From Maida Heatter's Book of Great Cookies
This cookbook was given to me for my 12th birthday by my parents. It most likely holds the distinction of being the cookbook from which I use the most recipes, and by the time I left for college it looked like a 20 year old book that had been picked up at a tag sale. Still, if I rest it on its spine and allow it to flop open, this is the recipe it opens to. This is a special occasion cookie that I made at Christmas for years, and still make at least once a year for some designated special occasion. -Jennie
These cookies are long in direction, but not at all difficult to make once you have gotten to know them. In the recipe she uses the handle of a wooden spoon for rolling, but I use a 6 inch piece of 3/4" dowel that I cut, sanded smooth, and oiled, and keep specially for these cookies.
40 cookies
1/2 c. sifted all purpose flour (I use a tiny bit more, it makes the cookies easier to handle)
1 1/2 tsp. ginger (I use 2 slightly heaping)
1/3 c. light molasses
1/4 lb. (1 stick) butter, cut into small bits (tablespoon sized pieces is fine)
1/2 c. granulated sugar
1 1/2 tsp. brandy
Optional (for filling)
Whipping cream
Brandy
Confectioner's sugar
Adjust a rack to the center of the oven and preheat to 325 F degrees. Butter a 12x15 cookie sheet (liberally).
Sift together the flour and ginger and set aside. Place the molasses, butter, and sugar in a heavy 2-qt. saucepan over moderate heat. Stir until the butter is melted and the mixture is only warm, not hot. Remove from the heat. Add the sifted dry ingredients and stir well until completely smooth -- if necessary, beat with a wire whisk. Stir in the brandy. Transfer the mixture to a small metal bowl for ease in handling. The mixture will be thin; it will thicken slightly as it stands.
Use 1 level teaspoonful of the mixture for each cookie. Place them on the buttered sheet, placing only 5 cookies on the sheet -- these spread and they need plenty of room. Bake only one sheet at a time, for 8 minutes or until lightly brown, reversing once front to back to ensure even browning. The baked cookies will have a mottled texture. (In 20 years of making these cookies, I have never made 5 on a sheet work -- not because they spread too much, but because the rolling window (below) is too short for me. However, I have found that it is perfectly fine to have more than one sheet in the oven at one time, so I use two sheets and stagger them so that I put the second one in when I reverse the first one, otherwise a single batch takes a LOOOOONG time.)
Remove the sheets from the oven and let stand for 1 1/2 to 2 minutes (I usually find 60 seconds works best, but it will depend on your pans). If the cookies have run together, cut use a small, sharp knife to cut them apart before removing them from the sheet. Now work quickly before the cookies cool and harden. (I have removed her original directions, because I don't follow them. This has nothing to do with my inability to roll 5 cookies in a batch). Place the dowel (or spoon handle) across one end of a cookie. Use a thin metal spatula to lift the edge of the cookie, (if they're not solid enough to do this, they haven't sat long enough). Press it against the dowel and roll the cookie into a tube around the dowel (if you can't roll the cookie easily and without cracking it, then they have sat for too long). Place the cookie on a wire rack and slide the dowel out. The trick here is to roll all four cookies within the 'rolling window' after they have hardened enough to manipulate and before they harden too much to roll. If the last cookies cool too much to roll before you get to them, you can put them back in the oven for 30 seconds to rewarm them and then roll them. Often the first tube (or two) will collapse slightly after you have removed the dowel (if you wait until they don't do this you'll never get them all rolled in time) -- I usually deal with this by quickly and gently reinserting the dowel into these cookies one cookie later, before they have hardened too much to be reshaped. Or you can just leave them slightly sagged in the middle, as long as they're not too closed to be filled. The cookies should be completely crisp when cool, if they are not they were not baked long enough. It is not necessary to wash, wipe, or rebutter the cookie sheet before the next batch.
The cooled cookies should be stored airtight. If you are filling them, whip the cream, with some sugar and brandy (to taste), to a relatively stiff texture. Use a pastry bag with a filling tip to fill the cookies from each end (hopefully the filling will meet in the middle). The cookies may be made a day or two in advance (although I have never succeeded in keeping these cookies for more than 24 hours -- they may be heavily subject to predation), but fill them immediately before you are going to serve them, as the whipped cream makes them soggy eventually and after an hour or two they will begin to fall apart when you pick them up.