Whole Wheat Gingerbread Recipes

WHOLE WHEAT GINGERBREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat molasses, honey, oil and eggs until well-mixed. Combine dry ingredients and add alternately with the milk to the egg mixture. Pour batter into a greased 13x9-in. baking pan. Bake at 350° for 45-50 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature with chilled whipped cream.

WHOLE WHEAT GINGERBREAD CAKE

Steps:

• Cream butter, gradually add brown sugar and beat until fluffy.
• Add egg and beat well.
• Mix in molasses.
• Mix dry ingredients together, add gradually to mixture.
• Add boiling water and stir until batter is smooth, mixture will be thin.
• Pour into greased and floured 8" square baking pan.
• Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes, until edges are starting to pull away from pan and toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean.

WHOLE WHEAT BREAD WITH CRYSTALLIZED GINGER

Steps:

• Combine buttermilk, butter and sugar in large bowl. Sprinkle yeast over. Let stand until yeast dissolves, about 8 minutes. Mix in whole wheat flour and salt, then 2 1/2 cups all purpose flour, 1/2 cup at a time. Stir until soft dough forms. Continue adding all purpose flour 1/4 cup at a time if dough is very sticky. Mix in crystallized ginger and bulgur. Lightly flour work surface with 1/2 cup flour. Turn dough out onto work surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
• Butter large bowl; add dough and turn to coat with butter. Cover bowl with plastic wrap. Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 1 1/2 hours. Butter 9x5x3-inch loaf pan. Punch dough down; turn out onto work surface. Roll dough into cylinder; press into prepared pan. Cover with damp towel. Let rise in warm draft-free area until almost doubled in volume, about 40 minutes.
• Preheat oven to 375°F. Bake bread until golden, about 35 minutes. Cool 10 minutes on rack. Remove from pan; cool.
• *Also called cracked wheat, bulgur is available at natural foods stores and supermarkets nationwide.

WHOLE WHEAT GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Steps:

• In a large bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses, egg, vanilla, and salt until combined.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together dry ingredients; add to wet ingredients and mix until well blended and dough forms. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 1 hour before handling. If chilled overnight, allow the dough to warm up slightly or it may crack when it is rolled out.
• Preheat oven to 350F (175C.) Line two baking trays with parchment paper, set aside. Divide dough into 4 pieces; roll out one at a time keeping the remaining dough refrigerated.
• Roll dough to ¼ inch (½ cm) thickness on a lightly floured surface. Cut into desired shapes using floured cookie cutters. Carefully transfer to prepared baking trays.
• Bake for 7-9 minutes, rotating trays top to bottom halfway through, or until cookies are set. Cool 1-2 minutes on the tray then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before decorating.
• Tips: Make a simple Royal Icing to decorate. It will harden overnight, making the cookies stackable for storage. Lightly whisk together 1 egg white and ¼ tsp (1 mL) lemon juice. Gradually beat in 1 ½ - 2 ½ cups (375-625 mL) of icing sugar to desired consistency. Tint using food colouring, then pipe onto cookies using a zipper storage bag with the corner snipped off. Allow the icing to dry overnight before storing in an airtight container.
• More cookie recipes are available at www.walmart.ca/recipecentre.

WHOLE WHEAT GINGER SNAPS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets.
• In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1 1/2 cups of sugar until smooth. Mix in the eggs, and then the molasses. Combine the whole wheat flour, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice, heaping the measures if you like a lot of spice. Stir the dry ingredients into the molasses mixture just until blended.
• Roll the dough into small balls, and dip the top of each ball into the remaining white sugar. Place the cookies about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheets.
• Bake for 10 to 15 minutes in the preheated oven, until the tops are cracked. Bake longer for crispy cookies, less time for chewy cookies. Cool on wire racks.