The Cookies are Calling!
In case you haven’t heard, the Journal is again holding a Holiday Cookie Contest.
I made the first announcement Oct. 28, and got the first six entries in three days. Last year, we had 84 total.
There’s still time to enter. Here are all the details, plus last year’s first-place recipe for classic Moravian cookies.
The contest is open to all amateur cooks, excluding Journal employees.
Entries should have either holiday flavors or decorations, or be part of a family holiday tradition. All must be made from scratch.
The deadline for entries is Nov. 16. I will choose and notify finalists, who will be asked to prepare their cookies for a bake-off the next week.
The top three recipes will receive supermarket gift cards and be published in the Journal.
To enter, send a complete recipe, name, daytime phone number, mailing address and e-mail address if applicable. Also include any information about how the cookies fit into holiday traditions. One entry per person. Send entries to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) or to Holiday Cookie Contest, c/o Michael Hastings, Winston-Salem Journal, P.O. Box 3159, Winston-Salem, NC 27102.
Moravian Cookies
First place by Sue Ellis of Advance. Ellis recommends rolling out a small portion of dough at a time to make the task more manageable. She also bakes one cookie sheet at a time.
1 quart Grandma’s brand molasses
3/4 pound brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons and 2 teaspoons Crisco vegetable shortening
1 stick margarine
2 tablespoons cinnamon
2 tablespoons cloves
2 tablespoons ginger
2 tablespoons baking soda
4 pounds all-purpose flour, divided use
1. Warm molasses on stove and stir in both brown and white sugar. Add Crisco and margarine and heat until melted. (This also can be done in the microwave.)
2. After the mixture is warm, pour in a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, mix cinnamon, cloves and ginger with about a cup of the flour. Add spice mixture to molasses mixture. Beat mixture until smooth.
3. Dissolve baking soda in 2 or 3 tablespoons of hot water and add to molasses mixture.
4. Add the remainder of the flour, stirring with a spoon. Knead the dough in the bowl until it is firm and slick to the touch, 5 to 10 minutes.
5. Wrap dough in plastic wrap or waxed paper and refrigerate overnight.
6. The next day, heat oven to 275 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet. Cut off about a 2-inch slice of dough. Slip a clean pillowcase over a cutting board and tuck it or pin it until it fits tight. Lightly flour the pillowcase. Roll the dough very thin, about 1/16 inch. (The dough shouldn’t slide on the pillowcase, and the cookies shouldn’t stick as much.) Use a cookie cutter to cut the cookies. Because they break easily, carefully pick them up with the cutter as you cut them and transfer to the greased cookie sheet.
7. Cook one pan at a time on the top rack of the oven, for about 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from oven, let sit in the pan a couple of minutes, then remove and let cool. Repeat rolling, cutting and baking with remaining dough.
Makes 6 to 7 pounds of cookies.
