egg white until foamy. Stir nuts into egg white. Add sugar mixture; toss until nuts are thoroughly coated.
3. Divide nuts between jelly roll pans, spreading evenly. Bake 25-27 minutes or until golden brown and dry, stirring twice. (Check on them, you may need to rotate pans, one of mine gets done quicker than the other). Transfer nuts to wax paper to cool.
4. Store tightly covered at room temperature up to one month.