Vegan Gingersnap Cookies (Knitting HIM A Chirstmas Sweater and More Jim Lahey Bread: The Baguette)

I made a promise to my husband that the next, NEXT batch of cookies baked would be gingersnaps (his favorite). I baked, I promised, and I baked and I promised. Until finally after baking an incredibly good holiday ginger and fig loaf cake Saturday night (recipe coming shortly), I said, Doesn't the house smell amazing? To which his reply was, Are those my gingersnaps you promised me you'd bake? Um, no. . . it's a cake. . . but your gingersnaps are NEXT! And I got busy parsing through recipes finally settling on my own version combining Fannie Farmer, an old Amish Gingersnap recipe and Martha Stewart one for inspiration. I proudly say and with every confidence: there is not a better gingersnap around. These were and are everything a gingersnap lover would want: chewy in the center, crisp on the edges, very gingery, very cinnamony, and overall, a good jump into my holiday cookie-baking-palooza!

Welcome Christmas!

After fourteen years together, I am taking the plunge and knitting HIM a sweater. For those non-knitters, this is a huge ta-doo. I mean HUGE. There are many a story of knitters who've gone the way of "sweaters for HIM" only to find themselves with "sweaters for her" after said relationship falls apart. It's like the ultimate in deal breakers or bad omens for many-a-well-intended-albeit-crazy-for-doing-so knitters. Sweaters for him can be a woman's foray into the crazies. I refuse to let myself go there. I bought this book at Michael's, Knits Men Want. (This author is apparently quite an accomplished cook as well--who knew? I just found this out after reading his book and plan to email him letting him know how said sweater progress evolves, plus check out his cooking mojo.) What could be clearer? Written by a man, for men. O-kay. I'm sold. In case you hadn't realized why dude knitting is such an undertaking and avoided by most knitting women in general--they are like twice our size, thus requiring like twice the yarn, thus twice the time, twice the dropped stitches, and twice the boredom. I didn't go all crazy with my yarn choice--I know my husband well enough--gray, black or brown. No frills, no itch, a bit oversized and long enough in the arms. This could very well become a Valentine's Day sweater or even. . .  Memorial Day. But I think in the spirit of Christmas, intentions count. I've already dropped two stitches on this baby, but you know what, so what! I know how to fix knitting mistakes and I am not from the knitting school where one hundred lashes were spent upon you for knitting errors. I just hide 'em and move on. (Dr. Thyme appreciates the litany of curse words emanating from me in front of our TV time in late evenings as I repair and re-count, plus says the "mistakes" make the sweater even more special. Isn't he the best?) For you knitters out there, I selected Lion's Brand Fisherman's Wool in brown and am knitting in a 4 1/2 stiches per inch gauge. No way was I knitting it any smaller. So far, I've enjoyed knitting with this yarn. I have also taught myself how to knit continental. Like most knitters, I learned how to knit English style, meaning my knitting movements are quite laborious and invlove my right hand really having to jump and throw yarn over my left hand. Luckily, when my grandmother taught me to knit, she taught me to crochet as well--so I am not completely all thumbs in my switch from all right-handed-ness to mostly all left-handed-ness in my knitting. In continental knitting, the left hand is holding the yarn--much like in crochet--thus allowing for fewer movements per stitch, more stitches per minute. I am trying to knit up to eighty stitches per minutes. Why eighty? Well, it's how fast Elizabeth Zimmerman  claims to have been able to knit. (She is THE knitting architect.) I think I'm up to maybe fifty per minute, but it's hard to tell because I cannot count and knit at the same time--I usually stop counting at thirty for some reason because I am all distracted and go into some zone. Wish me luck here. I really, really do want my husband to have this by Christmas. No, really, I do. 

   

Very quickly, I baked up perhaps the BEST loaf of bread to date from Jim Lahey's, My Bread. As I mentioned in my last post, I was going to make his Italian Baguette but use my mom's old Dutch oven and invert it over the dough after turning it out onto the pizza stone after it's second rise, then cover it with the Dutch oven allowing it to bake, removing the cover for the last ten minutes and getting what you see above. (Lahey says to use a terra-cotta stone long loaf pan and invert this over the dough--but I struck out finding one anywhere in St. Louis--so I improvised.) What could be more beautiful and simple, I ask? Nothing. I will let the pictures speak for themselves here. This bread is now MY bread, too! Yum. Perfect panini bread. Perfect sopping up sauce bread.

So simple. So delish. Makes two loaves. First loaf with soup. Second loaf used as panini bread.

This is my mother's very old Dutch oven. Many-a-roasts were baked in this. It's an oval shape and perfectly sized to not hang over the pizza stone in the oven. In other words, it lays perfectly flush over my dough on top of my pizza stone--a nice substitute for anyone else in the same predicament. If the terra-cotta bread baker is better and would yield better bread--so be it. However, I am quite satisfied with my improvised baking technique. I'm sure Jim would be proud. 

Vegan Gingersnap Cookies

2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 tablespoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup Florida Crystals sugar (or regular sugar), plus extra sugar for rolling the ginger cookies in

1 egg (1 1/2 teaspoons Ener-G egg replacer plus 2 tablespoons water)

1/4 cup molasses

Preheat oven to 350. Line two cookies trays with parchment paper. In a medium mixing bowl--add all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda, salt and seasonings) and sift together. Set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer add the shortening and mix until creamed. Add the sugar and mix until smooth. Next, whisk together your egg replacer and molasses. Now, add a third of the dry ingredients to the shortening mixture and give it a good mix. Next add half the egg/molasses mixture, mix well, then add the next third of the flour, and mix well. Finally, add the last half of the egg/molasses mixture and last bit of dry ingredients. Mix until smooth. Have about 3 tablespoons of sugar ready on a plate for rolling the cookies in. Now, take about a tablespoon of dough and form it into a ball, then roll the balls in the sugar and place two inches apart on a cookie sheet. (About 12-15 cookies per sheet). Place cookie sheets in oven and set timer for 10 minutes. About half way through, switch the cookie sheets around, top goes to bottom, bottom sheet to top. Remove cookies from oven when the tops begin to crack. Don't over cook these! Remove the cookies from the oven and allow to cool about five minutes on cookie sheets, then remove to cool the rest of the way on a cooling rack. Store these in an airtight container--they keep really well! Even better the next day, and the next!