(no subject)
Dec. 19th, 2004 08:36 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I don't know what the deal is this year with the holiday. I've shopped for absolutely nobody. I don't feel moved to shop. Fuck it.
On the other hand, I have made two batches of sand tarts, am in the waiting for the butter to soften stage of making a third batch, and have a batch of damn moravian spice cookie dough chilling overnight in the fridge so that I can make the damn things tomorrow morning. They will be round and unmarred by icing, the way I like them. I have no idea why I'm making with all the housewife cookery bullshit, but what the hell. I'm good at it and it's aesthetically pleasing to me. Beats the hell out of randomly slaughtering people in a McDonald's somewhere, anyway.
For those playing along at home, here's the deal.
Moravian spice cookies. These are suitable for hanging on your tree if you're Martha-Stewart enough to want to do that sort of thing. I don't do that because I don't have a tree. They're good with coffee and they keep for a long, long time -- both big pluses for the household of one. They're also really crunchy. I like crunchy.
Combine in a big bowl:
4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Fluff this with a fork or a whisk or something to kind of make sure it's all mixed. If you're a true believer, you can sift or run it through the blender but I find that sort of thing is not really necessary and it means more mess and more cleanup. Smells good, though, doesn't it?
In a DIFFERENT bowl, cream
1/2 cup butter (real)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
When creamed, add 1 cup light molasses. Grandma's is a palatable national brand. Mix well.
Add the dry ingredients in thirds. Handheld mixers usually don't do well after the first two thirds. (I do not actually use a mixer at all to make cookies. I use a steel bowl and a wooden spoon. I'm not a fan of mixers for making cookies, though I do own one and use it for some other baking.) Kind of knead the last bit in by hand. It'll seem kind of dry, but give it a minute. It'll get sticky.
Like with the sand tarts, this dough has to sit in the fridge overnight. Divvy it up into four equal lumps, make each lump into a hamburger-patty shape, and put it in a ziplock for the night.
Preheat oven to 375. Roll out dough very thin (aim for 1/8" thick), cut into shapes. I make these round since nobody has seen fit to get me a full set of card-suit shapes. (HINT to the family!! If you people don't want to eat round cookies forever, you will buy me a set of card-suit cookie cutters that all match and are to the same scale. I like metal cookie cutters, not plastic ones.)
Keep the house cool and work quickly. Don't piss around. This dough, like that for sand tarts, gets icky when it warms up.
Bake cookies on GREASED non-air-bake cookie sheets (Look, I just don't like the air-bake sheets.) six to eight minutes. They don't move much, so you can kind of crowd them. You DO have to grease the sheets -- there's so little fat in the cookies that they will stick badly if you don't. I use Crisco for this purpose. IMPORTANT: If you're doing the hang-them-on-the-tree thing, you need to poke holes in the cookies with a toothpick at the halfway-done point. The cookies are done a lot closer to six minutes than they are eight, so watch. Since they're so brown, it's sometimes hard to tell done-ness. Eat your mistakes if you make any.
These will get VERY hard when cool. They crunch delightfully. They're sturdy.
If you're dorky enough to want to frost them (or have children who could be entertained with this project), that is made with 1/3 cup of egg white and 4 cups of confectioner's sugar. You apply it with a toothpick or, if you've got Williams-Sonoma on speed dial, a pastry bag and small round tip. It'll air-dry hard without any work on your part unless you live somewhere hot and humid like Singapore. If you buy that crappy-ass shit in the tube, I do not want to know about it. That shit tastes like wallpaper paste. Please don't do that. You worked so hard... they're really quite nice cookies and they don't deserve crappy-ass tube frosting.
On the other hand, I have made two batches of sand tarts, am in the waiting for the butter to soften stage of making a third batch, and have a batch of damn moravian spice cookie dough chilling overnight in the fridge so that I can make the damn things tomorrow morning. They will be round and unmarred by icing, the way I like them. I have no idea why I'm making with all the housewife cookery bullshit, but what the hell. I'm good at it and it's aesthetically pleasing to me. Beats the hell out of randomly slaughtering people in a McDonald's somewhere, anyway.
For those playing along at home, here's the deal.
Moravian spice cookies. These are suitable for hanging on your tree if you're Martha-Stewart enough to want to do that sort of thing. I don't do that because I don't have a tree. They're good with coffee and they keep for a long, long time -- both big pluses for the household of one. They're also really crunchy. I like crunchy.
Combine in a big bowl:
4 cups flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Fluff this with a fork or a whisk or something to kind of make sure it's all mixed. If you're a true believer, you can sift or run it through the blender but I find that sort of thing is not really necessary and it means more mess and more cleanup. Smells good, though, doesn't it?
In a DIFFERENT bowl, cream
1/2 cup butter (real)
1/2 cup light brown sugar
When creamed, add 1 cup light molasses. Grandma's is a palatable national brand. Mix well.
Add the dry ingredients in thirds. Handheld mixers usually don't do well after the first two thirds. (I do not actually use a mixer at all to make cookies. I use a steel bowl and a wooden spoon. I'm not a fan of mixers for making cookies, though I do own one and use it for some other baking.) Kind of knead the last bit in by hand. It'll seem kind of dry, but give it a minute. It'll get sticky.
Like with the sand tarts, this dough has to sit in the fridge overnight. Divvy it up into four equal lumps, make each lump into a hamburger-patty shape, and put it in a ziplock for the night.
Preheat oven to 375. Roll out dough very thin (aim for 1/8" thick), cut into shapes. I make these round since nobody has seen fit to get me a full set of card-suit shapes. (HINT to the family!! If you people don't want to eat round cookies forever, you will buy me a set of card-suit cookie cutters that all match and are to the same scale. I like metal cookie cutters, not plastic ones.)
Keep the house cool and work quickly. Don't piss around. This dough, like that for sand tarts, gets icky when it warms up.
Bake cookies on GREASED non-air-bake cookie sheets (Look, I just don't like the air-bake sheets.) six to eight minutes. They don't move much, so you can kind of crowd them. You DO have to grease the sheets -- there's so little fat in the cookies that they will stick badly if you don't. I use Crisco for this purpose. IMPORTANT: If you're doing the hang-them-on-the-tree thing, you need to poke holes in the cookies with a toothpick at the halfway-done point. The cookies are done a lot closer to six minutes than they are eight, so watch. Since they're so brown, it's sometimes hard to tell done-ness. Eat your mistakes if you make any.
These will get VERY hard when cool. They crunch delightfully. They're sturdy.
If you're dorky enough to want to frost them (or have children who could be entertained with this project), that is made with 1/3 cup of egg white and 4 cups of confectioner's sugar. You apply it with a toothpick or, if you've got Williams-Sonoma on speed dial, a pastry bag and small round tip. It'll air-dry hard without any work on your part unless you live somewhere hot and humid like Singapore. If you buy that crappy-ass shit in the tube, I do not want to know about it. That shit tastes like wallpaper paste. Please don't do that. You worked so hard... they're really quite nice cookies and they don't deserve crappy-ass tube frosting.