Butterscotch Toffee Gingerbread Cookies

I don't do a whole lot of gingerbread at my house.  I don't think it is top of our list of flavors, but we still like it.  I found this recipe ages ago, and have been saving it for my Christmas baking!  These chewy gingerbread cookies are loaded with butterscotch chips and chunks of Heath toffee bars.  The sweet butterscotch and toffee are perfect with the spicy gingerbread.  An interesting, but winning combination.

Butterscotch Toffee Gingerbread Cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons cornstarch
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 1/4 cup butterscotch chips
1 1/4 cup chopped Heath bars

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. 

Cream together the butter and brown sugar until smooth.  Beat in the molasses and vanilla until incorporated.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until blended.  Add the flour, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves, and beat until just incorporated.  Stir in the butterscotch chips and chopped Heath bars.

Scoop the dough into tablespoon size balls and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 9 minutes, or until the tops are set.  Remove from the oven and let cool for several minutes on the pan.  Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Makes about 56 cookies.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy

Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls with Mascarpone Frosting

These cinnamon rolls!  I made these for our Christmas morning breakfast, and they were so amazing, I think I ate 3 of them!!  They are soft and gooey and full of warm gingerbread flavor.  And the frosting!! You know I have a weakness for mascarpone, and this frosting did not disappoint!  

Gingerbread Cinnamon Rolls

Dough:
1 1/4 cups warm water
1/4 cup molasses
1 egg
1/4 cup powdered milk
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup shortening
1/2 cup mashed potato flakes
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1 Tablespoon instant yeast
3 to 3 1/2 cups all purpose flour

Filling:
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon cloves
3 to 4 Tablespoons butter, melted

Mascarpone Frosting:
2 Tablespoons butter, room temperature
1/2 cup (4 ounces) mascarpone cheese
1 cup powdered sugar

For the dough, in the bowl of a stand mixer (or by hand), combine all of the dough ingredients (starting with 3 cups of flour), and mix until a soft dough forms, adding the remaining 1/2 cup of flour if necessary.  Knead the dough, either with the dough hook of your stand mixer, or by hand, until the dough is smooth and elastic.  Place the dough in a greased bowl, and grease the top of the dough.  Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 350F.  For the filling, combine the brown sugar,granulated sugar, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves.  Roll the dough into a large rectangle.  Spread the melted butter over the dough.  Sprinkle the filling mixture evenly over the buttered dough.  Roll up the dough, starting at the widest edge, and pinch the seam to seal.  Cut the dough into 12 rolls, using a knife or dental floss, and place in a greased 9x13 inch pan, and press down slightly on the top of the rolls.  

Cover with plastic wrap and let rise for about 30 minutes. (At this point, you can cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.  Remove the rolls from the fridge while you preheat the oven, then bake as usual).  After the rolls have risen, remove the plastic wrap and bake the cinnamon rolls in the preheated oven for about 20 to 25 minutes, or until golden brown.  Let cool slightly before frosting.  

For the frosting, combine the butter and mascarpone cheese until smooth.  Stir in the powdered sugar, a little at a time until well blended and smooth.  Spread the frosting over the warm cinnamon rolls.  Makes 12 cinnamon rolls.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy

Triple Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

My oldest Hungry Puppy has been learning about persuasive writing in school.  The assignment was to write a persuasive letter to Santa.  Well, she brought it home on Friday and I had a chance to read it, and I think that she's getting the art of persuasion down pretty well!  I definitely think that Santa may have a change of heart after reading that persuasive letter.  Anyhow, she told Santa that she was planning on leaving out chocolate gingerbread cookies and chocolate milk for his snack.  This was the first time I had heard anything about chocolate gingerbread cookies from either of my Hungry Puppies, but I obviously had to make some so Santa wouldn't be disappointed.  I used this recipe as an outline, and changed it to fit what my Hungry Puppy had envisioned, a chocolate gingerbread cookie with 2 kinds of chocolate chips.  The cookies turned out delicious! We've never had chocolate and gingerbread together before, but it was definitely a hit!

Triple Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour
2 Tablespoons cocoa powder
2 teaspoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) butter, room temperature
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons molasses
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, cornstarch, baking soda, salt, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and allspice.  Set aside.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar until smooth.  Add the molasses, egg, and vanilla extract, and beat until fluffy.  Beat in the flour mixture until just barely combined.  Beat in the semi sweet and milk chocolate chips until evenly distributed.

Scoop the dough into tablespoon size balls and place on the prepared baking sheet.  Bake in the preheated oven for about 9 minutes, or until the tops are just set.  Remove the cookies from the oven and let cool on the pan for a couple of minutes, then transfer the cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.  Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy

Gingerbread Oreo Blondies

I've had a package of Gingerbread Oreos sitting around for about a month, and decided that I needed to do something with them.  Before it turned out to be March and there was no longer a desire for gingerbread anything.  I patterned these blondies after the Mint Oreo Brownies that I made some time ago, and they turned out amazing.  They have a good gingerbread flavor that is not overpowering.  Definitely a win.

Gingerbread Oreo Blondies

1/2 cup butter, melted
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
10 gingerbread Oreo cookies, chopped

2 Tablespoons shortening
2 Tablespoons butter
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon milk
1/2 7-ounce container marshmallow cream
1/4 cup plus 2 Tablespoons white chocolate chips, melted and cooled slightly
10 gingerbread Oreo cookies, chopped

Preheat the oven to 350F.  Grease a 9 inch square baking pan.

In a bowl, stir together the melted butter and brown sugar.  Beat in the egg and vanilla.  Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and nutmeg, and stir until combined.  Stir in the white chocolate chips and chopped Oreo cookies.

Spread the batter into the prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Remove from oven and let cool completely before frosting.

While the blondies are cooling, make the frosting.  In a bowl, beat together the shortening, butter, powdered sugar, ginger, vanilla, and milk until smooth.  Beat in the marshmallow cream and melted white chocolate.  Spread the frosting over the top of the cooled blondies.  Sprinkle the chopped Oreo cookies evenly over the frosting and press in slightly.  Cut into squares.  Makes 12 blondies.

Enjoy!  -Cardamommy

Birthday Gingerbread Christmas Tree

Today is my best friend's birthday (Happy birthday, Best Friend!). Instead of requesting her usual German Chocolate Cake, though, she requested a gingerbread house. I was really excited about this because gingerbread houses are a tradition in my family, but I have never been the one to make the gingerbread or the pieces to the house. I started looking for templates and found one just in time for my friend to change her mind about what she wanted. She sent me this link and told me she wanted a gingerbread Christmas tree. No problem, right?

I was super excited to try this out! I used Cardamommy's gingerbread recipe (which came together absolutely beautifully) and while it was chilling, I drew and cut out all the patterns (yep, I made every single pattern I used for this) and planned more or less what I hoped it would look like. When all the pieces were baked, I started to assemble them. As it came together I got more and more excited because it was looking so good. Then it came to the icing part. I really didn't want to mess it up with this stage of the project. Being a college student, I don't have a lot of kitchen tools. Such as an icing kit. So I improvised by snipping jagged edges off the tip of a bag in order to get a textured pipe. Fortunately, my little contraptions all worked out for me and soon I was icing like crazy. For the sake of time and lack of equipment, I did not try Cardamommy's icing recipe. Rather, I simply snagged some vanilla icing from my dear friend Betty Crocker. I soon found it to be extremely soft, so i added some powdered sugar to make it a little sturdier. This was really helpful for the icicles because the original frosting was so soft it all sort of dropped off, giving me a melty effect rather than a frozen one. The resmaining frosting was  mixed with some food dye to provide clothing for our poor (previously) naked gingerbread couple or swooped around on the plate in order to create a drift-like effect. When I was finished I sprinkled my little scene ever so slightly with powdered sugar for some fresh snow.

I'm pretty proud and impressed with myself, actually. For having no cookie cutters, patterns, icing kits, mixers, etc etc and for it being the first time around, I'd say I didn't do too badly. I have to warn you, though. If you decide to do it this way, be prepared to spend 8 hours doing everything. This is coming from my very much fatigued brain (which is wondering why I'm still up at 4:25AM).

Hopefully this all makes sense. The real point, though, is to wish my absolutely wonderful and very best friend a very very happy birthday!

Love,

Coriaunty

PS--If want my pattern for the tree with specific instructions, email cardamommyandcoriaunty@gmail.com