Homemade Gingerbread Loaf

Happy Holidays, readers!  Being that Christmas was a few days ago, I was very busy in the kitchen baking homemade goods for everyone in my family.  Altogether on Christmas Eve, I made three gingerbread loaves, a chocolate cake, and a coconut cake.  Not to mention that I put together two buffalo chicken dips for appetizers as well!  I enjoyed making the homemade gingerbread because it was a new recipe that I tried, and it is seasonally appropriate, which is why I am sharing it today.  This recipe makes an old fashioned gingerbread loaf that can be enjoyed for breakfast or as a dessert.

Ingredients:

2 tsp. ground ginger
2 eggs
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1 1/2 cups flour 
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup milk
1 stick butter, melted
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/2 cup molasses 
1 tsp. confectionary sugar (optional)

Instructions:

In a mixing bowl, mix together the flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt.  In a separate bowl, mix the sugar and the melted butter, and then add in the eggs, vanilla, milk, syrup, and molasses.  Thoroughly combine these ingredients, and then add these into the dry ingredients.  Mix everything together, being careful not to mix it too much or the batter will be stiff.  Pour the batter into a non-stick loaf pan, and bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes.  When it's done, you can sprinkle a bit of confectionary sugar on top of the loaf before serving. 

Enjoy!

This is a photo of the coconut cake that I baked - it came out great!

 

Christmas Cookies

This weekend, my boyfriend and I started a new tradition by baking Christmas cookies together.  Although our kitchen was quite the mess afterwords, it was fun and we ended up with some great cookies!  So today I'm sharing a classic recipe for Peanut Butter Blossoms, and a recipe that was new to me, for Candy Cane Cookies.  

Here are the recipes; each yields two dozen cookies.

Peanut Butter Blossoms

Ingredients:

1/2 cup peanut butter
1 egg
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 stick butter, softened to room temperature
24 Hershey kisses 

Instructions:

In a mixer, cream together the peanut butter, butter, sugar, and brown sugar until it is creamy.  Next, add in the egg and vanilla and mix all of this together.  Now, add the flour, salt, and baking soda.  Mix slowly until all of the dry ingredients are incorporated and the dough is thoroughly blended.  Form the dough into balls, and place onto a baking sheet.  Bake these at 350 degrees for about 12 minutes.  While they are baking, unwrap all of the Hershey kisses.  When the cookies come out of the oven, press one of the Hershey kisses into the center of each one of the cookies.  Enjoy!

 

Candy Cane Cookies

Ingredients:

1 egg
3 cups flour
1/2 tsp. red food coloring
1 tsp. peppermint extract (optional; you can also use almond extract instead)
1 cup powdered sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. vanilla 
2 sticks butter, softened to room temperature 
 
Instructions:

Cream together the butter and sugar in a mixer.  When it's smooth, add the egg and vanilla.  Traditionally these cookies are made with a peppermint flavor, but you can opt to use almond extract instead if peppermint isn't your favorite flavor.  You can also leave out either flavor and have a really wonderful sugary and buttery cookie instead.  After adding the egg and vanilla, if you are using the peppermint or almond extract, add it in now, and mix everything together.  Once it's mixed well, add the flour and salt and mix slowly until everything is incorporated.  Once the dough is done, you are going to take half of it and flatten it into a circle and then wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge.  With the other half of the dough still in your mixing bowl, add the red food coloring and mix it in until your dough is a bright red color.  Now, press this dough into a circle as well and wrap in plastic wrap, and then place this in the fridge.  Leave the dough in the fridge for about an hour.  Once it's been an hour, take your dough out of the fridge and get ready for the fun part.  You can either roll the dough out and cut each circle of dough into 24 strips of equal size.  Or, you can pinch the dough into pieces of equal size, which is what I did.  Once you have the strips or the pieces ready, you are going to roll each one and then twist together a red piece with a regular dough piece and form them into candy cane shapes.  Lay all of these onto baking sheets and bake at 350 degrees for about 12-14 minutes, or until the ends of the candy canes start to look golden brown.  These are done!  Enjoy them with a mug of hot cocoa or coffee, or even just a glass of milk.  

Here are the circles of dough prior to being refrigerated.

This is what the cookies looked like before being put into the oven.

The finished product!

Can't wait to enjoy these with a hot cup of cocoa!

 

Enjoy!!!