After a long sabbatical, I plan to post new snippets with some holiday recipes from around the world. May your upcoming holiday preparations be interesting and fun. Stay happy and healthy until I write again.
Category Archives: Cookie
Gingerbread Cookies
Gingerbread house with path. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I’ve used this gingerbread cookie recipe for a long time to make gingerbread men and women, and also to put together gingerbread houses for the Christmas season. If done right, it makes up into a dough that cooks up crisply and that will hold up to the rigors of being frosting glued into a holiday gingerbread house. I’m not wonderful using pastry bags to frost too finely, so I resort to using those plastic tubes of frosting that can be found in the baking section of a supermarket. They come in all colors and some even have changeable tips to make different decorating effects for the finished cookies. Use whatever shape of cookie cutters move you, but I still prefer the gingerbread men and Santa’s to make gingerbread shapes that can be punched with a hole and hung as decorations, too. The recipe is as follows:
1/4 lb. pound unsalted butter (not margarine)
1 cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar
4 cups all-purpose flour
1 large egg well beaten
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons dried ginger powder
1/4 cup boiling water
Cream butter and sugar until blended and light. Add the egg and molasses. Mix well. Dissolve the baking soda in the boiling water. Sift the flour with the salt and ginger powder and add the hot water to the first mixture and then stir this into the dry ingredients. Chill this for at least one hour. Roll the dough very thin and cut with a cookie cutter of your choosing which has been dipped in flour. Bake in 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for approximately 15 minutes being careful to watch closely as these can burn quickly. Cookies should be firm but not overly browned.
Cookies can be used as walls and roof for a gingerbread house with either a pre-bought kit or cut freehand from your own pattern.
Serving amount dependent on size of your cookie cutters. I use a 2 inch cutter. You can also make ornament shaped ones using a 2 inch glass rim dipped in flour and then decorated with sugar frosting and sprinkles.
“The snow had begun n the gloaming.
And busily all the night
Had been heaping field and highway
With a silence deep and white.
-LOWELL
Diabetic Oatmeal Cookies
Below is an older recipe that my mother had in her recipe box. Even though she was being treated for a heart condition, she had many low or sugar-free and fat free recipes in her collection. I always stole some of these after working all day and would ruin my dinner having just a few too many. I’ve adapted them to be more diabetic friendly by replacing some of the sugar with dry sugar substitute and lessening some of the fat.
36 cookies
45 min preparation time
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Spray large baking sheet very lightly with cooking spray.
3/4 cup margarine, softened
1 cup dry sugar substitute (Splenda for Baking)
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 medium eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract (pure vanilla is best)
3 cups old-fashioned oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon of salt
3/4 cups raisins
Cream margerine, sugar substitute and brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Blend in oats, baking soda and salt, then add the flour. Blend thoroughly until of stiff consistency. Add raisins and mix completely.
Chill dough to make it easier to handle. Roll the dough into ball (36 portions) and flatten with a glass dipped in water and powdered sugar.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cookies should be lightly browned. Do not overcook.
Remove cookies from baking sheet to wire rack. Let cool.
Serving size: 1 cookie
Total fat 5.9 grams Cholesterol 25 mg. Sodium 141 grams Protein 2.0 grams Carbs 17.1 grams Sugar 4.3 grams
calories 76
I always like to have a few of these cookies for my bedtime snack with a glass of milk.
Please refer to your diabetic diet plan or ask your nutritionist for the proper amount of cookies you may have.
Enjoy!
The World Holidays and Traditions Reader 