• Home
  • Contact
  • PCO Privacy & Legal
  • Partner with Me
    • Email
    • Pinterest
    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • Google+
    • YouTube

Jenni Field's Pastry Chef Online

  • Home
  • About
    • About PCO
    • Buzz
    • FAQ
    • A Pastry Chef’s Day
  • Fundamentals
    • Basic Pastries
      • Pastry Basics: Ingredient Function (and Why It’s Important to Know)
      • All the Cake Mixing Methods in One Place. You’re Welcome!
    • Intermediate & Advanced
      • Pastry Variations
      • Restaurant Style
      • 17 Pro Kitchen Tips to Make You a Better Baker and Cook
      • Food 52sdays
  • Recipes
  • Blog
  • Contact

Gingerbread Cookies

Out here in the Hinternet, one can learn a great many things.  I, myself, learned how to upholster bar stools yesterday.  Honest.  See:

A little reading and a trip to JoAnn Fabrics, and I was Set.

A little reading and a trip to JoAnn Fabrics, and I was Set.

Because of the Hinternet, my mother has discovered Queen.  She is a big fan of Freddie Mercury–as of about two weeks ago.  And she is Very Sad that he died.   Here is her current favorite Freddie Mercury song.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3o4NsRCHrI&hl=en&fs=1&color1=0x5d1719&color2=0xcd311b]And then, for folks who love to cook, bake and eat or talk about cooking, baking and eating, there’s this.  The National Food Holiday Directory.  I’m not sure that there is an Official Site for National Food Holidays, but this one will do nicely.  I like it because it groups all the Fake National Holidays together (and by fake, I mean the ones that do not buy us Time Off), not just the food ones.  For example, yesterday was positively Crowded with celebration.   Not only was it Cheese Day (hooray!), but it was also Old Maid’s Day, the birthday of the radial tire, the birthday of the shopping cart, Apple Computer Day, Socrates’ Birthday and some other less amusing observances, such as Children’s Awareness Memorial Day and National Cancer Survivor’s Day.  I can only imagine that one would have to Choose One’s Celebration, partying hard for Socrates while letting the shopping cart day slip by.  Otherwise, the sheer exhaustion.   I’ve heard that the shopping cart fete is especially Bacchanalian in nature.

And that brings us to today.   Today’s schedule is light.  I wish you Happy Teacher’s Day, Happy First Hot Air Balloon Flight and Happy World Environment Day.  I would wish you a Happy Attitude Day, but I don’t feel like it.  Oh, and Happy National Gingerbread Day.

June 5 Gingerbread

I like thick, cakey gingerbread–big old hunks with lemon curd is Quite Nice.  I also like a nice gingerbread cookie, and that’s what I shall share with you today.  These little guys (or big guys, depending on how you cut them) stay pretty soft, thanks to the addition of some corn syrup.  If you’d prefer crispy cookies, leave out the corn syrup and increase the sugar by 1.5 ounces.  Roll them out so they are Very Very Thin, and bake them a bit longer.  For softer guys, leave in the corn syrup, roll them out to maybe 1/4″ or so and bake them until set but not browned.

This makes a lot, but worry not–you can a) roll this in sheets between 2 pieces of parchment and freeze some for later or b) cut the recipe in half, or even in quarters.

  • 32 oz. all purpose flour
  • 2 TBSP cocoa powder
  • 2TBSP + 2 tsp ground ginger
  • 2 tsp allspice
  • 4 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 2 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 pound butter
  • 12 oz. sugar
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 c molasses
  • 1/4 c corn syrup

Make these using The Creaming Method:

  1. whisk all dry ingredients together
  2. cream butter and sugar until light
  3. mix in molasses and corn syrup
  4. mix in dry

Chill the dough, sheet, cut out however you want and bake at 325F for 7-10 minutes.  Feel free to add in some minced crystallized ginger, too, if you want.

So, that’s it.  Tomorrow, The Beloved and I will be hosting our Pinehurst relatives.  Since they’re all 90-ish, we’re going to fetch them and then take them home again, so there will be no Unpleasant Driving Incidents.  Once we’re done with all the shuttling and What Not, there will be Adult Beverages on the Porch.

Have a great weekend, friends.  Oh, and in case you’re looking for Reasons to Celebrate this weekend, Happy National Applesauce Cake Day.  Enjoy it, along with Be-Bop-A-Lula Day, Drive In Movie Theater Birthday Day and National Chocolate Ice Cream Day!

What food holiday are you going to make up looking forward to?

Filed Under: Cookies and Bars, recipes Tagged With: Freddie Mercury, Gingerbread Cookies, National Food Holidays

« Previous
Next »

 

Hi, friends! I'm Jenni, and I used to be a kitchen novice who knew next to nothing about cooking and baking and was afraid to stray from recipes. Over the years, I've learned a lot about how ingredients work, how to combine them to achieve the results I'm looking for (whether in cooking or baking), and how to generalize cooking techniques across recipes. I'm here to teach you everything I've learned to help you be fearless in your kitchen.

If you're new to Pastry Chef Online, this page is a great place to start to get the lay of the land!

More about me

What Others Are Saying...

  1. fred and mary beth says

    June 5, 2009 at 2:43 pm

    Would love to share the adult beverages with you and dearly beloved on the porch that you mentioned. And a little gingerbread cake on the side.

    Reply
    • onlinepastrychef says

      June 5, 2009 at 2:47 pm

      You’re on, guys! Come on up! 🙂

      Reply
  2. Donna says

    June 5, 2009 at 3:10 pm

    The bar stools look fabulous!

    I introduced Emily to Queen last year–figured it was way past time. She liked the music very much, especially the song about Fat Bottom Girls.

    Enjoy the time with your relatives tomorrow. Wish I could be there for the after visit recovery and adult beverages. Next time I make it to RTP, I’ll let you know. Maybe we can get together.

    Reply
    • onlinepastrychef says

      June 5, 2009 at 5:04 pm

      Next time you’re in town, you’ll definitely have to come by. Would love to see you!

      Reply
  3. Drew @ Cook Like Your Grandmother says

    June 5, 2009 at 4:58 pm

    Jenni,

    Does your mother know about Freddie? I mean, it should be pretty obvious from that video that he and the female lead didn’t have much chemistry. I remember the look on my mother’s face the day I asked her, “Why do you think the band is named ‘Queen’?”

    PS: You should make that link to the creaming method into a link.

    Reply
    • onlinepastrychef says

      June 5, 2009 at 5:02 pm

      Yes, she knows all about Freddie. Apparently the woman in the video was his soul mate. They were together (after a fashion, I assume) the last seven years of his life. He left all his money to her. My mom will tell you all about it. She learned it all on the Hinternet!

      Oh, yeah–I forgot to make that a link; I’ll go fix it. Thanks, Drew!

      Reply
  4. Natasha - 5 Star Foodie says

    June 5, 2009 at 10:36 pm

    I also heard today was National Doughnuts day too 🙂

    Reply
  5. groovyoldlady says

    June 6, 2009 at 12:29 pm

    I love gingerbread, but the rest of the fam is noncommital.

    Gingerbread cookies, however, are considered delightful by all!

    Enjoy your weekend…Oh, and my grad cake pic is posted now at http://groovybell.blogspot.com/ .

    Mmmmm. Applesauce cake….

    Reply
    • onlinepastrychef says

      June 7, 2009 at 4:36 pm

      Oh, the grad cake turned out great, groovy! Love the scroll-y decorations!

      Reply
  6. Daily Spud says

    June 7, 2009 at 6:30 pm

    Ah gingerbread… I had a real gingerbread fixation as a child – I used to make gingerbread-everything and made sure everyone ate it too (that way nobody would get hurt!).

    As for the holidays, I think it’s definitely time I started making some up. There’ll be a whole collection of potato-related ones for a start. I bet I could come up with one for every day of the year – I mean, if I couldn’t do that then I couldn’t exactly call myself The Daily Spud, now could I? 🙂

    Reply
  7. croquecamille says

    June 30, 2009 at 4:12 pm

    I realize this is late, but I may have inadverdently celebrated National Chocolate Ice Cream Day. Awesome!

    And I love big hunks of warm, cakey gingerbread, too. With butter. 😉

    Reply
  8. Tran says

    September 4, 2009 at 2:52 pm

    Where did you get those bar stools?

    Reply
    • onlinepastrychef says

      September 4, 2009 at 5:08 pm

      Bought them from Overstock.com and covered them myself w/fabric from Joann fabrics.

      Reply

Join the Conversation Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome! I'm Jenni, and I want to help you find your fearlessness in the kitchen so you can cook and bake with confidence. It took me years to find my kitchen cool, and I'm sharing my best tips and tricks so you can go from fearful to fearless in no time! Read more about me here.

Join the Movement

Amazon Affiliate

Jenni Field/Pastry Chef Online is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

About Me!

For years, I was a fearful cook and baker--like sweaty-neck fearful.

After years of reading cookbooks, watching cooking and baking shows, and experimenting in the kitchen, I left a 16-year special education career to attend culinary school. I landed in a wonderful fine dining restaurant in Winter Park, Florida, where everyone was fearless, playing with their food on a daily basis. It was always, "I wonder what would happen if we..." and then we'd try it and find out. By the time chef handed me a 6th pan of horseradish broth and asked me to turn it into a sorbet for an appetizer, I knew my fearful days were totally behind me!

I started this site to help people overcome kitchen anxiety and paralysis through teaching basic pastry methods and techniques necessary to be able to bake and cook with confidence. Over the years, I have added hundreds of recipes to complement my technique posts. Please use this site as the resource I have built it to be, and feel free to contact me anytime. I'm happy to help you on your journey to being fearless in the kitchen!

If you're new to Pastry Chef Online, this page is a great place to start to get the lay of the land!

More about me

Copyright © 2018 Pastry Chef Online
Designed with by Triple Latte Design