Gingerbread cookies

When people think about the holidays, they think about gingerbread cookies and houses, egg nog, peppermint bark and shopping 'til you drop.  That's most people.  Me?  I think of peanut butter fudge, but I have an somewhat obsessive relationship with peanut butter.  I HAVE to have it.

Anyway, I digress.  Since not everyone shares my opinion on the peanut butter thing, I have to satisfy the cravings of my family for the normal holiday faire.  My dear husband does not have a particularly sweet tooth (seems almost unnatural doesn't it?), so I decided to start with gingerbread cookies.  

I shopped for recipes and stumbled across this one from Glorious Treats.  I went to work making the dough and boy, about that dough.  There's a ton of it....and it's thick.  My poor KitchenAid was begging for mercy.  It was all worth it in the end though.  To say there were a lot of cookies would be an understatement.  

The first thing I noticed was the aroma coming from the oven.  It was heavenly.  I decided to try one, and I was glad I did.  I might just be tempted to come to the "normal" side of holiday treats!  They were fantastic.  You control whether or not the cookies are crispy or soft by the thickness of the dough.  

A note about the frosting...the first time I made the frosting, I added too much water and the frosting was way too thin.  It slid right off the cookies.  The second time around, I added a bit of clear corn syrup (because the powdered sugar just isn't sweet enough), and that seemed to do the trick.  

My husband was drawn to the kitchen by the aforementioned heavenly smell of these cookies baking.  He found me decorating these.  He is a very artistic person, so I think his interest was piqued.  He asked me if he could help decorate them.  Against my better judgment, I agreed.  I gave him the piping bag and he went to work.  Within 5 seconds, I see frosting spewing from his hand like lava from a volcano.  He looked at me like I was going to beat him.  That man and his Kung Fu grip, I tell ya'.  We had a good laugh about it, and it's something that we will remember every time gingerbread cookies are made.

Chocolate Chip Cookies as good as grandma made...or close to it.

My love of baking comes from my grandmother.  She was your stereotypical housewife.  They believed in living a simple life.  They had no television, and she would wash the clothes in an old wringer machine.  The clothes would then be hung on the line to dry, winter or summer.  She ironed everything, from my grandfather's cloth hankies to sheets, everything got ironed.  

I stayed with my grandmother while my parents worked, so we spent a lot of time together.  Once a week she would say "time to make the chocolate chip cookies" and she would get to work.  I can still see her as she would measure the ingredients and mix up the batter.  She used the "2 spoon" method to drop the batter onto the cookie sheet.  I can remember how the cookies smelled as they came out of the oven.  

My grandmother has been gone for 9 years now; but she was not able to bake for quite some time before she passed.  When she passed, my step-mother got some of her recipes.  She has been trying to replicate the chocolate chip cookies, among other things, with little success.  My father and uncle say "Nope, it's close but not like Mom used to make."  

Well...when I was leaving home many, many years ago to get married, I noticed that my mother's Grange Hall cookbook jumped into one of my moving boxes (honest, it did that all by itself!).  Over the years, I have been perusing through the pages of this cookbook.  I found this chocolate chip cookie recipe.  The ingredients sounded similar to what I remember from all those years ago with my grandmother.  I decided to give it a go.  I'm so glad I did!  These cookies taste just like hers did.  Whenever I make these, I think of her and the many things she taught me all those years ago.  I miss her, and what I would not give to have her back just for a little while to give me more tips and pointers along the way.

Here is the chocolate chip cookie recipe:

ingredients:

1/2 cup soft shortening (I use stick margarine)

3/4 cup sugar (half brown sugar/half granulated)

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1-1/8 cup flour (measure before sifting)

1/4 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup nuts (optional)

1 small package of chocolate chips

Mix together the shortening, sugar, egg and vanilla.  (I used my KitchenAid and let it go for about 5 minutes).  Stir in the sifted dry ingredients and add nuts and chips.  Drop by teaspoons 2 inches apart on a lightly greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 375 degrees for 8 minutes.  Yield: 2 dozen