Gift of Gingerbread Cookies

My mother always baked gingerbread cookies for Christmas. It was her thing. Even after I started baking my own, using her recipe, she’d mail me a small box of hers. “It’s what mother’s do,” she said.

Last year she was ill, weary and getting weaker by the day. My father was beside himself with worry. Neither of them had the will or energy to even decorate for Christmas … and my dad always put up a tree. That was his thing.

My heart ached for the two of them. I live 660 miles and a Rocky Mountain range away.

I decided to change my kitchen into a testing facility. I was determined to come up with a batch of gingerbread cookies my mother’s drug battered stomach could tolerate. That meant I couldn’t use wheat flour, golden syrup or molasses, any dairy including butter, or eggs. Was there anything left? My first four tries ended up in the compost. The fifth try finally produced a relatively tasty batch which I promptly overnight couriered to my parents.

I also found a local florist in their city that put together an arrangement in the shape of a Christmas tree for me. They decorated it and delivered it to my parents.

My mother called me, in tears. I’d given her Christmas! I can only imagine what this meant to both my parents. It was her last Christmas with us; she passed away shortly thereafter.

This year I’m baking an extra batch of gingerbread cookies and mailing them to my father – a taste of years gone by, just like my mother had done for me.

Here is my gift to you – my mother’s original recipe.

Ingredients

3/4 cup – regular sugar or brown sugar
½ cup – sugar syrup (Golden Syrup)
¾ cup butter, softened
1/2 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cloves
1 tsp cardamom
½ cup whipping cream
3 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp baking soda

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F.

Prepare cookie sheets.

Mix dry ingredients: flour, spices and baking soda.

Beat the butter, sugar, syrup, cream.

Stir in the flour mixture. I adjust the spices through taste and add extra sprinkles of whatever I think it needs. Finish stirring the mixture.

Press dough into a thick flat disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours or overnight.

Roll out the dough to ¼ inch thickness, cut with cookie cutters. For the size of cookies I make, this works perfectly. Keep extra dough chilled until you’re ready to use it.

Bake 12 minutes. (Baking time will vary based on your oven and thickness of the dough.)

Let them cool and start tasting. I do.

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