Day 4 of The 12 Days of Cookies is starting a bit better than yesterday ended with the last cookie attempted. Being the planner I am when confronted with a lot of work, I not only chose all 12 cookies I'd make, I organized them into pairs by production so that I could get two done a day. They'd either have very similar elements (okay, so I'm not talking about butter, sugar and flour...), or one would need refrigeration and I could continue on with the second while...you get it, right?) I printed out the recipes, and sorted through them making sure I wouldn't have any hang-ups, like realizing I didn't have oatmeal after coming home from the store.
I know you hate that as much as I do when it happens, right?
So did I hop back in the car to get oatmeal? No. I went back through the cookies featured in Gourmet's Favorite Cookies: 1941 - 2008 to choose another -- one that wasn't very complicated and for which I had all ingredients.
Brandy Snaps, Gourmet's choice for 1949, looked to be the best for my particular dilemma. Although I'm not usually thrilled with the prospect of booze in my baked goods, I am able to deal with a little, and the cookies reminded me of Florentines: crisp, crunchy, and caramelley. Plus I happened to have three bottles of molasses in my pantry -- light, dark, and Barbados "unsulfured."
I was set. Or so I thought. Innocent looking little things, aren't they?
Evidently, Brandy Snaps are a favorite in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand. In fact the author Lewis Carroll loved them. Knowing this does not change my own opinion of them, however. After I completely screwed up the first batch, I sat down to think about it and did some looking around at other recipes to do a comparison. Seeing a few photos also helped, and I was surprised to conclude that maybe, just maybe, I hadn't wrecked anything. Mine sort of maybe almost kind of probably looked like the Brandy Snaps I was reading about.
Except for one tiny problem. How could a recipe for cookies called Brandy Snaps NOT have brandy in them? Huh? And a TON of powdered ginger.
Here's the recipe, printed exactly as it appeared in Gourmet. I'll continue my "constructive" whining below.
Brandy Snaps
Heat together in a saucepan 1 1/2 cups each butter and sugar and 1 cup molasses, stirring the mixture until it is well blended. Stir in 4 teaspoons powdered ginger, remove the pan from the heat, and add 3 cups sifted all-purpose flour, a little at a time, beating well after each addition. Drop the batter from the tip of a spoon onto a buttered cooky sheet, allowing 2 inches between the wafers. Bake in a slow oven (300° F.) for about 12 minutes, or until they are nicely browned. Remove from the pan immediately with a spatula and roll the wafers over a wooden stick or the handle of a wooden spoon. Or, if preferred, shape them into cones. Store the brandy snaps in airtight containers.
As a variation, 1 1/2 teaspoons grated lemon rind may be added to the batter with the ginger.
My Usual Notes:
- The flavor of these is actually quite good...but. And it's a BIG butt but...
- I used unsulfured Barbados molasses which evidently was quite the tonic back in the day. That would be pioneer days. They recognized molasses as having healthy benefits, so "took" it in the spring each year.
- The only reason I didn't use either of the other bottles of molasses is because I couldn't get the lids off. Seriously.
- Do you have any idea just how dark Barbados molasses is? So much for being able to take the Ginger Snaps out of the oven "until they are nicely browned."
- When was the last time you put 4 tsp. of powdered ginger in anything? Well? I only had 3 tsp. so I emptied the container. No other recipe I found included that much ginger.
- Since no brandy was listed in this Brandy Snaps recipe, I added 2 tsp. of Korbel Brandy.
- Baked for 7-8 minutes instead of the "about 12" mentioned in the recipe. Leaving them in that long did something funky with the butter. The cookies were spread all over the pan, and all the butter seemed to be separated from them -- very, very greasy! And when they cooled, the butter did, too. There was solidified butter on any surface the cookies rested on. I threw out the entire first batch.
- I used silicone lined baking sheets. I figured there was enough butter in these suckers that there was no way I was buttering anything else.
- I did not use high quality butter. In fact, it was the least expensive I could find, so I'm wondering if that was part of the problem. Lots of water in cheap butter, right?
- About 1 level teaspoon measure would be perfect for these spaced 3" apart on a baking sheet.
- Let them cool on the pan for a while before trying to remove them.
- I set them directly on my granite counter to cool them before I began shaping.
- I left many between layers of paper towels to cool in flat disks.
- I mixed equal quantities of heavy cream & mascarpone with a bit of vanilla, a tiny bit of powdered sugar and whipped until stiff, then piped them into formed cones. Demerara sugar was sprinkled over.
- Refrigeration drastically improves the consistency of these. It's what provides the crunch. Even at a cool room temperature, these Brandy Snaps never quite get crunchy.
- I made 4 sheets of cookies, and there is so much batter left, I'm thinking of spreading it on my jellyroll pans, sprinkling almonds on it, baking it, cooling it, then drizzling on some chocolate and breaking it up. Sound good?
Don't forget to visit the rest of our cookie crew testing Gourmet's favorite cookies: Andrea of Andrea's Recipes, Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen, Sandy of At the Baker's Bench, Courtney of Coco Cooks, Judy of No Fear Entertaining, and Jerry of Cooking by the Seat of My Pants. I know they've got something delicious just waiting for you!
