Sunday, December 07, 2008

A mountain of cookies

In Sweden you make your own gingersnap cookies before Christmas - well, at least if you have kids - and the energy and time... I have lots of memories of making gingersnap cookies as a kid - and have wanted my kids to have the same experience.

What I didn't know before I started up this tradition when the Daughter was big enough to hold on to a roller - is all the work that comes with it... After all - a dough can produce some 250 gingersnap cookies and your kids usually are happy making... 5...? Meaning that my mom must have spent hours and hours baking after we happily left the table and ran off to new games. And a gingersnap cookie dough really never ends... it takes forever and ever and you heart shapes becomes more and more sloppy as you wondered what made you start this project in the first place.

My solution to that problem has been to invite other parents and kids to the Big Gingersnap Cookie bake out" - and after the kids are satisfied with eating raw dough and making a cookie or two - the grown-ups can continue the assembly line production of home made gingersnap cookies. In company of other grown-ups, drinking non-free-alcoholic glögg. After two hours or so you have 750 ginger snap cookies, are very happy and giggly and don't have to think about a roller in another 365 days. Great!

9 comments:

Petchie75 said...

Verkligen en smart idé och dessutom mysig!! Pepparkaksdeg tar ju verkligen aldrig slut... Jag tror inte att det blir något pepparkaksbak i år, jag nöjer mig med lussekatter (som man ju tyvärr inte kan köpa på Walgreens, ha ha)

Ally said...

I was in the store yesterday and they finally restocked their ground Valencia orange rind (pomeransskal). I don't think we'll need anymore gingersnaps as you and J definitely hooked us up. But I owe you for next year and this time I have the ingredients. I'm anxious to try it with my Kitchen Aid mixer too since it seemed to be the optimal way to kneed the dough.

It's wrong how good those cookies are. Seriously wrong!

Anonymous said...

Många kakor blev det..... haha.
Här är hittar ni en närbild av kakberget: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3025/3100579322_10e21f0a38.jp
g

JaCal said...

Petra H - nej pepparkakor kan man vänta med tills det finns barn i huset - innan dess är det bara hårt jobb... och Walgreens alternativ är alldels utmärkt - haha! Det är mycket roligare om man gör det tillsammans - så kan man turas om att ha "ungsvakt".

Ally - Valencia orange rind - aha! So that's the name! I have never been able to figure that one out - I've brought pommeransskal from Sweden. Great! Yes, I recommend the Kitchen Aid for the dough - it's kind of hard to do it by hand and get it firm enough. You have to hide the buckets or they will be all empty by Christmas Eve... ;-)

Peter J - haha - ja... arg på mig själv att jag inte tog fler bilder på berget - den jag la upp är den enda jag har... tagen i sista minuten. Vi borde ju ha tagit kort på alla fulla bunkar också.

Anonymous said...

Säg bara till, så skickar jag fler, jag tog ett par till och några filmsnuttar också :)

Anna, Fair and True said...

Får sätta en halv deg istället. Fast följer nog det som Petra sa - väntar tills jag får barn.

JaCal said...

Peter J - hualigen... jag som alltid lyckas med att vara ur bild eftersom jag oftast står bakom kameran...

Anna - ;-) Man behöver ifs inte baka ut på en gång och har man stora formar kan man göra ett par stora pepparkakshjärtan då och då.

Anonymous said...

This Gingersnap Cookie looks so beautiful, I'm sure it'll be a big hit with the kids!Although I'm to a big fan of cookie, this sure looks yummy!

lisa said...

Aha, valencia orange rinds. Jo, det var bra att veta vad det hetter haer i Californien. Inte bara foer pepparkakor (mitt recept har inga), men foer gloegg! Koepte en flaska alkoholfri pao IKEA, men det var aeckligt soett, och smakade inte riktigt jul. Sao tack foer oeversaettnignen. Undrar var man kan hitta detta nu?....