Ginger Snaps and Ginger Bread

   Seasons Greetings to Everyone!

It's busy in the Chocolate Mondays Kitchen! Now that the last birthday cake of the yr. is finished. Cookie baking is in full swing, 110%!  Is  Ginger Bread or Ginger Snaps are the smell of Christmas for me. When I was around 11, every year my mom would take us to West View shopping center to get Shoes from Thom Mcan's. Nothing else...the women shopped like a man...In out and she got on with her life. Only one deviation during the holiday shopping season...On the way home she'd stop at the Huge pop-up tent for crafts and Christmas ornamental items. The smell there was like gingerbread, pine and hot cocoa! Not to mention sweet mother earth! Usually that's where we'd buy our Christmas tree. Even though I'm not celebrating Christmas as I was brought up to or have in the past. I still like to have those wonderful smells, especially during the winter. The smell of pine is up lifting, and cookies baking in the oven is comforting. With less daylight we all need little rays of sunshine beaming through our favorite things.

Last week I shared the recipe from Ann Reardon's site for Gingerbread cookies. It's a really good recipe that holds up really well to rolling out and cutting into shapes. Today I'm sharing ginger snap cookies from Martha Stewart's Baking Hand book. This isn't a roll type of cookie but more like a drop cookie. The main reason I love this recipe it contain two ingredients that make ginger snaps, well...ginger snaps. They have ginger and a bit of pepper in the ingredients. I lost my grandmother's recipe that she past on to me, before I committed it all to memory. So I went on a search...knowing that the recipe included pepper and ginger. What her recipe didn't include was Chocolate.  When I found the recipe below I mixed in a heaping Tablespoon of Special Dark Chocolate.  You can omit it or not...it up to you! I wanted to try chocolate in the recipe. Lastly this recipe the cookies aren't as puffy and chewy as some recipes I've found for ginger snaps. These are come out thin and crisp up to give that snap that say's mmm good :D

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients:

2 c. all purpose flour
2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. freshly gournd pepper
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2  sticks of butter(3/4) unsalted butter
room temp.
1 1/4 cup dark brown sugar
1/4 c. unsulfured molasses
1 1/2 Tblsp. finely ground ginger, peeled
1 large egg
1/4 c. granulated sugar

Proceed...

1. Mix the (dry ingredients)flour, baking soda, ground cinnamon, ground cloves ground pepper and salt in a small/medium bowl.
2. In a large bowl beat the sugar, molasses, ginger until fluffy. Then beat in the egg until it's incorporated into the mix.
3. Gradually stir in the flour mixture.
4. Refrigerate the cookie dough for an hour or overnight.
5. Fill a bowl with sugar and set it aside.
6. Scoop and roll the dough into balls, then roll the balls into the sugar and place on a prepared cookie sheet, with parchment or wax paper.

With most cookies there is a dry ingredient...see the pepper...
BE the Pepper!

and the wet ingredients

 Ginger Bread Recipe From Master chef (No beater required) This is a really good recipe, truly easy to make and work with. Most of all deliciuos!

Ingredients

430g (15.17 ounces) or 1 3/4 cup plus 3Tbsp butter roughly chopped
430g (15.17 ounces) or 2 cups caster sugar
250g (8.82 ounces) or 2/3 cup plus 2tsp glucose syrup
260g (9.17 ounces) or 3/4 cup molasses
180 millilitres (6.09 fluid ounces) or 2/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp milk
1195g (42.15 ounces) or 7 1/3 cups plus 2 Tbsp plain flour
12g (0.42 ounces) or 2tsp bicarb soda
20g (0.71 ounces) or 4tsp cinnamon
12g (0.42 ounces) or 2tsp ground cloves
12g (0.42 ounces) or 2tsp ground ginger
Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.
On the Stove...

Melt butter in a large saucepan add the glucose syrup, molasses and sugar and heat to 43 degrees to dissolve sugar.

Add the milk, stir then add flour bicarb and spices cook over low heat until mixture forms a paste.

Wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to cool.

Roll out and cut pieces leaving border on.
Bake for 15-20 minutes.

Trees, teddy bears wreath and stars going

into the oven

My daughter is getting really good with pipping 

I love the idea of snowman
faces, I found on so precios Mr. & Mrs. Frosty
will make
beautiful gifts for christmas