whisks' favourite gingerbread cookies

when my best friend from high school told me she liked gingerbread cookies, i set upon a journey to find a recipe for gingerbread cookies, and this is what i came up with. generally, i like to bake them slowly so they don't burn, yet come out firm. they do soften nicely and the flavours develop beautifully. once rested, this is a beautiful dough to work with and smells divine.

1 1/2 cups self raising flour
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
125 grams butter
3/4 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
a few strips lemon rind (optional)

place flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and lemon rind in the thermomix bowl and mill for 10 seconds on speed 10 until well blended. set aside.
place butter, brown sugar, egg, golden syrup and vanilla into the thermomix bowl and combine for 10 seconds on speed 5. scrape down bowl and combine again for 5 seconds on speed 5.
add the flour mixture which was set aside earlier to the thermomix bowl and combine for 10 seconds on speed 6.
set dial to closed lid position and knead for 40 seconds on interval speed.
divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic and let stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours. this dough can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 4 days, but in this case it should be refrigerated. return to room temp before using.
preheat oven to 170°C.
line cookie sheets with baking paper.
place 1 portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface.
sprinkle flour over dough and rolling pin.
roll dough to a scant 2mm thick.
use additional flour to avoid sticking.
cut out cookies with desired cutter.
space cookies 3cm apart.
bake 1 sheet at a time for 10-15 minutes (the lower time will give you softer cookies-- very good!).
remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack.
after cookies are cool you may decorate them any way you like - they look wonderful decorated with royal icing.

peanut butter cookies...with extras...

i'm not a big peanut butter eater, but tend to buy too much of it thinking we might be out of it. enter peanut butter cookies - a hero in the "using heaps of peanut butter" world.

1 cup (260 grams) peanut butter (use your favourite - smooth or crunchy)
1 cup sugar (220 grams) sugar
1 egg

extras
m and ms
chocolate chips (again use your favourite - white, milk or dark)
dried fruit (your favourites, again - pears, apricots, cranberries)
nuts (cashews, walnuts, macadamias)

preheat the oven to 180 degrees celcius and line a baking sheet with baking paper.
combine the peanut butter, sugar and egg in a mixing bowl. add your desired extras, just keeping in mind that if you like putting lots of stuff in, you will have to have enough cookie dough to hold it all together. all the bits you put in can be chopped as finely as you like or left as rustic as you like.
form the dough into balls and place the on the baking sheet. pressthem down a little to flatten and bake for about 15 minutes or until golden.

eating cookie dough

ohno heard i made chocolate chip cookies with wiggy yesterday and asked if he could have some....that was yesterday...this is today. told him i'd whip up a batch for him - his own batch.....if he could drive over (he hasn't got a driver's licence, yet), and if miss c and miss k were home (which they weren't). so i did the next best thing and offered him the recipe so he could make his own. this lead onto the discussion about cookie dough and the finished product.
ohno had posed this question, "do you ever find when you're baking that the dough tastes better than the finished product?"
now, for all my love of cooking, baking and food in general, i don't ever taste my cake batter or my cookie dough. never. ever. i always wait until the product has reached its final destination and is in all its glory, ready to be consumed because it is complete. part of this is because i don't like the taste of raw flour. then there is the hygeine aspect. if ever i have to taste, say, a soup or casserole for seasoning (which is rare), i use a separate spoon for each taste - i'm not one of those people who can taste with the spoon they are cooking with, then stick it back in the pot. each to their own, but there are tons of enzymes in saliva, and once it hits the food, it starts to decompose - the process of digestion commences the split second your food enters your mouth. i prefer to start the digestion process of my food when i put it in my mouth. but i think the reason why i don't taste as i go is because very often, i can look at a recipe and know whether it's going to work out. i know that about one teaspoon of salt is about enough for one kilo of meat, and unless i really go to town with really pungent spices, seasonings are about right. with baked good, everything needed should already be in the recipe, so there isn't a need to taste test. and i always scrape my bowls and spoons and beaters really clean, so there isn't anything much to lick off.
that's my story, and i'm sticking to it and it has nothing to do with me having phobias about raw food (i eat sashimi, for heaven's sake) and it hasn't got anything with me being scared about finding out how delicious raw cookie dough is and eating it all before i even get it on the baking tray.... like i said, that's my story, and i'm sticking to it.

chocolate chip cookies by whisks

these cookies are both crispy and chewy - crisp on the edges and chewy towards the middle. to keep them chewy in the centre, it's important not to over bake them; you want them to be sufficiently cooked so they hold together, and still be chewy.
if small mounds of dough are placed on the baking tray to make small cookies, the resulting cookies are not unlike the ones from famous amos. i remember to first time i had a famous amos cookie and thought that they were so buttery, crisp and crunchy - i didn't know that my cookies were a no effort clone of famous amos. the actual intention of these cookies was to copy those of mrs field - these aren't a mrs field's clone, but i'm very happy with them, as are miss c and miss k and all those who have had them.
because these cookies are so quick and easy to make, i often like to whip up a batch before we go somewhere, and there's nothing as homey and comforting as fresh cookies. they also make the house smell welcoming. if you know you are going to see some friends soon, why not surprise them with a batch of these?
feel free to mix and match with the chocolate - if you do end up using chopped up block chocolate, the ones with nuts are very good - and i just love the irregularity of the chopped chocolate - it adds a certain charm to the cookies, don't you think?

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups brown sugar
2 eggs
2 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups self raising flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
600 grams chocolate chips (or chopped up block chocolate, which is my preference)

preheat oven to 190 degrees celcius.
in a large mixing bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.
add the flour & salt.
mix together.
stir in the chocolate chips.
place walnut-sized dough portions a baking tray lined with baking paper. i find that six lumps of dough fit on the baking tray comfortably. i like to use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out the cookie dough so my hands don't get messy and so the cookies are fairly even in size.
bake for 10-13 minutes or just until edges are light brown. the time the cookies are in the oven really depend your preferences and your oven.
makes 30 cookies.

gingerbread dough for cut out cookies

i love this dough because it is so nice to work with and smells so nice.

1 1/2 cups plain flour
1 1/2 self raising flour
3/4 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
125 grams butter
3/4 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup golden syrup
2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest (optional)

in a small bowl, whisk together flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves until well blended.

in a large bowl beat butter, brown sugar, and egg on medium speed until well blended.

add golden syrup, vanilla, and lemon zest and continue to mix until well blended.

gradually stir in dry ingredients until blended and smooth.

divide dough in half and wrap each half in plastic and let stand at room temperature for at least 2 hours or up to 8 hours. dough can be stored for up to 4 days, but in this case it should be refrigerated. return to room temp before using.

preheat oven to 180° celcius.

place 1 portion of the dough on a lightly floured surface.

sprinkle flour over dough and rolling pin.

roll dough to 3 millimetres thick.

use additional flour to avoid sticking.

cut out cookies with desired cutter-- the gingerbread man is favorite, of course.

place the cookies on baking sheets lined with baking paper

bake 1 sheet at a time for 7-10 minutes (the lower time will give you softer cookies which are very good!).

remove cookie sheet from oven and allow the cookies to stand until the cookies are firm enough to move to a wire rack.

after cookies are cool you may decorate them any way you like.