1989 2nd Place: Great Grandma's Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
- 1/2 c. Vegetable shortening
- 1 c. Sugar
- 3 x Large eggs
- 1/2 c. Cool water
- 2 tsp Baking soda
- 1 c. Sorghum or possibly molasses
- All-purpose flour (5-6 c.)
- 1 tsp Grnd cinnamon
- 1/2 tsp Grnd cloves
- 1 tsp Ginger
- 1/2 tsp Salt
- Preparation Time: 30 min
- Chilling Time: Overnight
- Baking Time: 10minutes
- 1.
- Cream shortening and sugar in mixing bowl, beat in Large eggs, one at a time.
- Mix water and baking soda in small bowl till dissolved.
- Add in baking soda mix and sorghum to butter mix.
- Sift 5 1/2 c. of the flour, the spices and salt together.
- Blend into dough.
- Divide dough into 4 balls.
- Wrap in plastic wrap.
- Flatten and chill overnight.
- 2.
- Heat oven to 350 degrees.
- Roll 1 portion of dough out at a time on lightly floured surface.
- Cut into desired shapes.
- Bake on a greased cookie sheet till puffed, 10 to 12 min.
- Don't overbake.
- 3.
- When cold, decorate with buttercream frosting and/or possibly candies as desired.
- Sorghum gives these cookies a special flavor, but molasses can be used as a substitute.
- gingerbread men left Bohemia in 1872 and immigrated to the United States.
- Smith's great-grandmother, "Babicka" Novak, lived in a small Czech-American town in South Dakota where Smith's mother grew up in the 1920s.
- At Christmas time, her great-grandma would give her neighbors Old World gingerbread men, reindeer and rocking horses.
- "One year when Great-grandma delivered the cookies, she brought along her teenaged grandson, who was visiting from a small ethnic Czech community in Nebraska," Smith wrote.
- "Introductions made which day over the watchful eyes of the gingerbread men eventually lead to wedding bells for my parents a decade later.
- Great-grandma Novak probably had planned this all along!"
vegetable shortening, sugar, eggs, water, baking soda, sorghum, flour, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, salt
Taken from cookeatshare.com/recipes/1989-2nd-place-great-grandma-s-gingerbread-cookies-61401 (may not work)