Sugared Molasses Cookies

It's not technically autumn yet, but on this dreary, sloppy, wet, cold (am I painting an ample picture?) day, I needed to make molasses cookies.

Yes, you read that correctly.  Autumn = molasses cookies.  I'm one of those people who associates certain foods with seasons.  Rich, hearty fair like stews, roasts, pumpkin pie (or muffins...or pumpkin anything for that matter) and molasses cookies are definitely fall and winter food.  Nonetheless, not I realize not everyone feels this way; I've actually had a debate with someone over when you should eat molasses cookies. 

It doesn't matter when you make them, they're damn good all year long.  I'm not sure where the recipe came from.  I begged an former co-worker for it (and her name is Autumn, nifty!) who cited 'the internet' as her source.
 

Collect the following ingredients:

3/4 cup butter, softened or shortening
1/3 cup fancy molasses (or black strap for a bolder flavour)
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 cups of all purpose flour
1 1/2tsp baking soda
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 cup white sugar 

Crank your oven up to 350'F (180'C).  Expect 48 small or 24 large cookies.

Fresh ginger gives a fabulous flavour to these cookies.  My aunt (the Gingerbread Lady....and Strawberry Lady) swears by fresh ginger, and she makes AH-MAY-ZING gingerbread.  I keep my ginger frozen until I need to use it and then grate it with a microplane.  Of course, if you have ground ginger in your cupboard, go ahead and use it in place of the fresh stuff.

With an electric mixer, beat butter, molasses and brown sugar together.  Add the egg and mix well until combined.

In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.  Stir until smooth.

Add dry ingredients to the molasses mixture and blend slowly, either by hand or with an electric mixer.  Don't forget to scrape down the sides!

The dough should be slightly sticky, but if it's TOO sticky (ie cannot be formed into a ball for the life of it), add a little more flour.

Pour white sugar into a small bowl.  Take a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball, roll it the sugar and place on an un-greased cookie sheet.

Press down slightly with the back of a spoon.

I like to make larger cookies, but for the kiddos, scoop out the dough by the teaspoon to make itty bitty ones.  Roll in the sugar and don't flatten.

Bake for 8 - 10 minutes.  Let cool completely before storing.  These cookies store well at room temperature for a few days, or for about 2 weeks in an airtight container in the freezer. 

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday [little] Dinosaur!

Rowan turned two yesterday and to celebrate, we had a few family and friends over for a party!

I chose a dinosaur theme because Rowan is in L-O-V-E with them.  Here are a few things I put together:

Dinosaur tracks to the front door.

Paper pinwheels.  The plastic pinwheel handle is from Martha but I changed up the paper to suit my colour scheme.

Birthday banner and pom-poms.

A custom birthday shirt, which he refused to put on until right before cake-time. 

Dinosaur nest cupcakes.  Really easy to make!  After smoothing brown icing (could be chocolate, mine was just a buttercream dyed brown), I piped green icing with a grass tip and 'laid' (teehee) three yogurt covered almonds for eggs.  The R-O-W-A-N is paper taped to toothpicks.  I used my Cuttlebug and the 'Olivia' alphabet set to cut out the letters.

The cake!  I love that you can rent different shaped pans from Bulk Barn, otherwise I would need a second house for all the pans I'd have to buy!

For some birthday fun, I kept it simple and only planned one activity.  A dinosaur egg hunt!  Well, dinosaurs and candy :)  Rowan loved his dinosaur 'babies'.  He cuddled them as if they were real and gave them kisses.

A friend of mine gave Rowan a ginormous dinosaur colouring book for his birthday.  So a few sheets went up on the wall for an art break before dinner.  Between a 1, 2 and 4 yr old, only one line of crayon got on the wall!  I'd call that a success.

Rowan thought our 'Happy Birthday' singing was utterly hilarious.

Yummy-yum-yum!  Happy Birthday, my little dinosaur!

Whole Wheat Strawberry Muffins

It's stawberry season! It's strawberry season!!

This time of year is practically on par with Christmas for me.  How wonderfully joyous it is to find loads of fresh, local produce in grocery stores and farmer's markets after a long, dull winter.  Salad greens, asparagus, rhubarb and of course, STRAWBERRIES!!

If you feel like celebrating too, try a batch of these super yummy muffins.  Made with whole wheat flour, a little sugar, fresh fruit and a punch of vanilla, these are sure to please the whole family. 

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups     whole wheat flour, sifted

1/2 cup        lightly packed brown sugar

2 tsp          baking powder

1 tsp          baking soda

1/2 tsp        salt

2              eggs

1 1/4 cups     buttermilk
1/3 cup        vegetable oil
1 Tbsp         vanilla extract

1 cup          fresh strawberries, sliced

A note about the ingredients: If you don't have buttermilk, simply add 1 Tbsp of lemon juice or white vinegar to whatever milk you have on hand (2% or homogenized works best) and let sit for a few minutes.

Pictured above is my home-made vanilla extract.  The stuff in the store is really expensive, and I find this way pretty cost effective!  It's really easy to make.  Simply place 3 or 4 vanilla pods (cut in half) in an air-tight jar.  Pour vodka or white rum over them and let sit in the back of a cool cupboard for 2 - 3 months.  I can usually get 4 or 5 batches out of the same pods.  Just be sure to wash out the jar inbetween uses!

I sifted the flour before measuring to prevent heavy, dense muffins.  Be sure you do the same! 

When you've sifted most of the flour out, you will be left with a bunch of bran. You can either discard it, or keep sifting a little while longer so the little fine bits of bran are included into your muffins.

Gather your ingredients, measuring cups and spoons, two bowls, a whisk and a wooden spoon.  Preheat the oven to 425'F (220'C).  Prepare your 12 cup muffin tin by either greasing each cup or lining with paper.

Before you measure out the sifted flour - did you know there's a 'proper' way to measure flour?  It seems a little anal retentive, until you realize it produces great results.  Spoon flour into measuring cup until it's heaping.

Take the flat edge of a knife and slide it across the cup to smooth out the surface. 

Ta-da!

I had a teensy bit of flour left over, so back into the the bag it goes!

Now that you've got your flour, add the remaining dry ingredients - the sugar, baking powder and soda and salt. 

Combine with a wooden spoon so there aren't any lumps and set aside.

In a separate bowl, lightly whisk eggs. 

 Add milk, oil and vanilla and gently whisk to combine. 

Pour egg mixture over dry ingredients. 

Add strawberries.

The next step is CRITICAL.  Do. Not. Over-mix.  This is the rule for muffins, pancakes, waffles and cakes.  Cookies you can pretty much beat the crap out of and they'll end up the same.  But not muffins.  They're delicate.  Use swift, deep strokes to combine the wet/dry ingredients and stop as soon as it's done.  If you're mixing for longer than 30 seconds, you've mixed too long.  If there are still one or two little pockets of flour, that's not a big deal.  Just stop stirring.

Divide evenly into muffin cups, filling almost to the top.  If you're feeling fancy, you could sprinkle a little brown sugar on top.

Pop them in the oven and reduce the heat to 350'F (175'C).  The reason for starting the muffins at a higher temperature is so they'll rise a little more.  Fluffy muffins are the best!  Bake for 15 - 20 minutes, or whenever a toothpick inserted to the middle of a muffin comes out clean.

Let sit in the muffin tin for about 10 minutes and transfer to a cooling rack to cool.  They're at their best when still warm, but still moist and delicious the next day.

So delicious in fact, that R-man had TWO for breakfast this morning! 

I didn't have the typcial twinge of guilt with these muffins as I normally do with baked goods.  Low sugar, high fibre and lots of fruit.  They're perfect!

If you happen to be lactose intolerent, you most certainly can switch in some soy, almond or rice milk.  Just be sure to still add the lemon juice/vinegar.  It reacts with the baking soda to give you light, fluffy muffins.

When strawberry season is over, try these variations:

Lemon Blueberry

Replace the strawberries with fresh or frozen blueberries. Reduce the buttermilk to 1 cup and add 1/4 cup of fresh lemon juice.  Nix the vanilla in favour of 1 Tbsp of lemon zest.

Orange Raspberry

Replace the strawberries with fresh or frozen raspberries.  Reduce the buttermilk to 1 cup and add 1/4 cup of fresh orange juice.  Nix the vanilla in favour of 1 Tbsp of orange zest.

 Let me know if you try them! Have a happy Wednesday.

Homemade Baby Cookies

I had an epiphany in the baby food aisle in the grocery store the other day.  As I reached out for a box of organic vanilla baby cookies, like I've done many times before, I had this thought: "Hold up...I don't buy cookies.  I make cookies.  I've always made cookies.  WTF?!?  Why am I not making my own baby cookies?"

So I did.  I used the Baby Cereal Cookie recipe from Wholesome Baby Food.  I'm not sure if it's the baby cereal I used or what, but I found myself adding a LOT of oat flour (about a cup) to make the dough the correct consistency to roll out.

I also only baked them for 15 minutes so they would be soft.  Crunchy cookies = more crumbs. 

Unsurprisingly, they're a big hit with the boy!