Soft Gingersnap Cookies

Ingredients:
2 1/4 cups flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground cloves
Pinch of fresh nutmeg
3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
1/4 cup molasses
White sugar-to roll the cookie dough in

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
2. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, and spices in a medium bowl. Whisk the ingredients together.
3. With a mixer, combine the butter and brown sugar until smooth and creamy. This will take a couple of minutes.
4. Add in the egg and vanilla extra. Mix until well combined.
5. Add in the molasses. Mix until the molasses is combined with the other ingredients.
6. With the mixer on low, slowly add the flour mixture. Add in a little at a time until all of the flour is mixed in.
7. Form the dough into Tablespoon sized balls. Roll the dough in white sugar.
8. Place the cookie dough balls on a large baking sheet with parchment paper or a Silpat. Make sure they are a couple inches apart.
9. I pressed down on the cookies slightly to help them flatten out. If you like puffy cookies, don’t press them down.
10. Bake for 8 minutes and NO longer. You want them to stay soft! Let the cookies sit on the baking sheet for a minute or two, then transfer to a cooling rack.

Pumpkin and Maple Gingerbread Bundt Cake

Ingredients:
In one bowl, mix:
3 eggs
1 C canned pumpkin
1 C sugar
1/2 C oil
1 T cinnamon
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 C milk
2 C flour
1/2 t salt
1 t vanilla

In another bowl, mix:
3 eggs
1 1/2 C brown sugar
1/4 C molasses
1/2 C oil
1 T ginger
1/2 t baking powder
1/2 C milk
1 3/4 C flour
1/2 t salt
1 t maple extract

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat all ingredients together. Pour each batter in rotating layers into a well greased & floured bundt pan. Run a knife through the layers to marble the batters together. Bake bundt for 52-55 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched.

Molasses Whole Wheat Mini Loaves

Ingredients:

1 cup boiling water

1 cup old fashioned oats

1 tablespoon butter

1 and 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup molasses

2 and 1/4 teaspoons active rise yeast

1/2 cup very warm water

2 and 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

2 cups all purpose flour, plus more as needed

a bit of butter and oats for the tops of the loaves

Directions:

In a large bowl, combine water, oats, butter, salt, and molasses. Stir and set aside until warm, about 30 minutes. In a separate small bowl, proof yeast with water. (Basically, mix the two together and make sure the yeast has risen significantly after ten minutes. You can throw in a pinch of sugar for good measure.) Add yeast mixture, and flour a little at a time to molasses mixture. A free stand mixer with a dough hook is handy here, but not necessary. If you're making the bread by hand, stir in as much flour as you can, then remove the dough to a board and knead in the additional flour to form a smooth dough.

Place the dough in a bowl, cover with saran wrap and let rise until doubled, about 1 and 1/2 hours. Punch down dough, transfer to 6 lightly greased miniature loaf pans. (You can use 2 standard sized loaf pans; bake for one hour.) Let rise, covered for 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake loaves for 25-30 minutes. Let cool for 10 minutes and remove from pans. Brush the loaves with butter and sprinkle with a bit of oats. This bread is at it's best warm with butter and honey.