Gingerbread Cookies Duff Goldman Recipes

Steps:

• Add dry yeast to warm or room-temperature milk, let stand for 20 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
• Cream the butter and the sugar until light and fluffy.
• Slowly add and combine the yeast mixture, and the extracts.
• In a separate bowl whisk together the cake flour, all-purpose flour and salt and gradually add them to your mixture. Caution: Do not over mix, but make sure to keep your mixture homogenous.
• Prepare a cookie sheet with pan spray and drop spoonfuls of dough 3 to 4 inches apart. Bake until the edges begin to brown, 20 to 25 minutes.
• Let cool to room temperature before decorating.
• Place chocolate into 2 separate bowls, 1 for dark and 1 for white. Slowly boil the cream in 2 separate pots. Pour 1 pot cream over the dark and 1 pot over the white and let chocolate melt. Whisk each until smooth.
• To decorate: While the ganache is slightly warm, have fun with it. Maybe some of it will even end up on the cookies!
• Yield: 1 pint each

Steps:

• In a big bowl, combine the butter, sugar, lemon zest, salt and vanilla and mix until smooth and fluffy. Stir in the baking powder, taking care to mix well. Add the eggs and egg yolk and stir well. Add the flours and gently stir until a smooth ball forms. Wrap the dough in plastic and put in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F and line a baking sheet (or sheets) with parchment paper (no cooking spray).
• On a floured surface, roll out tennis ball-size pieces of dough to about 1/4 inch thick and cut out the shapes you want. Lay them on the prepared baking sheet, leaving at least 1/4 inch between each cookie.
• Bake for 8 minutes, or until lightly golden. Let the cookies cool on a wire rack, then decorate them however you like with Royal Icing and your favorite sprinkles.
• Using a stand mixer and the whisk attachment, whip most of the powdered sugar with most of the other ingredients. Whip for 5 to 8 minutes, or until the royal icing holds its shape and is bright white (not translucent). If it is too soft, add more powdered sugar. If it is too stiff, add a bit more liquid, drop by drop. If you are using only one color, add a few drops of the color at this point and keep whipping until you have the shade you want; otherwise, proceed to the next step.
• To store royal icing, the ideal way is to scrape it out of the bowl and into a plastic, disposable piping bag, then leave it at room temperature. Don't cut the bag until you're ready to use the royal icing, and don't overfill the bag--you want enough room to tie the back of the bag off to keep the royal icing airtight. If any air comes into contact with the royal icing, it gets hard and that part of the icing is useless. Never attempt to mix the hard bits back into the royal icing--you'll ruin the whole batch. The other accepted method of storing royal icing is to scrape it into a plastic or ceramic bowl, and cover it with a wet paper towel. This method works, but it wastes both paper towels and royal icing. It's also just annoying. When you're piping small designs, you want to use very small parchment piping bags. It's easy to stick the nose of a large piping bag into a smaller one and extract exactly how much you'll need. When the icing is in a bowl, you have to use a spoon to get it out. The spoon is difficult to get into a piping bag, and you'll keep using spoons and wasting royal icing. Get with the times people. Do it right and don't waste food.

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and spray a baking sheet or sheets with cooking spray.
• In a big bowl, mix the sugar, butter, peanut butter, molasses, vanilla, baking powder and salt until it's all one color. Add the bananas and mash them up real good in there.
• Add the flour and gently mix until incorporated, with no lumps.
• Fold in the chocolate chips, pretzel pieces and bacon.
• Using two spoons, form balls about the size of a large walnut and drop them on the prepared baking sheet(s) at least 2 inches apart. Place the sheet(s) in the fridge to chill for 10 minutes.
• Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden on the outside and super gooey in the middle, just like the King would want them. Let cool on a wire rack off the baking sheet.
• Find this recipe and more in Duff Bakes: Think and Bake Like a Pro at Home ($27.50, William Morrow).

Steps:

• For the cookies: In a medium bowl, combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, cloves and salt. In a big bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar together with a wooden spoon or a hand mixer. Mix in the molasses and egg until smooth, then add the flour mixture and mix until well combined. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1 to 2 hours. On a floured surface, roll out the dough to about 1/8-inch thickness. Freeze it flat on a baking sheet for 20 to 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Lightly spray the paper with cooking spray. Use your preferred cookie cutters to stamp out shapes (or use a paring knife and architect the gingerbread home of your dreams), then transfer the shapes to the prepared baking sheets. Bake until the dough no longer looks shiny, 18 to 20 minutes. Let cool on the sheets for 10 minutes, then transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely. For the royal icing: Using a stand mixer and the whisk attachment, whip most of the powdered sugar with the egg whites and most of the lemon juice. Whip until the icing holds its shape and is bright white (not translucent), 5 to 8 minutes. If it is too soft, add more powdered sugar. If it is too stiff, add a bit more lemon juice, drop by drop. If you are using color, add a few drops of it at this point and keep whipping until you have a shade you want. Pipe the royal icing onto the cooled cookies to decorate. To store royal icing: The ideal way is to scrape it out of the bowl and into a plastic, disposable piping bag, then leave it at room temperature. Don't cut the bag until you're ready to use the royal icing and don't overfill the bag--you want enough room to tie the back of the bag off to keep the icing airtight. If any air comes into contact with the icing, it gets hard and that part of the icing is useless. Never attempt to mix hard bits back into the royal icing--you'll ruin the whole batch. The other accepted method of storing the icing is to scrape it into a plastic or ceramic bowl, and cover it with a wet paper towel. This method works, but it wastes both paper towels and royal icing. It's also just annoying. When you're piping small designs, you want to use very small parchment piping bags. It's easy to stick the nose of a large piping bag into a small one and extract exactly how much you need. When the icing is in a bowl, you have to use a spoon to get it out. The spoon is difficult to get into a piping bag, and you keep using spoons and wasting royal icing. Cook's Note You can also make the royal icing with meringue powder instead of egg whites. Use 4 cups powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons meringue powder and 5 to 7 tablespoons water. Using a stand mixer and the whisk attachment, whip most of the powdered sugar with the meringue powder and most of the water. Whip until the icing holds its shape and is bright white (not translucent), 5 to 8 minutes. If it is too soft, add more powdered sugar. If it is too stiff, add a bit more water, drop by drop. You can also substitute royal icing powder. CK Products brand is my favorite.