Christmas Greetings

Wishing each and every one of you wonderful days filled with family, friends and much cheer! Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year!

“Not Too Ginger” Gingerbread Cookies

The secret ingredient in these cookies is the cinnamon. I love gingerbread cookies but sometimes the ginger taste is a bit strong for our family so I add some cinnamon to the recipe which seems to work very well with this recipe. Other kids must agree because I have made these cookies for lots of school Christmas parties and all the kids love them.

Cookies:

½ C Non-dairy margarine

½ C Granulated Sugar

½ tsp. Egg Replacer + 2 T warm water

¼ C Light Molasses

2 ¼ C All-purpose Flour

¾ tsp. Baking Powder

1 T. Ground Ginger

2 T. Ground Cinnamon

Decoration:

1 cup powdered sugar

2 tablespoons rice milk

2 teaspoons light corn syrup

1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix the egg replacer and water and set aside. In a mixer, beat the margarine and sugar together until creamy. Beat in the mixed egg replacer and molasses. In another bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, ginger and cinnamon in a bowl. Slowly add to the creamy mixture. Divide the dough in half and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour.

On a lightly floured surface, roll half the dough into ¼ inch thickness. Using a cookie cutter, cut out your Gingerbread shape and place on ungreased cookie sheets. Don’t forget to roll together any extra scraps for more cookies.

Bake cookies for 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Mix powdered sugar, rice milk, corn syrup and the vanilla extract together and spread on cookies. Add food coloring to make different colors and decorate as you like.  Anyone want the cyclops gingerbread man?

Snowball Cookies

As I am writing this post, we are watching one of our favorite movies, ELF. I have been thinking of
this movie ever since we made our Snowball Cookies the other day. When ever I think about snowballs I think the ultimate snowball fight scene from the movie, Elf.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbQZ8GK2usU

Growing up I had a number of snowball fights with my brother and the other neighbors. For some reason, my brothers and there friends were always ganging up on me. Back then I could have used a buddy like Buddy.

I love this picture because these Snowball cookies look just like real snowballs ready for their next fight. Most Snowball Cookie recipes have almonds in them but I did find one recipe without nuts from The Food Allergy Mama for her Russian Teacake recipe. These are pretty good but I did have trouble getting them to clump together so I added 2 T of rice milk to the mixture. It did change the texture and the taste a bit but I found that I liked them better because they were not dry like some other recipes. These cookies didn't last long in our house so I guess that is a YES vote for us!

DAIRY, EGG AND NUT FREE SNOWBALL COOKIES

1 c.    Dairy free margarine

½ c. Powdered sugar

1 1/2 tsp. Vanilla

2 ¼ c. All purpose flour

¼ tsp. Salt
2 T.  Rice milk

1 c.   Powdered sugar (for rolling)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment paper. This is important so the bottoms don't get burned.

Using a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment combine margarine, powdered sugar and vanilla until thoroughly combined. Stir in flour and salt until dough comes together into a pliable ball. Add rice milk, one tablespoon at a time if you the dough is not sticking or of you like them a bit more moist.

Shape dough into one inch balls and place onto prepared baking sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned. While the cookies are still warm but cool enough to handle roll in powdered sugar. Now for the final step, cool completely and roll in sugar to top it off. 

Snoopy for the Holidays

One of our favorite Christmas movies is A Charlie Brown Christmas so it was so much fun that the first Christmas movie of the season we watched as a family was this movie. What's not to like with the cast of characters including the miss-understood Charlie Brown, the snarky Lucy and his trouble-making dog, Snoopy. So with our recent "blanket of white" and the holiday inspiration from Charles Schultz, Katie and a friend have created their very own Snoopy holiday decoration.

Now all we need are the holiday lights! They did such a great job that I have the urge to make one of our favorite holiday desserts, the every easy Snowball Cookies. Stay tuned for the recipe.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles

A friend decided to have a Thanksgiving holiday party this year and asked us to bring something festive. Since I love ANYTHNG pumpkin and I love cookies this recipe was the perfect fit. This is adapted from Happy to be a Tableof  Two. I used Wholesome’s Fair Trade Natural Cane Sugar instead of the evaporated cane juice used. I love the texture this sugar gives cookies.

Pumpkin Snickerdoodles
Cookies:
3¾ cups all-purpose flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ tsp. ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup Fleischmann’s Unsalted Margarine or Earth Balance, at room temperature
1 cup Wholesome’s Natural Cane Sugar of evaporated cane juice
½ cup light brown sugar
¾ cup pumpkin puree
1 flax “egg” (1 T ground flax seed + 2 T warm water)
4 tsp vanilla extract

Topping:
½ cup evaporated cane juice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground ginger
Pinch of allspice

To start, make your flax “egg” and set aside at least 10 minutes to thicken. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. In an electric mixer, beat together the non-dairy margarine, cane sugar and light brown sugar on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Blend in the pumpkin puree. Beat in the flax “egg” and vanilla until incorporated. Slowly add in the dry ingredients and mix just until incorporated. Cover and chill the dough for at least 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Combine the sugar and spices for the coating in a bowl and mix to blend. Scoop the dough and roll into a ball. Coat the dough ball in the sugar-spice mixture and place on the prepared baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining dough to fill the sheets, spacing the dough balls 2-3 inches apart. Dip the bottom of a flat, heavy-bottomed drinking glass in water, then in the sugar-spice mixture, and use the bottom to flatten the dough balls slightly. Recoat the bottom of the glass in the sugar-spice mixture as needed. I love this trick.

Bake the cookies for 11 minutes, or until just set and baked through. Let cool and transfer to a wire rack. Repeat with the remaining dough.

These cookies got rave reviews from all! Make some today!