From Marja Cartwright
1. Mix together butter, sugar and molasses. 2. Mix flour, soda and spices. Mix 1 and 2 with warm water. Knead dough on the table until it doesn’t stick to your hands anymore. LET REST UNTIL THE NEXT DAY.
Roll to about 1/8in thick sheet. Cut out figures. Keep the rest of the dough in the fridge while you’re working with a bit at a time. You know when you have leftover bits around the cookies that you’ve cut out? Squish them together and put them back in the fridge before trying to cut cookies out of them again. Bake in oven at 325F for 8 to 10 minutes. Take out the cookies while they’re still a little puffy.
When cool, decorate with frosting. Traditionally you should eat almost as much frosting as you put on the cookies while you’re doing the decorating. (Shhh! Don’t tell Mom!)
Alice’s notes: Yes, you need to let the dough rest in the fridge. Yes, you should roll it out very thin. Yes, this recipe makes about a billion cookies. Even half this recipe makes a billion. These cookies improve with age – make them early in the season and keep eating them till New Year’s.
This is a Finnish recipe from Marja who had almost as much influence over the first 12 years of my life as my own mother did. I can’t imagine Christmas without these cookies. They are very yummy and I always eat enough to give myself a headache.
From Debbie Gift
Cream together:
Mix:
Add mixed dry ingredients to creamed sugar with
Make teaspoon-sized balls, roll in powdered sugar. Flatten with a fork (make a criss-cross). Bake at 350F 10-12 minutes.
From Jessica Branom-Zwick
Core the apples. Mix the other ingredients to make a crumbly sweet topping. Stuff the apples. Bake at 350 until looking browned and bubbly. I highly recommend using a baking mat to make cleaning up easier.
From Julie Enevoldsen
Mix everything, and let sit for 15 minutes before adding to your crust.
Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes, then 350°F until your crust is nicely browned and your filling is bubbling out the cracks in the crust.
Cool for 45 minutes to an hour. Eat!
To make half a pie, I use a small oval casserole and use these amounts instead:
Mix the dry ingredients lightly in the pie dish. Whisk the wet ingredients together. Pour the wet mix into the dry mix and toss together with a fork. As it becomes a dough, press it into the shape of the pie dish. Chill 30 minutes before adding the filling.
To make a top crust increase the flour to 2 Cups, and press/roll the dough onto a flexible non-stick surface. Freeze for 30 minutes. Pull it out of the freezer at the same time you pull the bottom crust out of the fridge. Allow it to warm slightly as you fill the bottom crust. Flip the top onto the pie, and pull off the non-stick surface (I use baking mats). Trim the edges, make your pattern in the top, and bake. You can also sprinkle sugar on top if you like.
Lemon-Flower
Blackberry
Shoo-Fly
To make half a pie, I use a small oval casserole (like this, but just pick something the right size) and use these amounts instead:
I use All-Purpose white flour – if you love whole wheat I’d do several experiments instead of using this recipe as is. Heat a bowl. I do this by running the backside of the bowl under hot water until it doesn’t feel cool anymore. Put your hot water in the heated bowl. Add sugar and oil in with the hot water (the goal is to have warm, happy, well-fed yeast).
Add yeast to your hot water mix. Stir once. Wait until the yeast starts to digest the sugars (you’ll see it “bloom” or get foamy). This is the best part! This should take 2-5 minutes.
In a separate bowl mix two cups of flour, the ground Sencha, and the ground ginger. Add one cup of the flour mixture. Stir. Add another cup of the flour mixture. Stir. Add a third cup of flour, knead in.
If you need more flour, keep adding and kneading – you want to have dough that forms a ball and stays that shape. Don’t worry about overkneading, but also don’t add more flour than you need just because the recipe calls for 3-5 cups. If it’s stiff enough after just 2.5 cups, let it be – you’re done.
Oil a second bowl. Use the same oil you used in the bread.
Place the dough in the bowl, turn once to get it coated in oil
Let rise until it’s doubled in size, covered and warm (About 45 minutes). I preheat my oven to about ~100F (I know, you can’t do that, I just turn it on for 10 minutes and then turn it off and keep it closed, and rise the bread in there).
Punch down, add candied ginger, knead once or twice, and place in a loaf pan.
Let rise again for at least 15 more minutes, but up to 45.
Bake at 350° F for 45 minutes.
Let cool. Slice. Eat. I think it would taste good with honey.
Scone and Tea Image ©2011 Jason Gift Enevoldsen
From Alice Enevoldsen
Freeze your palm oil, but measure it first. You can make this with room-temp fat, but I’ve had very good luck with frozen. I try to freeze 6 tbsp more every time I use up the 6 tbsp in my freezer.
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Sift the flour as you measure it. Yes really. If you want flaky scones this is a must. Sift your dry ingredients together.
If you’re using frozen palm oil, I recommend shaving it with a sharp knife on a cutting board and then adding it to your dry ingredients.
Cut the fat into the dry ingredients. I prefer to use a pastry cutter, but you can also use two knives. You’re aiming for an end result that is the consistency of really coarse cornmeal. I usually don’t get quite that far. Add any dried fruit you might like raisins and dried cranberries work well.
Add oat milk. Stir as few times as possible, but get it evenly combined. The dough will be wet. Pat into a 1-inch thick flat round on a well-floured cutting board. Turn over to get flour on both sides. Cut into 8 pie-slices. Bake for ~12 minutes. I usually start with 9 and then check. You want them to be lightly browned at the edges.
Let cool. Eat.
Scones Image ©2011 Jason Gift Enevoldsen
via my friend Corinne Cooley
Mix dry ingredients in 8in circle pan or 9x9in square pan. Mix wet ingredients. Stir into dry ingredients. Bake for 45 minutes at 350°F
Prep time: 5 minutes Bake time: 45 minutes
The cake turns out moist and yummy – it is originally from a vegan cookbook. It is also closely related to a recipe my mom calls “Atomic Cake” – because it is super-fast to make.
This is the world’s easiest and most flexible cake recipe. Double it. Triple it. Make it into muffins. Top it with brown frosting and as many colors of sprinkles as you can find (this is where the name “Ugly” cake comes from).
