It’s “Tasty Tuesday” and boy do I have a great recipe for you. This is not one of my own recipes as I found it while reading through one of my magazines, I think it is from Better Homes and Garden. I will say that I followed the recipe as it was written so nothing was modified by me, except for the 2nd baking time (read my last paragraph).
The recipe was developed by Nancy Baggett who recently launched “Simply Sensations Cookies“, I do own the book but I have yet to make anything out of it. These Spicy Gingersnap Twigs recipe from the magazine sounded so unique and tasty that I knew I just had to make them. I didn’t even mind rolling the dough with a rolling pin, measuring and slicing, baking, breaking it all apart and baking again! I will share with you that the spicy gingerbread twigs were amazing! and so tasty and addicting that one was not enough (you may want to make extra…lol).
So yes, you make the dough as per instructed, you then roll the dough between two sheets of parchment paper,
you then sprinkle with raw sugar and using a ruler, you cut your pieces (I used a pizza cutter as using the knife was a bit more challenging for me).
then into the oven it goes, you bake it and remove it from the oven and break the pieces apart, sprinkle on your color sugar (if you have any, I had red) and bake it again.
When you are done, there should be a crisp to them (this is the only thing I did change to the recipe, the original recipe indicated to lower your oven to 200 degrees for the second bake. I didn’t do that as I was finding it was taking too long for them to harden so I left my oven at the regular temp and baked until they were firm). Then I removed them from the oven
I could not wait to eat them and I loved the hint of spice they left behind. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!
Ingredients
- 2 cups Flour
- 1/3 cup Brown sugar, packed
- 1 tablespoon Cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons Ginger, ground
- 1/2 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon Cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon Allspice
- 1/4 teaspoon Cayenne pepper
- 1/3 cup Butter, melted and cooled
- 1/3 cup Molasses, not blackstrap
- 1/4 cup Coffee, brewed, cooled
- 1/3 cup Turbinado sugar (raw sugar is the same thing)
Directions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set aside 2 large baking sheets and four 15" long pieces of parchment.
- In a large bowl, stir flour, sugar, cinnamon, ginger, salt, cloves, allspice and cayenne pepper until well blended. Make sure all lumps are gone.
- In a small bowl, whisk together butter, molasses and coffee until well blended. Immediately add butter mixture to flour mixture, stirring vigorously until evenly incorporated.
- Turn dough onto floured surface, knead with your hands for 30 seconds to make it smoother and more malleable. If dough is too dry or crumbly to roll out, work in a few drops of water until it hold together; off too wear, thoroughly knead in 1-2 tablespoons of flour.
- Divide dough in half. Roll each portion between two pieces of parchment into a 6x12" rectangle. If necessary, cut and patch to make sides roughly even (don't worry if it's not perfect). Peel off top pieces of parchment. Evenly sprinkle each rectangle with about 3 tablespoons of coarse sugar and about 1 tablespoon edible glitter. Lay parchment over dough; gently pressing sugar into dough. Remove top pieces of parchment.
- Using a pizza cutter, cut each rectangle into 1/4 to 1/3x6 inch strips. It's ok if the edges are rough and uneven. Slide rectangle and parchment onto baking sheets.
- Working with one rectangle at a time, bake for 13-16 minutes or until firm when pressed in the center and edges are browned. Immediately slide rectangle and parchment onto a cutting board. Quickly (before rectangle cools and becomes brittle) retrace the cuts between strips and cut off uneven edges. (if necessary, return rectangle to the oven, warm until soft enough to work with) discard the uneven, over baked end sections.
- Reduce oven to 200 degrees (I left mine at 350 degrees), when rectangle is cool enough to handle use your hands to gently separate strips. Place on a parchment lined baking sheet. If desired, sprinkle with additional edible glitter. Bake for 10 minutes. Slide strips and parchment onto a wire rack; cool completely.