A Cookie Journey
It’s the official start to the holiday season- I made cookies today! Specifically, I made Elisabeth’s Ginger Sparklers. In the post where she shares the recipe, Elisabeth specifies that she doubles the spices, and also cautions that if you’re using American flour you might need more, as it has a lower protein content than Canadian flour (WHO KNEW?) In addition to those slight ambiguities, I planned to replace the egg and butter with vegan versions. Ooh! This is starting to sound like an adventure. Let’s just see how they came out… I used Earth Balance sticks instead of butter (they usually work great for baking) and three tablespoons of Just Egg to replace the egg. The recipe calls for one teaspoon of cinnamon, one teaspoon of ginger and a half teaspoon of cloves. Elisabeth DOUBLES that, but I felt like an entire teaspoon of cloves might be… too much??? I decided to go in the middle, and used 1 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and ginger, and 3/4 teaspoon cloves. The recipe calls for two cups of flour, and that’s what I used. You may know that serious bakers say you should “spoon and level” the flour instead of scooping it straight from the bag (well, real serious bakers probably weigh everything, but I’m not doing that!) Scooping it straight from the bag is supposed to give you too much flour- but I figured in this case that might be a good thing, so I scooped away recklessly. I could tell that the dough was perfect- soft, but not too sticky. I formed the dough into balls, rolled them in sugar, and placed them on the cookie sheet. NOW. Elisabeth presses hers down with a fork. She also said these cookies spread a lot… so I tried two different things. For half the cookies, I pressed them down gently with my hand. For the other half, I just left them in balls. Here’s the difference straight from the oven: The ones I pressed looked a little better, but as they cooled, they all kind of settled down to about the same level. You could really do it either way. BUT HOW DO THEY TASTE??? My husband and daughter said they are DELICIOUS. And they smell really, really good. As a reminder, I don’t normally eat cookies… which I know sounds very sad, but I’m a recovering sugarholic and my life is much, much easier when I’m not fighting that battle. I might bring one along with me on my Tuesday trail run for fuel- if they aren’t gone by then. Bottom line- I can highly recommend these cookies! I’m planning to make them again for a December cookie platter. Thank you, Elisabeth! What are your favorite holiday cookies? When do you start baking?