12 Days of Cookies - Day 6 - Ginger-Orange Stars

Wow.  I've just about made it to the half-way mark.  I'm sitting here trying to decide how I feel about how it's going.  So far, I've managed to post every day.  That's a pretty good accomplishment.  But I thought I was going to be able to get and stay farther ahead, and that just hasn't happened.  Funny how that works, with a full-time job and two kids. =)  As I mentioned, I had to work yesterday, but I prepped dough to bake in the evening.  For today, I figured I'd be able to get a couple new cookies made, no problem, since I was home all day.  And maybe bake some bread and other stuff as well.  Wishful thinking on my part.  I neglected to take into account the time I was going to spend grocery shopping, for one thing.  And then there's my part-time (verging on full-time) job as referee...  *sigh*  And I've barely gotten started on the Christmas decorating.  I'm looking at a totally naked Christmas tree in my living room right now. =)  But hey, at least the girls picked up their toys and my husband vacuumed the living room so I could actually put the tree there.  And I did get a nap, which I desperately needed.

So this is going to be kind of short so I can get to bed.  For today's cookie, I made the Ginger-Orange Stars.  They're another roll-out sort of cookie.  For all of these that I've made, I've only baked a portion of the dough, so my freezer is getting quite well-stocked.  This will come in handy in a couple weeks, since I'm on vacation the week of the 21st.  I'll be able to bake fresh cookies to give away as gifts.  This one is the smallest batch that I've baked, though, since I only made a handful of cookies so I could get some pictures.

At first glance, the ingredient list is similar to that of the Spiced Roll-out Cookies that I made on Day 1.  But there are some differences.  The recipe calls for dark molasses instead of mild, which contributes a stronger flavor.  It also has only an egg yolk, rather than a whole egg.  There's plenty of ginger, and I just  got some new powdered ginger, so it's pretty strong.  And there's orange zest--I used a satsuma, since that's what I had.  I chilled the dough for about 8 hours, but it still had a little give to it when I took it out to cut off a piece to roll out.  I quickly cut out some stars, transferred them to a baking sheet, then chilled them for about 5 minutes before baking.  I baked the cookies for 10 minutes at 350 degrees F.  After letting the cookies cool a bit, I decorated them with icing made from powdered sugar, a bit of water and a couple drops of orange oil.

The verdict?  Again, I'm still trying to decide.  They're more of a ginger snap--they have a crisp texture.  The molasses flavor is quite strong, as is the ginger, but I can't really taste the orange in the cookies.   Even with the bit of orange in the icing, it was hard to detect.  Maybe I didn't use enough zest; I didn't measure it all that carefully.  I'm going to bake more of these so I can sample them again.  If I make these again, I think I'd like to try them with mild molasses so maybe the orange flavor will be more prominent.

If you'd like to try these for yourself, you can find the recipe here.  And be sure to check out the other bakers participating in the 12 Days of Cookies to see what they've baked up for today!

Andrea of Andrea's Recipes

(honorary member and our founder but not participating this year)

Claire of The Barefoot Kitchen

Courtney of Coco Cooks

Judy of No Fear Entertaining

Kelly of Sass & Veracity

Michelle of Big Black Dog

RJ of Flamingo Musings

Sandy of At the Baker's Bench

Tiffany of The Nesting Project