gingerbread

Life is getting back to normal after the big snowstorm….it was fall still on Monday, but by Tuesday night—all winter. It’s 8 degrees out right now. That was quick. Tuesday evening I drove to a party for work, taking the side roads the whole way, and it was tedious driving, but so beautiful, the snow falling and city lights, Christmas trees in the windows.

The windows here are frosty and the kitchen floor is icy. It’s on the north side of the house with only crawl space underneath. Little Jay reminded us Tuesday night as the snow fell, that his air conditioner was still in the window and needed to come out. Whoops. How’d we forget that?

Wednesday we had little Mr. b.g. here for the day. He’s three months old now, a downy, friendly little lump with creamy, milky skin like Dan had when he was a baby. Last week he couldn’t reach for toys yet. This week he grabs them between his paws and shoves them in his mouth. He arrived here at 6:15 yesterday morning and we tucked him in our bed in the middle, and he told us stories--funny stories evidently, because he’d pause and chuckle.

After a while Jay dragged himself from our warm bed to go deal with the driveway and possibly get some work done. I asked him if there was anything I could do to help? (Yeah, right.) He laughed at me. I said, “Okay, I’ll just help b.g. keep his pacifier in then. That’ll be my job.”

After that little sweetheart fell asleep on his grandpa’s pillow, I frosted and stacked the gingerbread in tins. It’s all sealed up now, aging. When it’s first baked, it doesn’t really taste like anything. It smells good, but not much flavor. After a few days though, it turns rich and chewy.

Monday night, we mixed up the dough—8 batches of it. It’s a mess, boiling the molasses and honey and all that, trying to stir that much flour in. Jay has to stir it the last little way. Tuesday night, Lydia helped me with the rolling and cutting, also a tough job. The dough is like cement after it’s chilled overnight, but if it isn’t chilled like that, then it’s just a sloppy mess. Anyway, if this weren’t the most delicious gingerbread in the world, I wouldn’t deal with this year after year.

Here’s the recipe, in case you want to give it a try. It’s an old, old Betty Crocker recipe called Lebkuchen.

The amounts are for 8 batches, which makes about 12 dozen. The size cooky—I cut them with a water tumbler, just because I don’t have a round cooky cutter. The edge of the glass is about the right size.

4 c. honey and 4 c. dark molasses—bring to a boil in a big pot, allow to cool for a little while.

Then mix in: 8 eggs, ½ c. lemon juice

In the biggest container you have, mix together 22 c. flour, 6 c. dark brown sugar, 4 tsp. baking soda, 8 tsp. each cinnamon, cloves, and allspice.

(The recipe also calls for citron and nuts. I don’t do this. I'm not sure what citron is, and the kids don't like nuts.)

Now pour the molasses and honey mixture into the flour mixture and start stirring. Use a thick, heavy wooden spoon, and bring your muscles. Then when it’s all stirred, refrigerate overnight.

For baking—roll out and cut like you would any cooky dough, but know that this dough is very firm and tough to work with when it’s cold, but if you let it warm up, it turns to slop that you can’t work with either. Use plenty of flour. Flour the breadboard, flour the top of the mound, turn it and flatten with your hands before you start rolling. Roll it out to about ¼ inch thick, maybe a little more.

The cooky sheets must be greased and floured. I use cooking spray and then dust with flour. If you use a cooky sheet over again, no need to wash it first, just spray the mess again and flour it again over the first layer. It won’t matter.

Bake for about ten minutes, then transfer the cookies to cool. I just lay a brown paper bag on the counter and use that. The way you can tell these cookies are done—the surface looks dry, and when you touch it, it doesn’t dent in too much—it’s got a tiny bit of firmness to it, and the edges are possibly just barely beginning to turn brown.

When they’re cool, frost with powdered sugar frosting: beat a stick of butter, add a tiny bit of milk and keep beating, and slowly add a bag of powdered sugar, alternating with tiny splashes of milk until it’s the right consistency for spreading. Have enough butter, powdered sugar and milk on hand so you can make a second batch of frosting if you need to.

Okay, go nuts. I’m going to go sample the gingerbread, see how it’s aging today. It’s a tough job.

Oh, I just noticed that big fake bird on the table. Julia actually plays with this thing. I'm not into birds. I don't like them. But this bird--he's okay. Love, Val