Nutella cookies

This is gonna be a quickie, I'm trying to write up a manuscript thats a few months behind schedule.

Last week I posted my now famous home-made nutella recipe. Problem is, making 2 cups of home-made nutella isn't as great an idea as it seems. For one, the processing (mostly the heating) means that the oils are more susceptible to oxidation. That means it can go rancid if not stored properly (i.e. the fridge). Unfortunately, its not as spreadable when stored there, so I leave mine in my pantry. That gives me a good month (haven't had any longer than that, but I wouldn't keep it around at room temp for much longer) to use it all. And since I'm still on my whole "get healthier and lose weight" kick, I'm faced with either give it away or bake with it. Hmm, I wonder what I could make with a nut and chocolate paste???

"Nutella" cookies
8 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup home-made nutella

1. Pre-heat the oven to 375F. Cream butter and sugars till creamy.
2. Add in the egg and vanilla and beat till smooth. Add the "nutella" and continue mixing.
3. Sift together the dry ingredients and add in batches to the wet. Once incorporated, use a disher to portion batter out onto parchment lined baking sheets.
4. Bake for ~13 minutes.

Mmmmm, fresh from the oven.


These keep pretty well for a week, although give them to co-workers with a pint of milk and they won't last the rest of the day. I actually made mine as a "gluten-free" version (I could add all natural, organic, and vegetarian but those were more incidental) by using rice flour instead of all purpose. They weren't as chewy due to the lack of gluten, but they didn't fall apart into a million crumbs either. Anywho, time for me to get back to my real job, I've got a good cake recipe upcoming as well as some others, so stay tuned in a week or so.

Reminiscing:

Back in my ginger snaps post I mentioned a brand of cookies that I rarely see anymore, especially now that I live in Ohio. But when I was a kid, I could remember display walls lined with the boxes in the grocery store. While I'm back in DE to see family for the holidays, I was hoping that I could find them again... and I did!. They're Ivin's spice wafers. Not exactly ginger snaps, but they definitely carry a nice ginger flavor (it only lists "spices" in the ingredient list to give you any idea of what actually gives them flavor beyond molasses). I also solved the issue of why you can't find them in OH. They're essentially a store brand for the Albertsons grocery chains, of which there are none in OH. But yay for finding they're still made, even if they clearly aren't as popular anymore.

Having already taken a short stroll down memory lane myself, I saw today that Serious Eats did a post on their top posts of the year. One of them was from April (before I started following I'll admit) and went over a top ten of foods from the 80's and 90's that are sadly no longer with us (well, sadly for some, I'm sure there are those who rejoiced at their demise). I'd highly recommend taking a look (Linky) especially if you were born within the past 30 years. I will take issue with Crystal Pepsi being #10, and even worse, behind #5 Ecto Cooler (hey, I loved Ecto as much as any kid, but Crystal Pepsi was the best).

Ginger snaps:

Ok, so I promised, and now that I found the charger for my camera battery, I'm able to deliver. Here, finally, is my inaugural recipe. And to make this whole task even more daunting, this recipe is also being submitted to Susan over at Food Blogga in support of her Eat Christmas Cookies event! So for those of you who are venturing over from her site, welcome. And anyone else who may be stumbling upon this site, welcome to you too.

One of my random winter(holiday) memories from my childhood was this brand of ginger snaps that my dad loved that came in this orange box. I have no idea what brand it was, but I can remember just how they tasted. Yummy. Especially when dunked in milk. Ever since moving out to Ohio I've never seen them again. So, after seeing Susan's notice about the Eat Christmas Cookies event I knew that I wanted to submit a ginger snaps recipe. Not just to support a great event, but to have an excuse to eat ginger snaps again (how many batches does it take to perfect a recipe?). Good thing I recently bought more milk.

These cookies are an amalgam of a couple recipes that I found on the internet and my own random cooking/baking intuition, and despite using an obscene amount of butter all in one go, they're awesome. And thats not just my opinion, everyone I pawned them off on (this recipe makes A LOT of cookies) loved them too! You may find yourself with a few new friends around the office after bringing in a batch of these. Although they may think you're trying to fatten them up when you give them each a gallon sized Ziploc bag full. So now, without further ado...

Ginger Snaps:
Makes roughly 7 dozen cookies!

1 1/2 cups butter
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup molasses
2 eggs
4 1/2 cups flour
4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
4 tbsp ground ginger paste
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground nutmeg

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees and line baking sheets with parchment.
2. Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add molasses and eggs and mix well.
3. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Add dry ingredients to butter mixture in batches and mix thoroughly. Lastly, blend in the ginger paste.
4. Drop dough by teaspoonful onto baking sheets, about 2 inches apart.
5. Bake for 10-12 minutes. Cool 2-3 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring to a wire rack.

Notes: Cookies will be crisp but not hard, adjust time as desired for slightly softer/harder cookies. I've had a comment from a reader who asked about the ginger paste. The kind I use is in a tube, similar to this brand. I find mine in the produce section of my local grocery store and the stuff stores beautifully in the freezer for a few months (its still squeezable!). If you can't find tube based, you might also find it in jars in the "Ethnic Foods" section, but you should check the ingredients to make sure it doesn't include garlic or other ingredients that might not work in a cookie recipe. You can always use ground ginger from your spice rack (~1 tbsp depending on how strong it is) and some finely chopped candied ginger. I'll probably make a post about the ginger paste and its usefulness later this week for those who would like more details.

The results?
They're just like I remembered. Perfect size, color, shape, texture and most importantly, taste.

What I like most about using the ginger paste over ground ginger is that you can still see the flecks of ginger in the cookie after its baked. You could use ground ginger along with candied ginger though, but then you would want to chop the candied ginger into finer pieces.

So, I hope you all enjoy the first recipe for this blog. More will be added shortly so I hope you come back and find some new/interesting/possibly odd recipes to try at your own home. And don't forget to check out all the other recipes submitted for Eat Christmas Cookies. I know I have a few on my weekend/vacation to-do list now. Oh, and comments are highly encouraged! Take care.