Gingerbread Cookies

Greetings fellow culinary enthusiasts! This is modified from a very old recipe I learned about on the radio. I wanted to teach my food science students about the power of leavening agents, and this fit that lesson, plus brought in some holiday cheer. The molasses to brown sugar ratio has been altered a bit because I didn’t think kids had much of a taste for such a lightly refined product like molasses. Preparation and cooking time have also been altered from the original recipe so cookies can be prepared and eaten in less than one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix together 2 tablespoons of milk and 1 teaspoon of cider vinegar in a small bowl and set aside. In a medium sized bowl add 1 cup of flour, ½ teaspoon of cinnamon and 1 ½ teaspoon of ginger. In a saucepan over medium heat, melt together 2 tablespoons of vegetable shortening, 3 tablespoons of brown sugar, ¼ cup of molasses and a mixture of ½ teaspoon of baking soda dissolved in ½ teaspoon of water. Stir until evenly mixed and then pour into the bowl of flour. Stir to incorporate all ingredients and then add the milk/vinegar mixture you prepared earlier. Stirring together should produce a firm dough. If too dry, add a sprinkle of water, if too wet add a sprinkle of flour.

The dough can be rolled out to make gingerbread men or just spooned onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. This recipes makes about a dozen cookies. The science behind the leavening agent: When the vinegar mixture (acidic) was added to the mixture containing the baking soda (basic), an acid-base reaction occurred producing carbon dioxide which allows the cookies to rise. You can simply demonstrate this cooking chemistry to your kids by adding a tablespoon of vinegar to a tablespoon a baking soda. Enjoy!