Category Archives: cookies

gingersnaps

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I love soft cookies, and I love spicy cookies.

Ingredients

  • 3/4 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
  • 1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
  • 1 large egg, beaten lightly
  • 1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
  • 2 tablespoons honey or golden syrup
  • 2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda
  • 2 heaping teaspoons cinnamon
  • 2 heaping teaspoons ground ginger
  • 1 heaping teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1/4 teaspoon chili powder (optional)
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • granulated sugar for dipping the balls of dough
  • raspberry jam (optional)

Directions

In a large bowl, cream the shortening with the brown sugar until the mixture is light and fluffy. Stir in the egg, molasses, and honey until combined. In a medium bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Add the flour mixture, a third at a time, to the shortening mixture, and blend the dough well. Chill the dough, covered, for at least 1 hour.

Roll level tablespoons of the dough into balls. Roll the balls of dough in the granulated sugar. Arrange the balls about 3 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Bake the cookies in batches in the middle of a preheated 375°F. oven for 10 to 12 minutes, or until they are puffed and cracked on top. Optionally, make a small indentation in the middle of the cookies and fill with raspberry jam.

Transfer the cookies to racks and let them cool. Makes 4 dozen small cookies.

marmalade cookies

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Michael made his very first batch of marmalade.  He wasn’t prepared for how much marmalade comes out of just a few Seville oranges.  Half of the marmalade was refrigerated for 24 hours before being canned, the other half was refrigerated for 48 hours.  The 48-hour marmalade has a lot more depth of flavor and more bitterness than the 24-hour marmalade.  I started looking for marmalade recipes for our sudden abundance of marmalade, and came across one for marmalade cookies.  I skipped the icing. The cookies are more cake-y than I usually like, but it works with the bite of the marmalade.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 cup unsalted butter (1 stick)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup orange marmalade
  • 1 tbsp lemon or orange liqueur (optional)

Preheat oven to 300°F.

In a medium bowl, Whisk together the dry ingredients.

Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add in the eggs one at a time, stirring after each to incorporate.  Add half of the dry ingredients, then the marmalade, and then the final half of the dry ingredients, stirring after each to incorporate.  Refrigerate the dough for about 30 minutes.

On a parchment-lined cookie sheet, drop a scant teaspoonful of cookie dough.  Bake for approximately 20 minutes per cookie sheet, turning the cookie sheet halfway through the baking.

Makes approximately 4 dozen cookies.

Experiments

13 Sept 2015: I wanted more marmalade flavor, so I tried doubling the marmalade.  They taste good, but they flattened as they cooled.  I think I’ll try again, but replacing half the butter with shortening.  There’s also some great thoughts in this thread for more ideas.

26 Feb 2018: I tried this with strawberry jam (6 3-ounce jars), and with the shortening/butter ratio that I listed in Sept 2015. This worked out really well: the cookies didn’t spread.  However, the cookies also turned out really sweet.  Cut back on the sugar to 3/4 cup next time.

29 Jan 2019: I tried out bar cookies based on this.  I doubled the marmalade, replaced half the butter with shortening, and added 2 cups of chocolate chips.  It baked in a 13×9 pan at 300 for about 45 minutes (more or less, honestly I wasn’t keeping track).  This was a great variation, and tasted even better the next day, so deserves some more time playing with it to get it right.

chocolate-chip cookies

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I love chocolate-chip cookies.  My current favorite recipe is very slightly adapted from Epicurious: I increased the vanilla, I added a refrigeration step (optional, but please do it: you get such a better depth of flavor for such a small investment), and I make mini-cookies instead.

Ingredients

  • 1 cup (packed) golden brown sugar
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup solid vegetable shortening, room temperature
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 2 large eggs
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 3 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking soda
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 12-ounce package semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350°F. Using electric mixer, beat both sugars, shortening and butter in large bowl until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs and vanilla. Mix flour, baking soda and salt in large bowl. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture and mix until blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes, and up to 24 hours.

Drop dough by scant teaspoonfuls onto heavy large baking sheets, spacing 2 inches apart. Bake until golden brown, about 10 minutes. Transfer baking sheets to racks; cool 5 minutes. Transfer cookies to racks; cool completely.

strawberry bars

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My husband has taken up jam-making.  We now are the people who give jam away to anyone who will hold still for a few minutes.  Even with our aggressive gifting efforts, there’s a need to use jam in other ways.

Martha Stewart provided the basic recipe for almond-fruit bars.  They’re like a fruit crumble in cookie form!  I decided that I prefer the bars without the almonds.  Strawberry is my favorite jam for these bars; you can substitute any jam you like.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
  • 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
  • 1/2 cup packed light-brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 1/2 cup strawberry jam

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an 8-inch square baking dish.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.  Beat in the egg. Mix in the flour mixture a third at a time.

Stir the jam to make it spread easily.  If your jam is difficult to stir, warm it in the microwave for 10-30 seconds.

In the prepared baking dish, press about 1/2 of the dough into the bottom of it.  Spread the jam over the top, leaving about 1/4 inch border so that the jam doesn’t stick to the side of the pan.  Sprinkle the remaining dough over the top.

Bake until top is golden, 25 to 30 minutes (20-25 minutes in a convection oven).  Cool completely in dish. Cut into bars.

Variation

Cherry-almond bars: Mostly as above.  Stir 3/4 cup ground almonds, 1/4 cup honey, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract into the dough after you have added the flour mixture.  Spread cherry jam over the dough.