#54. Non-Anatomically Correct Gingerbread People

Gingerbread people are the rare exception when it comes to my preferred texture for cookies, for I demand they be crispy, never soft, and only minimally moist. This recipe is slightly modified from that designed by The Daring Gourmet.

Ingredients

• 1 cup unsalted butter

• 1/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar

• 3/4 cup white granulated sugar

• 1 cup molasses

• 1 large egg

• 5 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 tablespoon ground ginger

• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ½ teaspoon salt

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

2. Beat the butter in a large bowl on high speed for a few minutes until fluffy and pale in color. Add the white and brown sugar and beat for several more minutes until the mixture is no longer gritty.

3. Add the molasses and the egg and beat until combined.

4. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Add the flour mixture to the wet mixture a little at a time using a wooden spoon.

5. Place the gingerbread dough on the counter and form it into a large smooth mound. Divide it into 4 equal portions and flatten each portion into a disk. Wrap each disk with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours, preferably overnight.

6. Roll out the dough (one disc at a time!) between two sheets of waxed paper to a thickness of about ¼ inch.

7. Use ginger people cookie cutters of your choice to cut out cookies. Transfer to cookie sheets using a spatula. Repeat for all remaining dough discs.

8. Bake the gingerbread cookies for 8-10 minutes or until they are lightly browned around the edges. Let the cookies cool for at least 5 minutes on the baking sheets before transferring them to a wire rack to cool completely and then ice them should you desire.

#51. Pillsbury Baking Blitz, Part V: White Chocolate Snowflakes

If you think using pre-made Pillsbury dough as a base for making cookies is an unforgivable cop-out, stop reading now.

If, however, you are an enlightened, generous person who recognizes that “semi-homemade” baked goods still have merit for the time and creativity involved in their preparation, then please enjoy my five-part Pillsbury Baking Blitz.

Part V: White Chocolate Snowflakes

Ingredients

• 1 16-ounce roll of Pillsbury sugar cookie dough

• 1/4 cup flour

• White melting chocolate

• Blue sprinkles

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. In a large bowl, knead cookie dough with flour.

3. On a floured surface, roll out dough.

4. Using a snowflake cookie cutter…well, if you don’t know how to use a cookie cutter, you probably shouldn’t be using an oven.

5. Line snowflake cookies 1 inch apart on sheets. Bake for 8-11 minutes until just brown around the edges.

6. Cool completely.

7. Place your melting chocolate (you can use wafers but I prefer bars) in a microwave-safe bowl. Melt the chocolate in the microwaves in 30-second intervals and remove when chocolate is just transitioning from solid to liquid form. Stir vigorously.

8. Dip top half of snowflake cookie into chocolate. Dust immediately with sprinkles.

9. Cool until chocolate hardens.

#43. Caramel Apple Skulls

When I’m not baking, eating, and cycling, I work in the neurosurgery department of a local medical school.

No, they do not let me crack open people’s skulls (YET); rather, my role as a PhD (fake doctor) is to help the physicians (real doctors) write articles, grant proposals, and sometimes, even whole books! It’s rewarding in a thousand different ways and I love geeking out over rare conditions and crazy-ass (that’s a technical term) procedures.

Therefore, it’s highly appropriate that at some point during Year of the Cookie, I make some edible skulls. The interim week between Thanksgiving and the grand baking blitz that will be December seemed like the right time.

Ingredients

• 1 (18.25 oz) pkg. Pillsbury caramel apple cake mix

• 1/2 cup flour (ish)

• 1/2 cup butter, softened to room temperature

• 1/4 cup light brown sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. Using a hand-held mixer, blend together butter, sugar, egg, and vanilla extract.

3. Gradually add in cake mix and flour until thoroughly combined. Dough should just verge on crumbly.

4. On a floured surface, roll out dough. Punch out skull shapes using cookie cutters you bought at Halloween clearance.

5. Bake for 12 minutes

6. Cool completely and frost with Pillsbury caramel apple frosting.