1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup dark corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp ground cloves
1 cup unsalted butter or margarine
4 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1 liquid food coloring,
1 if desired
Directions
Preparation time: 1 1/2 hours Chilling time: 12 hours or more Cooking
time: 7 minutes
1. Put sugar, syrup, water, ginger, cinnamon and cloves into a large
saucepan. Cook and stir over medium heat until mixture boils and sugar
dissolves. Remove from heat. Add butter. Stir until butter is melted
and mixture is no longer very hot.
2. Mix flour and baking soda. Gradually add flour mixture to butter
mixture and stir to blend thoroughly. Dough will have a soft texture.
Place dough in an airtight container and refrigerate overnight or at
least 12 hours or as long as 1 week.
3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Remove about one-sixth of the dough and
knead it until it is slightly softened. Roll dough directly onto
ungreased cookie sheets until it is about 1/4-inch thick. Use a
cookie cutter to stamp shapes in dough, allowing a 1-inch margin
between each cookie. Remove excess dough by lifting it and peeling it
away. Scraps of dough can be kneaded together and re-rolled.
4. Bake until golden brown, about 7 minutes. Allow cookies to cool
slightly and become crisp before removing them from the cookie sheet.
Cool thoroughly on wire racks. If desired, you may "paint" the cooled
cookies using a clean, small paintbrush and food coloring that has
been watered down slightly. Store cookies in airtight containers.
Note: After the 12-hour resting period, this cookie dough can be
hand-molded like clay--rolled, pinched, poked and pressed--and it
will keep its shape, expanding slightly while baking. Thin cookies
will become brown and bake quickly, large and thick shapes will
require longer baking. Can be cut into any shape desired but make the
cookies uniformly thick. The microwave oven can be used to cook the
sugar mixture in step 1.
Judith Taylor, Highland Park from the Chicago Tribune sixth annual
Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 2, 1993
Servings: 80 servings
1993 1st Place: Ginger Cookies Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Cookie
The History of Recipes
Academics have tracked the existance of recipes back into the distant past, certainly as far into history as early Egypt, and maybe further still. However, in the main part, these old records were just very simple pictorial, hieroglyphic or cunieform instructions for food preparation.
Interestingly, the oldest recipe found, according to Professor Solomon Katz, is a collection of clay tablets in ancient Sumerian describing the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as making anyone who drank it feel wonderful. As our culinary historical trip moves on a few more years there are a couple of interesting recipe books which appeared in the 14th Century : one book entitled `Forme of Cury`, and another called `Curye on Inglish`. Surprisingly, they are nothing to do with the indian food that is served today, but instead descriptions of the types of food prepared by the cooks of the rich and powerful of the period. In the fifteenth century, the Crusaders brought back many foods and herbs from the Middle-East, including parsley, basil and rosemary. These new herbs and spices led to an outbreak in recipe manuscripts, the majority of which are kept safe in academic collections. During the succeeding few hundred years, the powerful families of Wesstern Europe competed with each other to lay on the most extravagent meals, and as a result the best cooks and their collection of recipes were highly sought after. Nevertheless, it was during the 1800s that haute cuisine and cookery books reached a high level of popularity. Mrs Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, spent years to collating, testing, and recording recipes for their fellow cooks to enjoy. By the arrival of the 1900s, recipe publications were in high demand, mostly as a result of increased literacy, people having more leisure time and being a little richer. Like it or not, the introduction of television brought us cooking programs and the demand for the accompanying recipe books. Which brings us neatly to the present day and the invention of the internet, allowing everyone to access massive numbers of recipes like those on this recipe site. |
We hope you enjoy this 1993 1st Place_ Ginger Cookies recipe.
