Page 25 Recipe 1.3a OneRoastChicken.com presents Spicy Gingersnaps
Page 26 Recipe 1.3a Spicy Gingersnaps Ingredients ¹ ³ cup white sugar (80 ml) ¹ ³ cup packed brown sugar (80 ml) ¾ cup butter or margarine, softened but not melted (190 ml) 1 large egg yolk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract (5 ml) ½ cup light or dark molasses (125 ml) dry ingredients: 1 teaspoon grated orange zest (peel) (5 ml) 2½ cups flour (spoon+level, see page 27) (625 ml) 1 teaspoon baking soda (5 ml) 1½ teaspoon cinnamon (7.5 ml) 1½ teaspoon ginger (7.5 ml) ½ teaspoon cloves (2.5 ml) ¼ teaspoon allspice (1.25 ml) ¼ teaspoon finely ground black pepper (1.25 ml) ¼ teaspoon salt (1.25 ml) dipping mixture: ½ cup white sugar (125 ml) 2 teaspoons grated orange zest (peel) (10 ml) no-stick spray for the baking pans, or you can use butter/margarine Required supplies Price per serving* sugars...$0.34 butter... 1.50 egg yolk...0.27 molasses...0.67 orange...0.55 spices/flavouring... 0.92 Total......$4.24 Recipe makes 44 cookies Each cookie costs......$0.10 Time to make this recipe Preparation: 12 mins. Cooking time: 44 mins (4 pans) Yield Makes 44 cookies; they freeze very well in zipper bags for up to six months electric hand mixer (the kind with two beaters, or big stand mixer) medium-sized mixing bowl box grater or microplaner dry measuring cups measuring spoons two baking sheets (with or without sides)
Page 27 Background information Types of mixers For most basic baking (cookies, cake, muffins, banana loaf), you will require a set of electric beaters. If you have a stand mixer, that s great, but not required. Beating ingredients by hand isn t impossible, but is time consuming and requires patience and muscles. A single blade immersion blender will not work for baking recipes. How to measure dry ingredients Lightly spoon the dry ingredient (such as flour, corn starch or white sugar) into the measuring cup (a). Fill it so there s extra on top (b). Using the flat side of a knife, gently scrape off the excess (c). You will now have a flat, level surface (d). (a) (b) Types of baking pans Despite what you might think, baking pans that are coated with non-stick surfaces are not recommended for cookies. Darker pans attract more heat and make the bottoms of your cookies too dark. Use a light coloured pan (aluminium pizza pans from the grocery store work well in a pinch) and grease with no-stick spray or a light smear of butter/margarine. Types of measuring cups (c) (d) Dry measuring cups can be filled up and levelled off easily, and are suitable for measuring ingredients such as flour and sugar. Liquid measuring cups are usually glass (Pyrex), and most often come in a 2-cup or 4-cup size. It would be almost impossible to measure ¼ cup of flour using a 4-cup glass measuring cup. This method of measuring dry ingredients we ll call spoon+level. If you dig your measuring cup into a bag of flour to scoop it out, and then level it off, you will have much too much flour (dig+level). What about brown sugar? This is measured by packing the sugar into the cup before levelling it off.... background information continues
Page 28 Is butter a dry ingredient? Anything that you can put in a dry measuring cup and level off is appropriate. I measure butter in a dry measuring cup, as well as molasses. I use the big glass measuring cup for milk, oil, water, and other fluid items in larger quantities. Should I use butter or margarine in this recipe? Use butter if you can afford it. Sticks or squares of margarine work well for most baking recipes. Do not substitute tub margarine as it isn t the same consistency. Do not use margarine in recipes where the primary ingredient is butter, because you d be able to taste the difference (as in shortbreads). I use salted butter because it s more easily available than unsalted. Can I weigh my ingredients? Weighing is the most accurate and easiest way to ensure correct measurements. Spoon+level is second best. Dig+level isn t ever recommended as it can sometimes affect the recipe dramatically (dry cookies or bread that doesn t rise). Box grater vs. microplaner When you grate cheese, you d use the big holes on the box grater (e). But when you re grating orange or lemon peel, you want the smaller size (f). Ideally, you d have a microplaner (g) which grates your peel into very fine shavings. (e) Kinds of ground pepper (f) (g) For this cookie recipe, you will want to use regular ground pepper (on the left), and not coarse grind (on the right). In these spice cookies, you wouldn t want to bite into a big crunchy bit of pepper. The coarse grind pepper is good for making savoury dishes like spaghetti sauce, but the fine grind is better for baking. OK, it s perhaps unusual to use pepper at all in baking, I know. Measuring spoons For baking, you will need a real set of measuring spoons, and not the spoons in your cutlery drawer. While you may be able to get away with guessing at how much a teaspoon is when you re making spaghetti sauce, baking is more like a chemistry experiment. All of the ingredients have to be precisely measured. A bit of extra garlic in your sauce? No tragedy. A bit too much baking soda in your cookies? Disaster. fine grind coarse grind... background information continues
Page 29 How to separate an egg Crack the egg into your hand over the sink. Let the egg white leak out around your fingers (h). Slowly move the egg yolk from hand to hand (i) until all of the white has drained off, leaving the yolk only in the palm of your hand (j). (h) (i) Notes on your oven Preheating the oven Always preheat your oven and turn it on as soon as possible when you begin to prepare this recipe. It takes a good 15 to 30 minutes to heat your oven completely. The elements will light up and it will overheat and then cool down. (j) Oven temperatures The temperature of your home oven is hard to calibrate properly. Avoid opening the oven too often, as each time the door is opened a big gust of heat escapes and it has to reheat. Until you figure out the idiosyncrasies of your particular stove, watch the times carefully.
Page 30 1 2 3 4 5 Instructions Preheat your oven to 375ºF (190ºC / gas mark 5). Grease two baking sheets with no-stick spray, or smear with a little bit of butter/margarine. Make the dipping mixture: Grate the orange rind (1). Be careful not to grate the white part underneath the peel, as it is quite bitter (2). Put 2 teaspoons (10 ml) of the rind (zest) into a small bowl with the ½ cup (125 ml) of white sugar to make the dipping mixture, and stir with a spoon (3). This will be where you ll dip the uncooked balls of dough right before they go in the oven. Set aside the dipping mixture for now. Begin the cookies: Dump the butter into the bowl, add the two kinds of sugar (4), and mix until creamy yellow and quite pale in colour. This step, called creaming, takes longer than you might think, about 2 minutes on medium speed with an electric mixer. Scrape down the bowl once with a rubber spatula during this creaming process (5).
Page 31 6 7 8 9 Separate the egg so that you only have the yolk. Discard the egg white, or if you d like you can save it for making an omelette. See page 29 for more detailed instructions on how to separate an egg. Add the egg yolk (6), the vanilla, and the molasses (7). Mix until the ingredients are well blended. Add the remaining 1 teaspoon (5 ml) of orange peel (8), and blend. Scrape down the sides again before continuing (9).
Page 32 10 Add the dry ingredients one after the other using the spoon+level method (10). This method of measuring ingredients is described in more detail on page 28. 11 12 Once all of the dry ingredients have been added one on top of the other (11), mix for about a minute, being careful to blend the spices in thoroughly (12). You don t want there to be pockets of pepper in your cookies. Remove the beaters, and scrape off any extra batter that is stuck to the beaters with your finger (13). 13
Page 33 14 15 Using a tablespoon as your guide, scoop heaping spoonfuls of dough. Roll gently between the palms of your hands into 1 (2.5 cm) balls (14). 16 17 18 If the dough is too soft to roll into balls, you can cover in a plastic bag, and pop it in the fridge for 20-30 minutes until the dough firms up. Toss the balls in the sugar/orange peel mixture, coating all sides (15), and then set them on prepared baking sheet about 2 inches apart (16) Do not squish them with a fork. (16). Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are browned, still puffy, edges have begun to set but centres are still soft (cookies will look raw between cracks and seem underdone), about 11 minutes (17). Do not overbake. Once you remove the cookies from the oven, let them cool on the baking sheet for an additional 5 minutes before you transfer them to a wire rack to cool completely (18). You can also move the cookies to a dinner plate for cooling if you don t have a wire rack. Check your first batch of cookies. If the bottoms are too dark, you can reduce the oven temperature to 350ºF (180ºC / gas mark 4).