Words Joan Saunders
Photos Sarah Hartley Photography
Creating this Christmas tree truck was a labour of love, of nostalgia and, I have to admit, a little bit of frustration.
For a number of years when our son was younger, he and my mom would get together and work on a gingerbread creation. She would have the pieces cut out and baked and he would smother it in icing and candies, then the assembly would begin. It was a fabulous tradition. One year it was a Noah’s Ark full of dinosaurs, as he was obsessed with dinosaurs at the time. For another holiday it was a Christmas train. And, one year, it was a Christmas tree truck.
The initial inspiration for this annual event came from my mom perusing the magazine Canadian Living, so I went back to their archives to take a look. If you want to challenge yourself, it’s easy to find templates and designs in cookbooks and online. And, while adaptations were made to this truck, the spirit is the same. I have to admit, however, that this isn’t my first attempt and I now have immense respect for people who decorate and assemble gingerbread creations.
I would definitely recommend cookies as an excellent alternative. During the process, I found that refrigerating the dough a number of times was important, as it helps it to keep its shape during baking. Other than that, it’s a very forgiving recipe; you can take the scraps and keep re-rolling it until you’ve cut out as many cookies as you want. I used fairly large cutters, so watch the baking time, as this will depend on the size of the cookies you prefer. However, the bigger the cookie the more icing and candy it will hold, and isn’t that just what we’re looking for during this season of baking, and making, memories?
Gingerbread Cookie Dough
1 cup softened butter
1 cup softened shortening
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
¾ cup fancy molasses
½ cup cooking molasses
½ cup blackstrap molasses
for cooking
6 ½ cups flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cloves
1½ tsp cinnamon
In large bowl, beat butter, shortening, sugar until fluffy; beat in eggs, fancy molasses, cooking molasses and blackstrap molasses.
In different bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, soda, salt, cloves, cinnamon. Mix the flour/spices into the molasses/butter mixture in two parts. Make sure it’s well combined. Get into it with your hands if necessary.
Divide dough into four parts. Make each part into a disc; wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate dough discs until firm (about 1 ½ to 2 hours). If you’re making this ahead, you can store it in the refrigerator for up to a week or wrap well and freeze for a couple of weeks.
To roll out: place one of the dough discs on a piece of parchment on the countertop. Sometimes I find the dough is still a bit wet and I need to incorporate a bit more flour. If this is necessary and the dough is sticky, just knead some into the disc you’re using.
With a rolling pin, roll out one disc at a time to about 4 mm thickness. Transfer the rolled dough (still on parchment) onto a cookie sheet; refrigerate until firm, about 15 minutes. Then, using a cookie cutter, cut out desired shapes. Transfer the cut cookies onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Try to keep the cookies about 1 inch apart (2.5 cm).
Refrigerate until firm (again) about 20 minutes.
Bake in 325° oven for 12-15 minutes, or until cookies are firm to the touch. The baking time depends on the size of cookies.
Cool completely before decorating.
Royal Icing
4 ½ tbsp meringue powder
½ cup water
5 cups icing sugar
In large bowl, beat meringue powder with water until foamy. This will take about 1 ½ to 2 minutes
Add in icing sugar; beat well, about 3 minutes. Cover icing with damp towel to keep it from drying out.
You might need to add more water to the icing, depending on how you’re decorating the cookies. If piping a thin outline, play around with the right thickness of the icing, depending on the tip you use. Divide icing up into smaller bowls and use food colouring to decorate cookies as preferred.
I used green for trees and white for gingerbread people.
Use little dollops of icing to add whatever candies are preferred.
ADAPTED FROM CANADIAN LIVING MAGAZINE ONLINE ARCHIVES …
AND LOTS OF PERSONAL TRIAL AND ERROR
