Sanna's Gingerbread

Wouldn't you know that as soon as I mention that my oven is broken, one of my evil friends taunts me with a recipe.

Though I haven't tried it (yet), I'm sharing it here because it's perfect for the holidays. Also because I'm going to need help with it and all of you Domestic Goddesses can do that!

First she warns: They're not healthy. No way. They're yummy, fatty, time consuming and comfortfood - did I mention yummy? (Those are my favorite recipes, dontchaknow.)

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Here is Sanna's Gingerbread:

2½ sticks of butter, assuming they're 4oz each. (Use REAL butter, real dairy butter, no less than 75% fat!)
1 cup of dairy cream, 40% fat
10oz white sugar
4oz brown sugar
5oz sugar beet molasses (there's usually white, light and dark - look for the light or dark one)
2 tbs ground ginger
2 tbs ground cinnamon
2 tbs ground cloves
½ tsp ground cardamom
½ tsp ground allspice
2 tbs baking soda (bicarb)
2.5-3 lbs all purpose flour, unbleached

Add the spices, minus bicarb, to a pot (if one likes gingerbread to be a bit stronger, 3tbs of spice is prolly better). Heat the pot for about two minutes. Add butter, so that it melts. Add molasses straight to pot.
Mix the sugars in a big bowl of some sort. Whip the cream smooth in another bowl. Take a third (YES!) bowl and add 2 lbs of flour and the bicarb.

Pour the melted butter-spices-molasses mix in the bowl with sugar. Add about half of the flour. Add the whipped cream. Add the rest of the flour.
Now add more flour if needed. The dough shouldn't stick to your fingers, be soft but still firm enough to knead.

Cut in four pieces. Curse over the grease getting everywhere. Wrap pieces in plastic, put two in the fridge and two in the freezer. The freezer ones are
so that you won't need to make more dough once you run out of cookies. Let it rest for several hours or even days. The dough in the fridge will keep at least 14 days. Bake out when you've got the time.

Take HALF of one wrapped piece of dough and wrap the rest again. Put it back in the fridge. Quickly do your thing with the cookie cutters and stuff, before the dough melts on you. Add more flour if needed. They should be about 1cm (uuuh... just under ½ inch) thick before going into the oven. Add cookies onto a bakingplate on bakingplate paper.

Bake in the middle of the oven at about 300F, for 7-10 minutes depending on how you like them. Get them off the paper and set to dry on a rack. Store in large tins. Protect them from children, who will devour them before supper.

The recipe should give you about 200-300 cookies, btw. ;) Enjoy!

Merry Christmas
Sanna

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She and I then discussed the "sugar beet molasses", which is something I'd never heard of. I've found that sometimes trying to share recipes with people who live in other countries, the language barrier can be a stickler.

Though she did a terrific job changing the measurements for me. I'm only slightly confuddled having to calculate oz and lbs to cups. ;-)

Anyway, here's what she said about the molasses: I checked it on Wikipedia, and I was wrong about it being molasses. I'm quite sure you can use your regular gingerbread molasses, but the stuff I'm using is called Golden Syrup in the US. It may be hard to find in the US outside of Louisiana, apparently. Do your best, otherwise turn to molasses and adjust the recipe accordingly.

Now, I've never heard of gingerbread molasses either. In fact, I've never cooked with or used molasses ever. Do we have any molasses experts reading along? Can anyone shed some light upon what that ingredient would be in the states?

Another question would be to verify if the "40% fat dairy cream" is heavy whipping cream? Or is it milk? I'm assuming it's heavy cream but again with that language barrier. I want to be sure.

And lastly-- 200 to 300 cookies! Holy Cookie Abundance! Any ideas on if the recipe would work just as well being halved?

I can't wait to try this!