Whenever I make these cookies, I inevitably find myself singing the song, "Pennies from Heaven."
Because these cookies are, without a doubt, pennies from heaven.
Today's recipe if from my favorite Christmas cookie book, although most of you will know the author for her number one selling book, The Cake Bible.
Rose's Christmas Cookies, by Rose Levy Beranbaum, is brilliant. Each recipe is thoughtfully presented by measure and weight (both ounces and grams) much like in The Cake Bible. All the recipes come out perfectly, and they taste amazing.
Some favorites among the many include her Orange-Chocolate Paradise Bars, Praline Truffle Cups, Mahogany Buttercrunch Toffee, Springerle, and her cleverly named Bone à Fidos - dog biscuits! And, of course, these Ginger Pennies.
I made these ginger disks first for a holiday party Mark and I had for our coworkers when we lived in Maine. The ginger pennies were a tremendous success, and I remember people just standing by the bowl, popping them in their mouths like peanuts at a bar.
It was a gratifying sight.
Most recently, I made them to give to my friend Rebecca who was getting married, and doing the lion's share of the cooking by herself. I offered to bake a small batch of cookies.
And then the thought hit me... this recipe for ginger pennies makes hundreds of cookies! I would give her a heaping pile of ginger pennies.
I emailed her at work the day before the wedding and said, " If somebody was dumb enough to give away their ginger pennies for my wedding, I would basically say, 'Forget the guests!' and keep them for myself!”
Once she tasted them, she knew exactly what I meant.
~ David
Ginger Pennies
adapted from Rose's Christmas Cookies, by Rose Levy Beranbaum
Making these in the food processor is a breeze. You will need a strong, resealable plastic bag, and parchment paper.
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt (1/8 teaspoon if using sea salt)
1 cup dark brown sugar
1 large egg (2 ounces)
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
12 tablespoons unsalted butter
Preheat the oven to 325°F (160°C).
Line a baking sheet with parchment for the first batch, and cut 6 additional sheets of parchment for the ensuing batches.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cardamom, cloves, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
In the bowl of a food processor fitted with the metal blade, process the brown sugar, egg, and molasses. Add butter in 20 pieces (or so) and process until smooth and thick, scraping the sides if needed.
Add the dry ingredients and pulse until blended. Scrape sides and pulse 3 more times.
Scrape mixture into the resealable bag, zip it closed, and then cut off one of the corners. Pipe the dough into small 1/2-inch round onto the parchment paper about 1 inch apart. Each 'dot' will have a little peak - don't worry. the peaks flatten as they bake.) I generally get 10 rows of 7 on each sheet - making 70 cookies per sheet.
Bake them for 5 minutes. While they are baking, lay out another sheet of parchment and pipe out approximately 70 more dots. When the first batch is done, slide the parchment onto the counter to cool. Replace it with the second sheet of dough dots, and bake for 5 minutes. Repeat until all the dough is gone. Once they are cool, they will slide easily off the parchment.
You should end up with about 400-450 cookies from this recipe, depending on the size of your mounds. But don't feel that you have made too many... they will be gone in minutes.
Labels: brown sugar, butter, cardamom, cloves, ginger, ginger cookies, ginger pennies, molasses, pennies from heaven
