Gingerbread.

I love gingerbread. It always reminds me of Christmas and winter and decorating gingerbread men with my dad.

I pretty much love molasses cookies in general. Molasses is made from the leftovers during the extraction of sugar from cane juice. There are different types of molasses depending on how much of the original sugar remains from processing (be sure to use the correct kind of molasses! I once tried to use fancy molasses to make cookies... they were awful).

I pretty much can't make anything with molasses without thinking about the Boston Molasses Disaster (aka The Great Molasses Flood). On a hot day in 1919, a huge tank of molasses exploded and an immense wave (40 ft!) of molasses swept through the city. I know this sounds funny... but it wasn't. 21 people were killed - caught and smothered in the waist-high flood - and around 150 people injured. Apparently the fire department attempted to wash the molasses away afterwards, but (as anyone who's ever cooked with molasses knows) adding water to molasses creates a nice foam... you need lots of hot water to dissolve it away.

While I'm sure it would have been an incredibly frightening thing to witness, I have private imaginings that a molasses-tsunami would move at the same speed it pours out of my carton... that residents would see this slow-motion giant wave bearing down on them... "iiiiit'sssss cooooooomiiiiinnnnnnng..... ruuuuuuuuuuun..... nooooooooooooooooo"

...

Anyways.... Here is my dad's gingerbread recipe! I like it because the cookies turn out nicely soft and chewy, but still firm enough to handle and decorate (no teeth-breakers here!) My mom and I made some last weekend when my cousins from Denver were in town.

Gingerbread Cookies



Mittens!

1/2 C shortening or butter

1 C brown sugar

1 1/2 C cooking molasses

1/2 C cold water

6 C sifted flour



1 tsp salt

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cloves

1 tsp cinnamon



2 tsp baking soda dissolved in 3 Tbsp cold water

In a large bowl, mix together butter, sugar and molasses until smooth. Stir in 1/2 cup cold water. (will look funny as butter separates a bit!)

Dough. Looks like nothing.

In a medium sized bowl, sift together flour, salt and spices. Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet, mixing with your hands when the spoon gets to cumbersome. Stir in soda dissolved in water and form dough into a ball.

Cover cookie dough and chill. (I usually leave overnight. Turn it into a two day activity).

Roll out dough 1/2" thick, and cut out with your favorite cookie cutters (try not to use ones with really small pieces... these get dry quickly!)

Bake 350 on parchment lined cookie sheet. Do not over bake!! - only needs 8-10 minutes! (depends on your oven)



When totally cooled, decorate to your heart's content!



In honor of the Sanderman cousin reunion, I put my gingerbread
people in lederhosen. Because, you know, we're just so German....?