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Gingersnap Cookies

Dec 7th, 2011
by Pirate Alice.
2 comments

I’m going to a cookie exchange this weekend and for the past month I’ve been debating what to make. My last attempt at cookies of any kind was a huge failure.  I have no idea what went wrong but I’ve been avoiding cookies ever since. I thought maybe I’d just make a pile of Puppy Chow and be done with it, but the call for cookies made me want to stand tall and say, “Challenge accepted!” I forged on and created the beauties that you see photographed with this post (click that photo see it in its huge glory!) I followed the “Grandma’s Gingersnap Cookies” recipe at All Recipes.com.

I made two slight changes, I wanted a spicier cookie so I added ground cloves and a bit of nutmeg, and the recipe called for shortening but I used butter. Here’s the recipe as I made it:

  • 2 cups flour
  • 1tbl ground ginger
  • 2tsp baking soda
  • 1tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 3/4 cup sweet cream salted butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 cup molasses
  • 1/3 cup cinnamon sugar mixture

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees

Sift flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and salt into a bowl and set aside. (I mixed it all up with a whisk.)

Place butter into another mixing bowl and beat until creamy (room temp works best here). Gradually beat in sugar until fluffy. Beat in egg and molasses until well combined. Gradually add flour mixture into shortening mix and stir thoroughly until well combined. Mix until a soft dough forms.

Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into 1 inch balls. Roll each ball into the cinnamon sugar mixture to coat.  Bake about 10-13 min until tops are rounded and slightly cracked.

I reviewed several recipes until I decided on this one. Some say to refrigerate the dough for a bit before rolling and baking. I did not chill the dough at all and these turned out just fine. The original recipe does not say to chill it either. So if you want to chill the dough that could be something to consider.

I have a Pampered Chef baking stone, a Calphalon jelly roll pan and a Wilton cookie sheet. I found the baking stone made the prettiest cookies with the nice, cracked top (the ones in the photo). Calphalon came in second and Wilton came in last for the prettiness.  Just as a note if you’re trying to figure out why your cookies don’t look as cool as mine in the picture. Baking stones haven’t always been the best for me with cookies. This is why I have the other metal pans, because baking is so touchy. Did you follow the cookie fail link up there? Yeah, that was for EVERY pan of cookies I tried baking no matter what I used. I’m still not sure what went wrong there.  As a final note, there was an egg suicide while baking. It leaped right from my hand onto the floor. Eggs are hard to clean off the floor so if you can prevent egg suicide I’d recommend it.

Posted in: awesome stuff, cooking.
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The unsent letter

Nov 17th, 2011
by Pirate Alice.
3 comments

I am an advocate of journaling. I have so many different journals spread all across my house. I find it the best way to work through things that are caught up in my head. Admittedly, some things take longer than others. But each time I sit down and write about it, it is therapeutic. One technique I find helpful is the unsent letter. Writing a letter to a person who you feel has wronged you, that you find you have trouble speaking to in person, who has passed away, or maybe even someone you have never met can be very helpful. Sometimes I’m shocked at what I find I want to say. Sometimes I find it helps me organize my thoughts. But each and every time I find it helps me get what I’ve been keeping inside out of me.

A friend of mine shared a letter she wrote to someone. I was incredibly honored that she feels she can trust me with such a private thing. I’ve written so many letters since I started keeping a journal. As much as I wanted to share them with people (and not just the person I was writing to) I always held back. I haven’t even read any of them to my therapist, I always seem to “forget” to have the journal with me.

You don’t have to restrict yourself to just a letter. Try writing a dialog with the person where you speak not only for yourself but for him/her as well. This helps me get a better handle on both sides of the story. You can also try to rewrite the way the story ends for you. I find it empowering to have control over a situation that previously left me feeling helpless. I’ve also incorporated some people as characters into stories I was working on. This helped me to take out some aggression, get some sense of satisfaction, and move my plot along when I was all worked up over something that was distracting me from writing.

Remember, the unsent letter is just that – a letter you don’t have to send. If after a period of time has passed, and you feel this letter NEEDS to be sent, that’s up to you. But just because you wrote the letter, that doesn’t mean it has to be put in and envelope or copy/pasted into an email or anything.  You can tear it up, burn it or bury it. Hell, you can even mail it off to Santa if you want. If you really want you can write that letter over and over and over, writing it once doesn’t mean you can’t do it again.

If you’re interested in reading some unsent letters, all you have to do is type it into Google and you’ll get plenty of blogs, tumblrs etc on the topic. Just skip over the stuff with World of Warcraft, apparently it’s also the name of an old quest.

Posted in: awesome stuff, stuff, what to do?.
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