I prefer black strap molasses

Today, on the 12th day of Christmas, I made Finnish Gingerbread cookies at my Mother's. We'd been too busy earlier in the season. I was out of dark karo syrup and had heard one could use molasses instead. I used black strap molasses and it gave them the dark color they need. The smells were incredible and although it's time to have the oldest man in the village come to our home and sweep out the straw (it's what they decorate with in Finland), it felt we should keep Christmas up awhile longer. A friend on facebook asked for the recipe today, so here it is again.

Title: Piparkakut (Finnish Christmas Gingerbread Cookies)

Ingredients:
3/4 c margarine or butter
3/4 c sugar
1 egg
2 T dark Karo syrup (or black strap molasses)
1 t cinnamon
1 t cloves
1 t ground cardamom
1/2 t baking soda
2 1/2 c flour

Directions:
Cream margarine and sugar. Add egg, spices and syrup. Then add flour and soda sifted together. Form into a ball and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill the dough overnight in the refrigerator. Roll out on floured surface very thin and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter. Bake on a very lightly greased cookie sheet about 5 min at 375 degrees. Do not overbake! Store in an airtight tin and they will keep "forever".

Autumn Pumpkin Pancakes and Cookies

It feels like autumn, so this morning we started off with Pumpkin pancakes.  I happened upon this sisters recipe blog and found the recipe. Our kids really liked them and want them on Halloween morning too.  I served them with applesauce and cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top.  

Since I had to open a can of pumpkin and didn't use it all, my son is making Pumpkin cookies for FHE.  My son and his friend are baking them.  I found it on one of those sister's linked blog of recipes with other friends.  

It's so handy to have the internet to look up recipe ideas from. 

The cookies called for pumpkin spice, which I didn't have, so I googled for a substitute and found this 

Pumpkin Pie Spice Substitute
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon plus 1/4 teaspoon ginger and 1/8 teaspoon EACH nutmeg and cloves can be substituted for 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice.

Gold Medal Chocolate Chip Cookies

Since we love to try different cookie recipes, and since this was on the back of the Gold Medal flour bag I just opened, I decided to try their

Extraordinary Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 1/2 cups butter or margarine, softened
1 1/4 cups granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups packed brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla
1 tablespoon almond extract (I added this)
4 cups Gold Medal all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 bag (24 oz.) semisweet chocolate chips (4 cups)
For nut lovers; stir in 2 cups coarsely chopped nuts with the chocolate chips.

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. In large bowl, cream butter, sugars, vanilla and eggs on medium speed or with spoon until light and fluffy. Stir in flour, baking soda and salt (dough will be stiff). Stir in chocolate chips.

On ungreased cookie sheet, drop dough by tablespoonfuls or #40 cookie/ice cream scoop 2 inches apart. Flatten slightly.

Bake 11 to 13 minutes or until light brown (centers will be soft). Cool 1 to 2 minutes; remove from cookie sheet to cooling rack.

Makes about 6 dozen cookies

Yummy!

Borrowed Butter Makes Better Chocolate Chip Cookies

Our neighbors borrowed butter from us last Sunday and later we found out why. They wanted to make chocolate chip cookies. When we got the call it was for margarine. The funny thing is I asked the Mother the next day if the butter worked out okay in their recipe.  She said they only buy and only use butter, but her health conscious daughter wondered if they were perhaps the only family who prefers butter, when the first neighbor they asked only had margarine.  She decided she'd ask us for margarine, which they would have used, if they didn't find butter.  My husband told their daughter we only had butter:) Butter does make better chocolate chip cookies!

They were soooo delicious. When I called today for the recipe, she said, "We have all the ingredients if you need to borrow any!" Maybe I should borrow some butter:) It turns out this is the Dad's recipe he's tweaked over the years. He said he always triples this recipe. I'm glad he did, because it means we got to taste them too. And now you can too, since he's given me permission to post them here. Now go borrow some butter or whatever you don't have enough of. Looks like I need more chocolate chips this time :) Enjoy!

Geoff's Chocolate Chip Cookies

Mix the wet ingredients together first.
1 cup butter
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 c granulated sugar
The secret comes in creaming the butter and sugar a very long time in your mixer, so let it blend for 5-7 minutes until it's almost frothy. A former neighbor, who is also a great chocolate chip and other cookie maker says, his secret is to cream cold butter with the sugar.
Now add 2 eggs and
1 t vanilla.
Blend again for almost just as long, until it looks more like a nougat texture.
Mix the dry ingredients together.
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 c flour
Mix flour mixture in with butter mixture with your hands. Feel the texture to determine if you need to add more flour. If you add more flour, add a pinch more baking soda too. You do NOT want it to be too creamy. If you wish, you can add oatmeal flour. When you blend oatmeal in the blender it makes oat flour. If you add that instead of extra flour, it makes it so the dough just barely stays together. This is a good alternate taste too.
Lastly add a 12 oz. package of chocolate chips.
His favorite chips are Ghiradelli, but any chips will do of course. He also likes to use more chips than is normally called for. He also alternates milk and semi-sweet in the same batch. I prefer this flavor of half and half as well.
If you want double chocolate chip cookies, here are a few alternatives:
Grate a big chocolate bar in to the dough. It makes it look brown and give a chocolate taste all the way through the cookie. Or sprinkle in 2 T of cocoa powder into the mix.
Make good sized cookies and bake at 375 degrees for about 8 minutes.

My favorite way to eat my chocolate chip cookies is hot with a mug of cold milk. I use a mug since it's half the height of a glass and I can dip a piping hot chocolate chip cookie straight into the ice cold milk and then eat it. Perfect combination.