Eggless Gingerbread Cookies and Chocolate Sable Cookies – DB Nov ’12

 

November 2012 Daring baker challenge was hosted by Peta of Peta Eats . Holiday season is the time for sharing and Peta shared a dozen cookies, some classics and some of her own, from all over the world with us.

Check out the challenge recipe here at The Daring Kitchen.

And here I am, posting the recipe four days late. I made the Gingerbread cookies, Double Chocolate Sables  and Pinwheel Cookies on 27th. But I couldn’t post them on time.

I baked these cookies along with a friend as a gift for a birthday party. It all came out really nice. The pin wheel cookies are from the book ‘The Essential Baking Cookbook’

 

The gingerbread cookie dough turned out to be a bit tricky and I was not able to cut it into any shape. I think I rolled the dough too thin. Anyway, I didn’t waste much time worrying about the shape, I made small balls out of the dough and flattened them with the bottom of a glass. My son wanted to add a design and he came up with the lines with the fork.

They tasted good, so I am happy :)

Eggless Gingerbread Cookies

Recipe Source: Art of Dessert

Ingredients:

  • Flour                                    :  2 1/2 cups
  • Ground Cinnamon            :  2 tsp (you can a tsp add more if you like)
  • Ground Ginger                   :  2 tbsp
  • Baking soda                        :  3/4 tsp
  • Butter                                   :  1/2 cup ( I used 100 gms)
  • Sugar                                   :    3/4 cup
  • Milk                                     :    1/4 cup
  • Honey                                  :   4 tbsp.

Method:

  1. Add the butter, milk, sugar and honey in a pan. Heat this in low heat till the butter is melted completely and the sugar is dissolved. Keep aside and let it cool down.
  2. Sift the dry ingredients (Flour, cinnamon, ground ginger, baking soda). Add it to the melted butter mix. Mix until combined. If the dough is very wet and sticky, add a bit more of flour, but not too much.
  3. Flatten the dough a bit between two sheets of parchment paper. Transfer to a baking tray and refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight.
  4. The dough might get sticky at room temp., so take it out in batches from the fridge.
  5. When ready to make cookies, preheat the oven to 200 C/400F. Roll the dough between two parchment papers until its 1/4″ thick. Cut out shapes (or just make round shapes like I did and crisscross with a fork.
  6. Transfer to a baking tray, leaving a little space between the cookies so that they don’t fuse together while baking.
  7. Bake for 10 minutes or until golden.

The double chocolate sable cookies were really nice. They tasted better the next day than right out of the oven. I skipped the egg yolk in the recipe and added about two tablespoon of milk to moisten the dough. So crispy, so crunchy and so yummy – I will be making these again :)

Double Chocolate Sable Cookies

Recipe Source: Food Network

Ingredients:

  • Bittersweet chocolate       :   3 ounces (about 90gms), frozen for 10 minutes
  • Flour                                    :   1 1/4 cups
  • Cocoa powder                    :   1/3 cup
  • Baking soda                        :   1/4 tsp
  • Salt                                       :   1/4 tsp
  • Butter (unsalted)              :  11 tbsp. (about 150 gm), softened
  • Sugar                                   :  1 cup
  • Egg yolk (large)                 :  1

Method:

  1. Grate the chocolate and keep aside. In a big bowl, mix the dry ingredients(flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt).
  2. Using a hand mixer, beat the butter and sugar until just combined. Add the yolk, beat again. Add the flour mix to the butter mix and beat until just combined. Don’t over mix.
  3. Fold the  grated chocolate to this with a spatula and bring the dough together with your hands. Again don’t overwork the dough.
  4. Divide the dough into two. Lay the dough in a parchment paper and shape it into a log. You can roll the paper around the log and refrigerate for at least one hour. Repeat for the other piece of dough. The dough can be frozen at this stage for about 2 weeks.
  5. If you keep the dough logs in an empty towel roll, it will maintain its shape, else it might flatten a bit on the base. I use a long round cookie box or a tall stainless steel vessel for keeping the log, instead of a towel roll.
  6. When you are ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350 F/180 C. Line 2 baking trays with parchment paper.
  7. Slice the chilled logs into 1/2″ thick cookies. Place them in the baking trays leaving about an inch between the cookies. Chill them again in the fridge for 15 – 20 minutes.
  8. Bake them for about 12 – 15 minutes, until set on the outside. Take out and let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.

I have made this refrigerator mocha-cocoa spiral cookies many times. This time we rolled them from the wrong side and the dough log was too thick by mistake. We got bigger cookies and lesser numbers. But then, who is complaining? They tasted absolutely great!

I always end up with some burnt cookies in the first batch. That is because  I am not sure about the time or will be busy getting the next batch ready that I will forget about the batch in the oven. This time too, the tradition was upheld, but thankfully the numbers were minimal :D

I will update the recipes here later. This is the click of the gift hamper.

Check out some of the cookie recipes in this space :

Thanks Peta for a fun challenge :) I loved baking these cookies. I am planning to try some of the other recipes later!

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