The Gift of Making Maple Syrup Ginger Thins (gluten-free, or not)
Most of the adults in my life would agree that I was a very lucky kid. I was an only child, but I was rarely lonely because I felt more at home in the world of adults than that of children. I had a bevy of "aunties" (my mum's non-parent friends) who were all vying to be that cool aunt, the one who "wins" at gift-giving. Though the best gifts vary from age to age, my favourites were consistently not dolls nor books (though I was, and still am, an avid reader and daydreamer), but tools: buckets and shovels for building sandcastles when I were three, child-sized cookie cutters and a rolling pin at age seven, a friendship bracelet pattern book and gradients of embroidery floss for nine-year-old me. The best afternoons were not those spent playing (after a while there's little novelty in amusing yourself), but learning. Even then, I deemed it a precious gift to be taught a worthy skill: to fold a dumpling, to draw a straight line without a ruler, for my mom to take time after dinner to teach me how to wash my socks by hand, ergo, to mill around the adults with adult-worthy tasks to complete.
We kept my plastic cookie cutters in the same drawer as the "real" kitchen tools. I was elated when mum had time to take them out for an afternoon of cookie-making. Mind you, we weren't very good cookie-makers, mum and I, and Christmas cookie making wasn't a tradition (though Chinese New Years' cookies are, and I faintly recall being the toddler mashing gok jai scraps into dough balls at my grandmother's kitchen table). We subsisted, instead, on those delightful Danish blue tin butter cookies. But the best part about being an adult (and being from a tiny family) is that you get to invent your own traditions, and lately I've decided that I want my own Christmas cookie-repertoire, curating my own favourites alongside my boyfriend's family traditions. The first Christmas cookies I fell in love with were these Swedish ginger cookies (Pepparkarkor) from delicious days (where there is a world of other beyond-gorgeous cookies that I hope to have time to try).
I was still a cookie-novice the first time I made these nearly seven years ago, so -- I didn't know how to make molasses or where to get it, but figured that maple syrup was about the same thing. Just like how most happy accidents go, these Nordic cookies with a Canadian twist were born.
These cookies are the only ones I want to eat en masse at Christmas: thin, delicate, lightly spiced; a far cry from your usual icing-encrusted gingerbread persons. They're one of the only recipes where I make the entire recipe as opposed to a small-batch division. But If you can resist eating them all right away, they really do get better after a few days, stored in an airtight cookie tin.
Maple Syrup Ginger Thins (gluten-free, or not) adapted from Swedish Ginger Christmas Cookies (Pepparkarkor)
1/2 cup maple syrup 1 stick (1/2 cup) butter 1/2 cup brown sugar 3 cups all-purpose flour, OR gluten-free: 2 cups rice flour, 2/3 cups buckwheat flour, 1/3 cup cornstarch 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1/2 tsp ground ginger 1/4 tsp baking soda 1/4 tsp grated nutmeg 1/4 tsp salt 1/4 tsp crushed black pepper 1 large egg
Bring butter, sugar and maple syrup to a boil in a small pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Nicole says you should let the sugar crystals dissolve, I didn't bother. Let cool.
Combine flour, salt, baking soda and spices in a bowl. Make a hole in the middle and add the egg and molasses mixture. Stir to combine until a ball forms, adding more flour by the spoonful if needed.
Refrigerate, covered, for at least two hours or overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350°F / 175°C.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface, as thinly as possible: mine were about 1mm thick. Cut into desired shape.
Bake for 8-10 minutes on a parchment-lined tray, until they have just turned golden brown.
These cookies are in good company at the Christmas Cookie Week 2014 hosted by The Speckled Palate (which I discovered via pink patisserie.) See all the other amazing cookie recipes here.