Gingerbread Cookies With Orange Almond Essence Food

GINGER AND ALMOND BARS

Steps:

• Center a rack in the oven. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line the pan with baking parchment, letting the parchment hang over the sides. (This will make it easier to remove the dessert once baked.)
• Prepare the base:
• In the saucepan, melt the butter. Add the almond meal, fresh ginger, honey, egg, salt, and vanilla. Stir until well combined. The mixture should be thick and sticky.
• Turn the mixture out into the prepared pan. To help make a level and even base, place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the base. Using a flat-bottomed glass (or your fingers), smooth out the base by pressing gently to evenly cover the bottom of the pan. Remove and discard the plastic wrap. Bake until the base is slightly firm, 12 to 15 minutes.
• Meanwhile, prepare the topping:
• In the same saucepan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the almonds, candied ginger, honey, salt, and vanilla. Stir just until the ingredients are incorporated.
• When the base is baked, spread the topping evenly over the base and bake until the topping is dark and sizzling, 12 to 15 minutes. Do not underbake.
• Transfer the pan to the baking rack to cool. When the dessert is completely cool, remove it from the pan using the overhanging parchment as handles and cut it into 16 even squares.
• Do Ahead
• Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week.
• Variation:
• Chestnut Honey Squares: For the base, replace 1 cup (90g) almond meal with 3/4 cup (120 g) unbleached, all-purpose flour and use a strong honey, such as chestnut, in place of the mild honey. For the topping, replace the candied ginger with organic candied orange or lemon peel, cut into tiny cubes.

GINGERBREAD COOKIES WITH ORANGE BUTTERCREAM FROSTING

Steps:

• Combine 1 cup butter and sugar in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth and creamy. Mix in molasses and egg until combined.
• Mix together buttermilk and 2 teaspoons baking soda in a small bowl. Mix vinegar with remaining 1 teaspoon baking soda in another small bowl. Add the buttermilk mixture to the molasses-egg mixture. Then add vinegar mixture, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, nutmeg, and salt; mix until well combined.
• Gradually stir in 4 cups flour, 1 cup at a time, stirring until the dough comes together and forms a ball. Shape dough into a ball, wrap in plastic wrap, and place in the refrigerator until chilled, about 30 minutes.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Place chilled dough on a floured surface and roll to 1/2-inch thickness. Cut out cookies with desired cookie cutters and place on ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until edges are golden, about 10 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to a wire rack to cool, 8 to 10 minutes more.
• While cookies are cooling, place 3 cups powdered sugar, softened butter, orange zest, and 1/3 cup orange juice in a bowl. Discard remaining orange juice, or save for another use. Beat frosting ingredients with an electric mixer until consistency is similar to fondant or modeling dough, adding more powdered sugar, if necessary. Frost cookies.

CRUNCHY ORANGE-ALMOND COOKIES (N'ZUDDI)

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
• Spread the almonds on a baking sheet and toast for 15 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Let cool.
• Set aside 36 almonds. Grind the remaining almonds to a coarse powder in a food processor or in small batches in a coffee grinder. Transfer to a medium mixing bowl and sift in the flour, baking soda, and baking powder.
• In a large mixing bowl, with a wooden spoon, beat the butter and sugar until blended. Beat the egg, then beat in the orange zest, juice, vanilla, and salt. Stir in the flour-almond mixture.
• Pinch off a tablespoon of dough at a time, roll into a ball between the palms of your hands, and place 3 inches apart on greased baking sheets. Flatten the balls to 1/2 inch thick under your palms, then gently coax the edges inward to create a loose square shape. Press a whole almond in the center of each cookie.
• Bake the cookies for 30 to 35 minutes, or until deep golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing from the pans, then cool on a rack. The cookies will become very crunchy as they cool.

BIG ALMOND-ORANGE-GINGER COOKIE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter bottom and sides of an 8-by-11-inch tart pan with a removable bottom. Spread almonds in a single layer on a baking sheet; bake until golden brown and fragrant, about 12 minutes. Let cool completely. Transfer to a food processor; pulse until finely ground. Whisk together flour, salt, and cardamom. Whisk in almonds. In a separate bowl, stir together marmalade and lemon juice.
• Beat butter with sugar, orange zest, and ginger on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add flour mixture; beat on low speed just until clumps begin to form, about 30 seconds. Press 3 packed cups of mixture into bottom and up sides of prepared pan. Spread marmalade mixture over crust. Crumble remaining flour-butter mixture over top, creating clumps. Bake 25 minutes. Reduce oven temperature to 300 degrees and continue baking until light golden brown and firm, 25 to 30 minutes more. Transfer pan to a wire rack; let cool completely. Remove cookie from pan, running a spatula between cookie and base to release. Serve, with fruit, chocolate, and sorbet. Store cookie in an airtight container at room temperature up to 2 days.

GINGER-ALMOND SHORTBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°.
• In a large mixing bowl, cream butter with sugar and almond extract until smooth.
• Add flour, ginger, and ground almonds and beat mixture until well combined.
• On a floured surface, roll dough out to 1/2-inch thickness.
• Cut into two-inch rounds and place 1-inch apart on ungreased cookie sheet.
• Press a whole almond into the center of each cookie and bake about 20 minutes or until very lightly colored.
• Remove to rack and cool.

CITRUS GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large saucepan, combine sugar, honey and molasses. Bring to a boil; remove from heat. Let stand 20 minutes. Stir in butter; let stand 20 minutes longer., Beat in egg. In another bowl, whisk flour, almonds, baking powder, lemon zest, orange zest and spices; gradually beat into sugar mixture. Refrigerate, covered, 8 hours or overnight., Preheat oven to 375°. On a lightly floured surface, divide dough into three portions. Roll each portion to 1/4-in. thickness. Cut with a floured 2-in. tree-shaped cookie cutter. Place 2 in. apart on baking sheets coated with cooking spray., Bake 7-8 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on pans 1 minute. Remove to wire racks to cool completely. In a small bowl, mix glaze ingredients; brush over cookies. Let stand until set., To Make Ahead: Dough can be made 2 days in advance. Wrap in plastic and place in a resealable bag. Store in the refrigerator., Freeze option: Freeze undecorated cookies in freezer containers. To use, thaw in covered containers and decorate as directed.

GINGER COOKIES WITH ORANGE GLAZE

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
• Mix flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt together in a large bowl.
• Combine brown sugar, oil, molasses, egg, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl; beat with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour over flour mixture; mix until a dough forms.
• Roll dough into 1-inch balls and arrange on ungreased baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until firm, 8 to 9 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.
• Place shortening in a large microwave-safe bowl. Heat in the microwave until melted, about 1 minute.
• Stir confectioners' sugar and orange extract into the melted shortening. Mix in milk a little at a time until glaze runs smoothly off the end of a spoon. Add 1/4 teaspoon salt. Spoon glaze over cooled cookies.

ORANGE GINGER COOKIES

Steps:

• Cream together butter and sugar.
• Add egg and mix well.
• Add grated peel and molasses and mix again.
• Stir together dry ingredients and add to butter mixture, stirring well.
• Wrap up dough and chill for several hours or overnight.
• Roll dough very thin and cut out cookies with cookie cutters.
• Bake on greased cookie sheets at 375°F for 8 to 10 minutes.

ORANGE GINGERBREAD TASSIES

Steps:

• Beat first 7 ingredients until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in flour. Refrigerate, covered, until firm enough to shape, about 1 hour., Preheat oven to 350°. Shape dough into 1-in. balls; press evenly onto bottom and up sides of ungreased mini-muffin cups. Bake until golden brown, 15-18 minutes. Press centers with the handle of a wooden spoon to reshape as necessary. Cool completely in pan before removing to wire rack., In a microwave-safe bowl, heat baking chips, cream and butter until blended, stirring occasionally. Stir in orange zest; cool completely. Spoon into crusts. Refrigerate until filling is soft-set. If desired, garnish with orange peel.