1989 2nd Place Great-Grandma's Gingerbread Cookies

Title:
1989 2nd Place Great-Grandma's Gingerbread Cookies

Yield:
36 Servings

Categories:
Cookies,
Holiday




Ingredients:





   1/2 c  Vegetable shortening


     1 c  Sugar


     3    Eggs


   1/2 c  Cold water


     2 ts Baking soda


     1 c  Sorghum or molasses


          All-purpose flour (5-6 cups)


     1 ts Ground cinnamon


   1/2 ts Ground cloves


     1 ts Ginger


   1/2 ts Salt






 Preparation time: 30 minutes Chilling time: Overnight Baking time: 10


 minutes


 


  1. Cream shortening and sugar in mixing bowl, beat in eggs, one at a time.


 Mix water and baking soda in small bowl until dissolved. Add baking soda


 mixture and sorghum to butter mixture. Sift 5 1/2 cups of the flour, the


 spices and salt together. Blend into dough. Divide dough into 4 balls. Wrap


 in plastic wrap. Flatten and refrigerate overnight.


 


  2. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll 1 portion of dough out at a time on


 lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes. Bake on a greased cookie


 sheet until puffed, 10 to 12 minutes. Do not overbake.


 


  3. When cool, decorate with buttercream frosting and/or candies as


 desired. Sorghum gives these cookies a special flavor, but molasses can be


 used as a substitute.


 


 Ann Smith of Plainfield won second place, and described how her gingerbread


 men left Bohemia in 1872 and immigrated to the United States. Smith's


 great-grandmother, "Babicka" Novak, lived in a small Czech-American town in


 South Dakota where Smith's mother grew up in the 1920s. At Christmas time,


 her great-grandma would give her neighbors Old World gingerbread men,


 reindeer and rocking horses.


   "One year when Great-grandma delivered the cookies, she brought along her


 teenaged grandson, who was visiting from a small ethnic Czech community in


 Nebraska," Smith wrote.


   "Introductions made that day over the watchful eyes of the gingerbread


 men eventually lead to wedding bells for my parents a decade later.


 Great-grandma Novak probably had planned this all along!" from the Chicago


 Tribune second annual Food Guide Holiday Cookie Contest December 14, 1989


 Posted to MM-Recipes Digest V3 #340


 


 From: Linda Place 


 


 Date: Thu, 12 Dec 1996 01:07:01 +0000