Spiced Pistachio Cookies

My husband occasionally finds recipes and sends them to me, and that is the case with this recipe. It was originally called a gingerbread pistachio date sugar cookie, and that sounded so good. I pinned the recipe, but my pin got a little strange, so I found a different link that worked better. The original recipe was in grams and milliliters, and while I do prefer using grams while baking, it may not be familiar to everyone. I have used a combination of grams and volumetric measures.

I love pistachios and try to always keep them on hand. The spices used in these are also something that I use all the time. I have another recipe that called for dates, so I recently stocked up on those. This recipe, however, doesn’t use dates but uses date sugar. I think I may have had date sugar after visiting a date farm years ago, but no longer. Molasses was the suggested substitution, so I used that.

These come together quickly, although I think it took just as much time to adapt some of the measurements to teaspoons. The dough is very sticky, and refrigeration is a must. I refrigerated the dough for about two and a half hours, and it was still fairly sticky. I found that the cookies spread quite a bit, but the flavor is fantastic. Perhaps I used a heavy hand when adding the spices, but I’m not complaining! These are perfect for fall, and they smelled out of this world while baking.  

Spiced Pistachio Cookies
240 grams flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger 
½ teaspoon cloves 
1/2 teaspoon salt
180 grams butter, room temperature
100 grams sugar
115 grams brown sugar
5 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 egg
120 grams pistachios 
Cinnamon sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until fully incorporated. Add the egg, molasses, and vanilla and mix on medium again to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. When the dough is cohesive, remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the pistachios with a spatula.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and roll the balls in cinnamon sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheet, leaving plenty of space between the dough balls.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack.

Recipe from Bengingi

Maple Molasses Cookies

We have a fairly large quantity of maple syrup in the house, and it is finally the season to find maple recipes! I’m not 100% back at work yet, but I will be before you know it thus it is time for fall baking. I have so many ideas, more ideas than there are weeks in the fall, but I will make it work somehow.

While I have made a couple different maple cookies, I am still finding new recipes to try. I wanted to make something with molasses, and I initially was going to use that recipe. It contained oats, that I wanted to use, but I need to do some editing as it was created for high altitude, plus I want to incorporate maple syrup in addition to maple extract. That will come soon!

These don’t contain oats, but do contain molasses, ginger, and nutmeg, so my house smelled amazing while these were baking. I used slightly less than 1 teaspoon maple extract, but fairly close. The maple flavor increases as they age, although I don’t think mine will last long! I made my own icing recipe, since I just wanted powdered sugar and maple syrup. I did need to add some milk or it would have been too thick. These are a perfect fall cookie, with the flavors of home and just a hint of sweetness.

Maple Molasses Cookies
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup butter, room temperature
¼ cup sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
¼ cup molasses
1 teaspoon maple extract

1 ½ cups powdered sugar
About 2 tablespoons milk
About 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and nutmeg; set aside.  In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and mix again on medium. Stir in the molasses and maple extract, mixing until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring just until the dough comes together. If needed, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

Scoop the dough into the prepared baking sheet, using about 1-1/2 tablespoons dough per cookie.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the bottom begins to brown but are still puffy. The cookies will deflate slightly as they cool. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, drizzle with icing: in a medium bowl combine the powdered sugar and a tablespoon of milk and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Whisk until the icing comes together, adding more milk and maple syrup as needed. The maple syrup adds flavor, but is thick so the milk helps thin the icing as needed. Drizzle the icing over the cooled cookies and allow the icing to set before serving.

Recipe from But First We Brunch

Ginger Molasses Cookies

This past weekend, I took a Ginger baking class. I am very fortunate that King Arthur Baking Company has two locations for classes: Vermont and Skagit Valley, Washington. Skagit Valley is about an hour and a half away, and made for a lovely weekend away. I had signed up for this class last year, but it was cancelled because of low enrollment. I was very happy that the class successfully ran this year!

We made three different ginger items: gingerbread with fresh ginger, lemon ginger scones, and these ginger molasses cookies. I love a molasses cookie, and I do have a number of similar recipes, but this one is so great. I enjoyed the class in that the instructor talked about different ways you could change the recipe, how you could try different flours, and other ideas. I really appreciated her sharing her knowledge.

I rolled my cookies in sanding sugar, which I like, but my husband doesn’t like it so he topped his with additional crystallized ginger. I like the crunch that sanding sugar adds to this soft cookie, but if you just want a soft cookie you could top it with any number of ingredients. I love the ginger and molasses in these cookies. You get the sharpness of molasses, but it’s not at all bitter. The mix of spices is fantastic, but if you have a favorite you want to include, feel free to do so. Just remember that you use less nutmeg or cloves than cinnamon!

Ginger Molasses Cookies
170 grams butter, room temperature
213 grams brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
½ teaspoons cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
1 egg
85 grams molasses
92 grams diced crystallized ginger
300 grams flour
Sparkling sugar

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Beat on medium until combined. You may need to stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and molasses and mix again on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, add the crystallized ginger and flour and stir until the dough comes together.

Scoop the dough into tablespoon balls and roll in sanding sugar. Place the dough on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until fragrant and set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets before removing to a cooling rack.

Recipe from King Arthur Baking Company

Triple Ginger Cookies

This week has been a difficult week for me and my family, and I just didn’t have time to bake a new recipe this week. This is a flashback to one of my favorite cookies, triple ginger cookies. I love ginger and have even signed up for a ginger cooking class in a few weeks. This is a lovely molasses cookie that is made even better by the addition of ground ginger, candied ginger, and fresh ginger grated on a microplane. How could you go wrong?

There are other triple ginger cookies out there, but I love the ginger flavor in these. The original recipe for these cookies makes a lot, so the recipe you see here is a half recipe. I roll my cookies in orange sanding sugar, which I try to always have on hand. You could use any color of sanding sugar, or regular sugar, but that just wouldn’t be as special.

These aren’t difficult to make but do make sure that you get all of the flour mixed in completely. This is quite hard, so I always expect to mix the last of the dough by hand. They don’t need to be refrigerated before baking, which is a great time saver. Is there a better cookie for fall? Perhaps, but I don’t know what it would be!

Triple Ginger Cookies
2-1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons diced candied ginger
1/2 teaspoon ginger root, grated on a microplane
Orange sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt, set aside. In a large mixer bowl, mix on medium until shortening is smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the egg and the molasses, mixing until combined. Stir in about half of the flour mixture and then mix in the candied ginger and the ginger root. Add the rest of the flour mixture. You may need to finish mixing everything by hand, as the dough is heavy.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in the orange sanding sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 11-12 minutes. Cookies may look slightly undone but will set as they cool. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Adapted from Sunset Magazine’s Giant Ginger Cookies (November 1998)

Hermit Bars

I go into work a couple of days per week now, which makes the idea of “Cookies on Friday” a bit of a challenge. Now it’s cookies on whatever day I am organized enough to bring them! That seems to work out ok as different people work different days, so I try to tailor recipes on who may be at work. Some of my friends can’t have gluten, and others can’t have dairy. I made these cookies dairy free, and next time I will find a gluten free recipe to try.

The original recipe I had planned to make would have been easy to convert to dairy free, but then I realized they contained toffee chips and I don’t know how you could make those without dairy! I swapped to this recipe which required I used margarine/vegan butter and then a substitute liquid for the icing. Since it was fairly late in the evening, I looked at what I had on hand and used apple cider for the icing. I figured that would taste great with these spiced cookies.

I hadn’t realized that hermits are very similar to biscotti, but you only bake them once. My two logs of dough did expand and almost come together, so about 12 minutes in I used a metal spatula to encourage them to stay apart. These cookies certainly make your house smell like fall, with the molasses and spices. They are quick to make, and I was able to work on other projects while they chilled. My cookies ended up quite large, so the only change I would make in the future is to shape the dough into three logs instead of two and use an additional baking sheet.

Hermit Bars
2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
½ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon salt
½ cup vegan butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2/3 cup raisins

1 cup powdered sugar
5–6 teaspoons apple cider

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl, combine the vegan butter and brown sugar and mix on medium until light. Add the molasses and egg and mix again on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring until almost incorporated. Stir in the raisins with a spatula.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line a baking pan with a silicone baking mat.

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide into two pieces. Shape each piece into a log approximately 12 inches long and about 3/4 inch tall. Place side by side on the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 3 inches between the logs. Square off the logs slightly so that they are rectangular.

Bake for 15-18 minutes, until the logs start to brown along the edges. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, move the cookie logs to a wire rack. In a small bowl, whisk together the powdered sugar and apple cider until it is the correct drizzling consistency. Drizzle over the cookie logs while still warm, using a crosshatch pattern. Allow the drizzle to set before cutting into bars. I cut each log in half lengthwise, then cut into bars.

Recipe from New England Today: Food

Gingerbread Bars

I bake a lot with ginger, since it is such a favorite of mine. This time of year, I make a number of different cookies with ginger and molasses. I don’t use molasses all that much the rest of the year, so it’s a nice ingredient to use in December. When I was sorting recipes early in the season, I was absolutely shocked that I have never made gingerbread bars. I had a couple of different varieties marked and ended up making these.

The original recipe called for twice the amount listed here and baked in a 9” x 13” pan. When I baked these, I had also baked some fruitcake bars and peppermint meltaways, plus I had a few other cookies on hand that I had made before that! Needless to say, this recipe was chosen as it was easy to divide in half and I baked the bars up in an 8” square pan. Thankfully, when I delivered Christmas presents recently, I was able to share some of my baking with my friends!

These cookies were easy to make, although the darkness of the bars makes it difficult to tell when the cookies are baked through. When they are baked, the edges start to pull away from the pan and the edges are slightly taller than the baked bars. The icing is a lovely cream cheese frosting, which adds a beautiful tartness to the spiced molasses flavor of the bars. The frosting remains soft as long as the bars are at room temperature, so if you plan to travel with these make sure that they are properly refrigerated.

Gingerbread Bars
1 cup + 1 tablespoon flour
3/4 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons butter, melted
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/8 cup molasses
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla

1/4 cup butter, room temperature
4 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1-1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1/8 teaspoon salt
Decorative sprinkles

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

 

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, baking soda, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, brown sugar, and molasses on medium until combined. Stir in the egg and vanilla. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour/spice mixture. 

 

Spread the dough in an even layer in the prepared pan.

 

Bake for 14-17 minutes, until set. Do not over bake. Allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

 

Make the frosting: in a large mixer bowl beat the butter and cream cheese until smooth. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, and salt and beat until light. Spread over the cooled bars and top with decorative sprinkles, if desired. Store in the refrigerator.

Recipe from Cooking Classy

Spiced Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies

My husband often reminds me that I don’t make chocolate chip cookies enough. They are his favorite and all the other cookies that I make are just not sufficient. I figure that chocolate chip cookies aren’t the most exciting thing in the world to post on the blog, so unless the recipe has some significant variation, I don’t often post chocolate chip cookies.

Recently, I have gotten a couple of different ingredients that I want to use for recipes. One is sorghum honey, which we picked up from the local honey vendor. I had never seen sorghum honey before, and it looks a lot like molasses. The vendor said that it could be used as such, so I thought that would be good to test it in a recipe calling for molasses. My husband sent me a couple of links for recipes, including this one, that uses molasses. And it’s also a chocolate chip cookie, so bonus for my husband!

This recipe has a lot of similarities to a traditional chocolate chip cookie recipe, but there’s no brown sugar, and it has the additional spices and molasses. I didn’t use salt when I made these, and they certainly need it, so I added salt to the ingredients listed here. You don’t have to press additional chocolate chips into the cookies, but they honestly look better if you do. The molasses/sorghum honey is quite subtle, and I think I would add a larger quantity of the spices. Who doesn’t love cinnamon and ginger? I sure do.

Spiced Molasses Chocolate Chip Cookies
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses (or sorghum honey)
2-1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon salt
1 cup dark chocolate chips
Additional sugar
Additional chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and molasses and stir to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Just before the dough comes together completely, add the dark chocolate chips, and stir on low to incorporate.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized balls and roll in additional sugar. If desired, top each cookie with additional chocolate chips. Place the cookies on a plate and place in the freezer for about 8 minutes.

Place the semi-frozen cookies on a baking sheet and bake for 9-11 minutes. The cookies will look slightly under baked but will firm us as they cool. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from The View from Great Island

Ginger Cookies with Cinnamon Chips

I’ve been sick this week and I couldn’t bake, so this is a Flashback Friday! I posted this recipe all the way back in November 2008.(Wow, my photography wasn't so good then!) Now, I’ve posted over 1000 posts, and I’ll be honest, I don’t remember all of them. But there are some cookies that I remember and remake again and again. This is one of those cookies. The combination of a chewy ginger cookie with cinnamon chips is such a winner.

I usually take my cookies to work, but for whatever reason when I originally made these I took them to my husband’s office. Now we work at the same college, but it isn’t often that his group gets cookies. A couple of folks that he works with mention these cookies from time to time, and even bought the cinnamon chips and passed them along to me. I love using cinnamon chips, and these cookies are my favorite use for them.

Like any type of spice/ginger cookie, if you let the dough chill the flavors will come together. Alternatively, the cookies will mature the day after baking, so fresh out of the oven isn’t the best choice. This makes a fairly large batch of cookies, but that’s ok because they are so good. If you are looking for the perfect fall cookie, this cookie is certainly a strong candidate.

Ginger Cookies with Cinnamon Chips

3 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon cloves
2 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup molasses
1 cup Cinnamon Chips
Additional sugar (for rolling dough balls)

In a medium size bowl combine the flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Set aside. In a large mixer bowl add the butter and brown sugar. Beat on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla and mix on medium to combine. Add the molasses and stir on low until incorporated. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Stir in the cinnamon chips.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and chill for at least 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Form the dough into 1-1/4” and roll in the additional sugar. 

Bake for 9-12 minutes, until edges are set. Do not over bake or the cookies won’t be chewy. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then remove to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Bakingblonde’s Weblog