December 15, 2025
by wordsfromanneli 23 Comments

No Running Away, Gingerbread Man

A gingerbread man, name of Stan

Was smiling as he left the pan,

He said, “I won’t run,

Cuz I know we’d have fun…,

If you’re nice and don’t bite me, we can.”

*Gingersnap Recipe

In a saucepan, heat up:

1 cup butter

1 cup molasses

1/2 cup brown sugar

Bring to a boil, while stirring the mixture. Let it simmer about a minute until it is bubbling vigorously.

Take it off the heat and pour it into a mixing bowl.

Have dry ingredients ready to add to the syrup mixture.

3 and 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon powdered ginger

Mix dry ingredients with syrup mixture and then pour it onto a heavy plate to put into the fridge to cool for a few hours. I make a couple of cuts in the dough to quarter it on the plate so I can more easily get it off the plate in pieces when it is cooled.

Roll out the dough to about 1/8 inch thickness (it will be hard to roll out at first until the dough loosens up and warms a bit – this is where the man of the house comes in handy) and use a cookie cutter to make the round shape of gingersnaps.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 8 minutes (until the edges are just beginning to turn darker brown). Take them out of the oven and set them aside for a couple of minutes before trying to put them on a cooling rack. They will get “snappy” as they cool.

Use the leftover pieces of dough to make your gingerbread man.

December 27, 2024
by wordsfromanneli 32 Comments

Your Reward

Thank you, friends, for checking in for the last 26 days while we did the alphabet countdown.

It’s time for your reward. Please help yourself to as many gingersnaps as you want.

If you feel like making your own, I will share the recipe at the end of the post.

Gingersnaps

Put in pot and let come to boil:

1 c. butter

1 c. molasses

½ c. brown sugar

Remove from heat. Put in bowl.

Add:

1 tsp. baking soda

1 tsp. ground ginger

3 – 3 ½ c. flour

*

Cool in fridge.

Roll and slice or cut with cookie cutter.

Bake at 350* for 8 minutes.

Good frozen.

*Candied ginger pieces can be added to dough. Also grated fresh ginger may be added.

December 25, 2024
by wordsfromanneli 30 Comments

Y is for Yule

Yule is a celebration of the winter solstice as well as the Christian holiday we usually call Christmas.

Often you may hear about yule logs being placed on the fire in the fireplace. Basically that’s just a big piece of firewood, usually oak, burned around Christmas time. In days of old, people saved a piece of the previous year’s yule log to start the new fire.

My favourite yule logs are the kind I can eat. They have dates and coconut in them.

If you’d like to get the recipe for them, please check my post from a few years ago.

Yule Love Yule Logs

Y is for yule.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

November 12, 2022
by wordsfromanneli 41 Comments

Hazelnut/Almond Pie Bars

This post is a repeat of one from June of 2018 (pre-Covid) but I’m still baking these almond pie bars because they’re so quick and easy to do. It works well if you have company coming, any time of year, or if you just feel you want to indulge yourself.

Here it is again. I just made a batch today but I used hazelnuts instead of almonds because that was what I had on hand. Also, I added some shredded coconut in the batter and on top.

This is a very easy recipe (ingredients listed at the end), but I have to warn you, it is really sweet. I cut back on some of the sugar and it is still sweet.

*** You can easily use half the sugar or less and it will still be good. I’ve tried it.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

First, put into your food processor, 2 cups of white flour, 1/2 cup of icing sugar, and a cup of butter. Pulse it a few times to cut the butter into the flour mixture so it is evenly mixed and is the texture of soft sand.

Put the mixture into a 9 by 13 baking dish (I like my glass one), and gently but firmly press the mixture down to flatten it. This will be the crust which will resemble shortbread. No need to grease the pan.

While the crust is in the oven baking for 10 to 15 minutes (until it is just turning a pale golden brown), chop one cup of almonds (or you can use already sliced almonds).

Break four eggs into a measuring cup and whisk them around with a fork. Add 2 cups of sugar (I put much less and I had to substitute some brown sugar because I ran out of white), the cup of chopped almonds, 1/3 cup of corn syrup (you could probably use honey), 1/2 cup of melted butter, 2 tablespoons flour, and 1/2 teaspoon almond extract (or vanilla or lemon or whatever you want).

Pour into the food processor and give it a couple of pulses. Then check on your crust to see if it is golden brown yet.

Take the baking pan out of the oven and be ready to pour the egg and almond mixture onto the hot crust.

As soon as you have the liquid mixture poured onto the crust, put the baking dish back in the oven, still on 350, and bake for another 25 to 28 minutes.

When the time is up, the topping should be a rich golden brown and be slightly puffy. This will collapse in a few minutes as it cools, and that’s fine. It’s what you want it to do.

As soon as you can no longer stand to wait, pour yourself a cup of coffee (or tea), and cut some squares from the pan of almond bars.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

Crust –

2 cups flour

1/2 cup powdered sugar (icing sugar)

1 cup butter

Topping –

2 cups sugar (I think it’s way too much… I only use 1 cup)

1 cup chopped almonds

4 eggs, slightly beaten

1/2 cup melted butter

1/3 cup corn syrup (or honey?)

2 tablespoons flour

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

The finished squares freeze well on a paper plate inside a ziploc freezer bag. Funny thing is though, they disappear quickly no matter where you store them.

Remember, you can use any kind of nut substitutions you want. I recently used pecans instead of almonds and it worked really well.
LESS sugar!!!

December 8, 2019
by wordsfromanneli 35 Comments

Yule Love Yule Logs

This is a very Christmassy recipe, but it’s good any time of the year.

Simple to make: all the ingredients are in the picture below. No baking powder or baking soda or salt. Just butter, sugar, flour and an egg, vanilla, dates and nuts (you can do without the nuts if you have an allergy). Recipe is at the end of this post.

You can see that I’ve chopped the dates (except for one to show you) and the pecans (you can use walnuts if you prefer them).

Mix the butter and sugar, add an egg and mix again, add the vanilla and then the flour. You’ll get a gooey batter. Add the nuts and dates.

Drop by spoonfuls, a couple at a time, into a bowl with shredded coconut, and to avoid getting batter all over your fingers, take a big pinch of coconut and push the batter off the spoon with it. Then coat the batter over and over in the coconut, pressing lots of coconut into the batter as you shape it into a roll (a yule log).