Omas Gingersnaps Food

OMA'S GINGER COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 cookie sheets.
• Beat 1 cup sugar, butter, molasses, and egg together in a mixing bowl using an electric mixer.
• Sift flour, baking soda, ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, cloves, salt, and nutmeg together in a bowl. Beat into butter mixture until combined.
• Combine 1/8 cup sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon in a shallow bowl. Roll cookie dough into 1-inch balls. Roll cookies in the sugar-cinnamon mixture to coat. Place on the prepared cookie sheet.
• Bake in the preheated oven until golden and edges are set, about 11 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool at least 5 minutes before serving or storing.

GRANDMA'S GINGERSNAP COOKIES

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• Sift the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture to blend evenly, and sift a second time into another bowl.
• Place the shortening into a mixing bowl and beat until creamy. Gradually beat in the white sugar. Beat in the egg, and dark molasses. Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the shortening mixture; stir to thoroughly blend. Sift in the remaining flour mixture, and mix together until a soft dough forms. Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into 1 inch diameter balls between your hands. Roll each ball in cinnamon sugar, and place 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
• Bake in preheated oven until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked, about 10 minutes. Cool cookies on a wire rack. Store in an air tight container.

MONIKA'S OMA'S LEBKUCHEN MEN

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two baking sheets.
• Mix ground almonds, flour, white sugar, 2 teaspoons cocoa powder, cinnamon, cloves, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl. Use your fingers or a pastry blender to rub in the butter until mixture resembles fine crumbs. Add honey and egg; mix together to form a dough.
• Dust work surface with flour. Roll out dough into a circle about 1/8-inch thick. Cut into gingerbread men shapes with a floured cookie cutter. Place 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
• Bake in the preheated oven until edges are brown, 15 to 20 minutes. Cool in the pan 1 to 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely, about 20 minutes.
• Combine confectioners' sugar and 2 tablespoons cocoa powder in a bowl. Mix in enough boiling water to make a smooth and spreadable icing. Spread icing on cooled cookies using a table knife. Set aside until icing hardens, about 2 hours.

OMA'S APFELKUCHEN (GRANDMA'S APPLE CAKE)

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°. Let egg yolks stand at room temperature for 30 minutes. Starting 1/2 in. from 1 end, cut apple halves lengthwise into 1/4-in. slices, leaving them attached at the top so they fan out slightly. Set aside., Cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy, 5-7 minutes. Add egg yolks, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. In another bowl, sift flour, cornstarch, cream of tartar, baking powder and salt twice. Gradually beat into creamed mixture. Add milk; mix well (batter will be thick)., Spread batter into a greased 9-in. springform pan wrapped in a sheet of heavy-duty foil. Gently press apples, round side up, into batter. Bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out with moist crumbs, 45-55 minutes. Cool on a wire rack 10 minutes. Loosen sides from pan with a knife; remove foil. Cool 1 hour longer. Remove rim from pan. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

GRANNIE'S CHEESECAKE - OMA'S KäSEKUCHEN

Steps:

• Crust: Sift flour, baking powder and sugar together on a flat surface.
• Make a well in the center.
• Add egg yolks, and liquid.
• Mix with some of the flour to make a thick paste.
• Cut butter into small pieces, put on top of paste, cover with flour and quickly mix into a smooth dough.
• Pat about 1/2 of the dough on bottom of 9" spring form pan.
• Knead one tbsp flour into the remaining dough.
• Attach side of pan to bottom.
• Shape dough into a roll and lay on side of pan and work up the side about 1 1/4 to 1 1/2".
• Prick dough several times with a fork.
• Bake at 400ºF for about 10 minutes or till lightly golden brown.
• Filling: Place cottage cheese in solid weave straining bag.
• Drain overnight or squeeze as much liquid as possible from cheese to make about 3 1/4 to 3 1/2 cup cheese.
• Mix the pudding mixes with 1/2 cup milk, set aside.
• Bring remaining milk and sugar to boil, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat.
• Add pudding/milk mix and bring back to boiling, stirring constantly until thick.
• Remove from heat.
• Add cheese and extract and bring to a boil, stirring constantly.
• Remove from heat.
• Add sultanas.
• Beat egg whites into snow, slowly adding sugar beating well after each addition.
• Fold egg white into cheese mix and turn into crust lined pan.
• Smooth out surface.
• Brush: Mix egg yolk and water.
• Gently brush top of cheese mixture.
• Bake at 275ºF to 300ºF for 45 to 60 minutes.
• This cake should not rise very much during the baking.
• It seems that it gets too tall reduce the heat.
• To tell if the cake is done, shake the form gently, the center should jiggle just a little.
• Remove cake from oven and, unlatch the side and gently remove crust from side.
• Leave sides in place and let cake cool completely.

OMA'S STICKY WINGS

Steps:

• Place wings (frozen or thawed) into pan of lukewarm water for 30 minutes, changing water every 5 to 10 minutes.
• Remove wings from water and pat dry.
• Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
• Place wings on single layer on broiling rack, and bake for 30 minutes, turning once.
• While chicken is cooking, create glaze by combining sugar, cornstarch, salt, ginger, and lemon pepper in a medium saucepan, and mix well.
• Add water, lemon juice, and soy sauce to sugar mixture stirring until well blended.
• Heat glaze mixture slowly, stirring occasionally, until sauce begins thickening. Once thickening starts, stir constantly until fully thickened.
• Once wings have finished cooking for the first 30 minutes, remove from oven and dip each wing in glaze, coating well.
• Return wings to oven, and an additional 30 to 40 minutes until done.

OMA'S GINGERBREAD HOUSE

Steps:

• Mix ingredients in order given.
• Flour liberally! It will start out a bit sticky. Just keep adding flour to your board and your rolling pin. Turn it often.
• Roll to a maximum thickness 1/4" (1 cm).
• Bake at 350°F until brown and slightly crisp. It is hard to give a time for how long to bake. It depends on how many pieces you have on your sheet, how thick they are, etc. I found that they all needed a minimum of 8 minutes. And then I just kept checking every 3 minutes after that.
• Dust the flour off of the pieces after they have cooled. A pstry brush works well for this.
• Glue: Melt a fair amount of sugar in a large heavy pan over low heat. Mom used a cast iron pan. We started with about 2 cups of sugar and ended up adding about another cup. Keep stirring and waiting. You want the sugar to get to the point where it is almost a clear brown. Be careful though, the "glue" burns BADLY if dripped on skin.
• Mom would simply "dip" the edge of the piece that she wanted to glue into the sugar and then press it with the other piece. When it cools, it is VERY hard and holds very well. It does cool quickly though, so work fast.
• For Icing: Beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly add in all of the icing sugar.
• To make cookies: Bake until lightly browned for soft cookies. Crisp cookies will keep better though.
• There is enough dough to make a house and a free form base to put your house on. Or you can simply make a bunch of cookies with the "leftovers".
• Mom has some hand drawn pictures of how to cut out the house. Here are her measurements and directions.
• Cut 2 side walls: 7" x 4".
• Cut 2 roof panels: 9 1/2" x 8".
• Cut 4 chimney pieces: 2 1/4" x 1 1/4" (in two of them, cut a 1" V into the bottom so that it will "straddle" the peak of the roof).
• Cut 2 end walls: 6" x 9" (4" up the sides, cut diagonally to the top center to make a point). In one end, cut out door and two windows. Bake the door along side.
• For the windows: Place foil underneath and fill with crushed lollipop. Bake as usual.
• Base: Simply roll out the leftover dough to make a free form base. Make sure that it is wide enough for the house.
• NOTE ABOUT CLEAN-UP: Don't fret! Your pan that you melted the sugar in is certainly not ruined! All you need to do is add some hot water, let sit for a little while (5-10 minutes) and then rinse it out. If for some reason, that isn't quite working, simply heat the pan full of water over low heat for a short while (again, about 10 minutes).

CHOCOLATE GINGERSNAPS

Steps:

• Beat butter and grated ginger about 4 minutes.
• Add brown sugar; beat until combined.
• Add molasses; beat until combined.
• Mix flour and spices.
• In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water.
• Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture.
• Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture.
• Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap.
• Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.
• Heat oven to 325°.
• Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets.
• Refrigerate 20 minutes.
• Roll in granulated sugar.
• Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes.
• Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.