Friday December 03, 2010

Carole’s Concoctions:
Ginger Pennies for Newschannel13 Demo

As always, I am thrilled to be invited to share some of my recipes and ideas with the Albany, NY Newschannel Weekend news team. I am sharing Homemade Gifts for the Holidays.  I am doing ginger pennies (recipe below), sugar cookie stars stacked to make Christmas trees and vanilla scented walnuts. 

In my book, what can beat a jar of “pennies” for Christmas. Afterall, we’ve all been saving our pennies during these tough times. I tell people they are pennies from heaven!! I am not sure where this recipe originated. My Mom and I have made them for the last 30 years and have fun doling out the loot.

3 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp ginger
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups light brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup molasses
3 stick unsalted butter

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees.
Soften the butter. Then in a medium bowl, mix flour, ginger, cloves, baking soda, and salt. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar, egg and molasses. Add flour in batches until well blended. Put cookie dough in a plastic gallon bag an snip off the end to create your own pastry bag. Pipe very small dollops onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and bake doe 5 minutes. Remove from oven, cool slightly and they’ll slide off the parchment paper into a bowl. This recipes makes enough pennies to fill a dozen pint-sized mason jars.