Drunken Gingerbread Cookies – Good Will Baking, part 1

Good Will Baking
(Good Will Baking, part 1)

 Snow?! *Incredulous*

Yes, snow. Actual, stuck to the ground, snow. I went running in it last night and it was beautiful, but now it’s just cold and icky and I’m ready for it to go away. Which, thanks to the sunshine this morning, it mostly has, but that doesn’t help me when I know it’s just going to snow more and more.

As I’ve mentioned before, there are a lot of things I love about the changing of the season, but one of the most important things to appreciate is that while it’s getting colder and colder out there, dropping into the twenties at night, I have a house, with a furnace and many comforters, being kept at a pleasant 68f. Not only that, but I have an entire kitchen full of food to stuff my face with and make me fat so I can’t feel the cold anyway.

Not everyone is so lucky as I.

Here in Washtenaw County, we have an organization called Food Gatherer’s – a large non-profit organization first founded by Zingerman’s Delicatessen back in 1988. Since then, they’ve become responsible for the county’s food bank, and have been able to provide over 12,000 meals a day to those in need – now transporting more than 8 tons of food per day through donations and food drives.
Being entirely non-profit, Food Gatherer’s relies heavily on volunteers from the community and donations, both monetary and edible, from individuals and local businesses.

food-gatherers

The Holiday season is by far their hardest time – as the temperature drops and the number of people in need of assistance rises, there is a bigger push than ever for volunteers. In the past I’ve done what I could, taking the time to do food drives (trick-or-treating for canned goods, for instance), and this year would have liked to volunteer for kitchen duty on their busiest day of the year – Thanksgiving. This year, however, I won’t be here for Thanksgiving… I’ll be in Chicago.

Since I won’t be able to volunteer, personally, this season, I thought the least I could do would be to make a donation.

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A couple of weeks ago, I spent an entire day making cookies – something like two hundred cookies – and over the following few days sold them to friends in and around Ann Arbor, all proceeds to go to Food Gatherer’s. My sincere gratitude to everyone who bought some, because once all was sold and done I had well over a hundred dollars to donate.

My initial plan had been to compile all of these cookie recipes, and more, into a short e-CookBook (once again in promotion of Food Gatherer’s, and food banks everywhere), but time has not allowed. Still, I can’t help but feel the need to draw attention to the fact that the holidays are  not, for everyone so lucky as me, a time of festivity and feasting. Some people have bigger problems than worrying about over-eating this Thanksgiving.

Even if donating your time isn’t an option, the handy-dandy interwebs have made it easier than ever to donate a dollar. To donate to Food Gatherers, or to find out about volunteering, visit their website: http://www.foodgatherers.org/

______________________________________

Since I wasn’t able to put together my little e-Book this year, I hope to use the progress I’ve made to do it next year (hence this being ‘Part 1’). In the meantime, I’ll share with you one of the recipes I plan to include.

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Drunken Gingerbread Cookies
(Adapted from America’s Test Kitchen’s Holiday Cookies 2010 orange gingerbread with rum glaze)

3 Cups all-purpose flour
1 TBSP cinnamon
1 TBSP ground ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
3/4 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 Cups dark brown sugar, packed
3/4 Cups molasses
12 TBSP (1.5 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into chunks and softened slightly (if using salted butter, just leave out the salt)
3 TBSP rum

For the glaze:
2 Cups confectioner’s sugar
2-4 TBSP rum

Method:

In a food processor, combine brown sugar and all dry ingredients with a few pulses. Add the butter and process until grainy or sandy looking. Add the molasses and rum, and blend until the dough comes together.
Divide the dough in half and roll out to 1/4 – 1/2 inch thickness between two sheets of parchment paper – refrigerate for at least one hour or overnight, or chill in the freezer for 20 minutes.
Preheat oven to 350f.
Once firm, take the dough out of the fridge or freezer and cut out with the cookie cutter of your choice. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet, leaving a good inch or so between the cookies. Bake until the middles have just barely set, about 8-11 minutes, rotating the baking sheet halfway through. Cool the cookies on the sheet for 4-5 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

While the cookies cool, mix together confectioner’s sugar and 2 TBSP of rum, then gradually add up to 2 more TBSP until the icing is a thick but spreadable consistency.

Once the cookies are completely cooled, spread a big dollop of icing on each one – let dry before serving.

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(Warning: these cookies pack a bit of a punch. Watch out for the gingerbread men mingling with the spiked eggnog!)

Still hungry? Try these:

25 Responses to Drunken Gingerbread Cookies – Good Will Baking, part 1

  1. Jesica @ Pencil Kitchen November 20, 2011 at 12:44 am #

    such a cute gingerbread man!!!

  2. Willow November 20, 2011 at 1:59 am #

    Thanks! He took a few tries to get right. :P

  3. Jo November 20, 2011 at 3:02 am #

    Hi there,

    I’d like to introduce to you a new website http://www.foodepix.com that we have
    just recently launched. Foodepix is a photo gallery of delicious and mouth
    watering food.

    We’ve seen your blog and we love your pictures and recipes. We would love
    to invite you to register with foodepix.com and upload your pictures.

    Hope to see you there. :)

    Thanks.

  4. Vanilla Moment November 20, 2011 at 10:15 am #

    LOL.. couldn’t love it more – the drunken gingerbread man!

  5. Tine November 20, 2011 at 11:16 am #

    That drunken gingerbread man is so cool!

  6. Marjorie (sugar for the brain) November 20, 2011 at 2:23 pm #

    Hahaha you made me laugh with your gingerbread cookie! At first I thought he was very relax in a spa or something!

  7. Willow November 20, 2011 at 2:50 pm #

    @ Jo – thanks for the invite! I’ll definitely register.

    @ Vanilla Moment, Tine, and Marjorie – glad you all like the inebriated gingerbread man, he was definitely worth the extra effort. :)

  8. Torviewtoronto November 20, 2011 at 9:25 pm #

    delicious looking cookies for the season

  9. Willow November 20, 2011 at 10:47 pm #

    Thanks – definitely a (grown-up) crowd pleaser.

  10. Averie @ Love Veggies and Yoga November 21, 2011 at 6:36 am #

    Just saw these on FG. They are adorable and love the food styling with the splayed out drunken gingerbread man. Awesome!

  11. Willow November 21, 2011 at 2:20 pm #

    Thanks – FG is great, isn’t it? :D

  12. Sarah November 21, 2011 at 3:30 pm #

    Hah! That picture is too good to pass up. I will absolutely be making these over the holidays. And love the suggestions for places to volunteer, what a great thing to include in a post!

  13. Willow November 21, 2011 at 5:32 pm #

    Thank you so much – I hope you enjoy the cookies!

  14. bananamondaes November 22, 2011 at 8:22 pm #

    That gingerbread man is sozzled! Hilarious.

  15. Willow November 22, 2011 at 9:06 pm #

    Haha – Sozzled is the perfect word for it!

  16. Bruce November 24, 2011 at 11:58 am #

    Thanks for a great blog
    Ginger Bread cake

  17. Willow November 27, 2011 at 7:56 pm #

    Glad you like it.

  18. Anonymous December 12, 2011 at 6:12 am #

    How much of a punch do these pack exactly? like can I feed them to kids?

  19. Willow December 12, 2011 at 2:46 pm #

    If you eat a bunch of them you won’t get tipsy or anything, but they may taste strong enough that kids wouldn’t be a fan. It’s a personal judgment call, but if you’re at all worried about it just use a little less rum than is called for. The extra liquid can be replaced by milk or water in the recipe.

  20. Anonymous December 17, 2011 at 4:29 am #

    How did you make the man in the cup, I tried using a muffin tin but no luck

  21. Willow December 17, 2011 at 2:57 pm #

    Well, that’s a long story. First, I tried propping his limbs up in the oven with balled up parchment paper, but he ended up flattening those out as he baked. Then I tried taking him, still slightly warm, and draping him into the cup – but he broke.
    Then… and here’s the secret… I filled the cup not with milk, but with a thick mixture of milk and flour to help support him. I draped him, still warm, into the cup and dolloped on some more of the ‘milk’ mixture to keep him weighted.

    If I were to do it again I might try proping his limbs up in the oven with something that wouldn’t flatten down so easily, like aluminum-foil wrapped silverwear or something.

    Hope that helps. It was a bit of a struggle, but I’m sure it could be done easier/better than I did… just be creative!

    -Willow

    • Anonymous November 17, 2012 at 9:29 pm #

      impressive!

  22. Madame Samm February 3, 2012 at 12:01 am #

    Great recipe….thanks for the laugh

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