Description

Jill Cordes takes a behind the scenes look at the Food Network Kitchens, and the process of making gingerbread cookies.

Transcript

Ginger Cookies Jill Cordes: Ginger Cookies are most popular during the holidays. The combination of ginger and molasses creates a crisp cookie perfect for a cutout or decorating which is why it’s a favorite in the Food Network test kitchen. And it tops our list of the 12 new holiday cookies we’re sharing with you. Susan Stockton: Twelve days of cookies started out with a newsletter from a website and took off like wildfire. Everybody loves cookies and the response is tremendous. So, we started asking people what they like as well and we got great feedback. Jill Cordes: Feedback in the form of ideas for new cookie recipes is the basis for the show. Susan Stockton: It’s right -- recipe that’s kind of. Jill Cordes: Susan Stockton is the Vice President of Culinary Production at the Food Network Kitchen in New York. She works with chefs to develop new cookie recipes to share. Susan Stockton: People are giving us ideas and we’re giving them ideas. So we’re trading all these recipes. Katherine Alford: All spice. Jill Cordes: Chefs like Katherine Alford bind two an old favorite like Ginger bread. Katherine Alford: One of the things we love about this is that it has a really great bite a ginger in it. So when start with fresh ginger and you put them in a little mini food processor along with two tablespoon of water. Jill Cordes: Then, Katherine sifts the spices and whisks them together with flour. She creams butter and sugar and mixes the most flavorful ingredients. Katherine Alford: I’m going to add in the Molasses which is the ginger cookie its color and then a ginger juice. Jill Cordes: After kneading the dough a bit, she divides it in half and chills it for an hour. Katherine Alfort: And then, we’re going to roll it out and we like the cookies when they’re thin because then they’re really crisp. Jill Cordes: Once the dough rolls thin enough, Katherine picks up her cookie cutter and eases it in to the soft dough. Then, it’s off to the oven. Katherine Alford: And I’ll put in on parchment lined baking sheets and then they come. Jill Cordes: And then the fun part, painting the ginger bread with frosting and decorating the Christmas cookie trees with edible ornaments. Katherine Alfort: They’re you go. It’s a great thing to do with kids and get them involved in the holidays and in the kitchen. Jill Cordes: In the Food Network Kitchen, the chefs tapped their artistic side. Trees, snowflakes even in athletic jersey wearing ginger bread man. No matter how they’re address, ginger bread then always wear a smile. Like centuries ago, they were ropes. In the 1600s, ginger bread took on the shape of patron saints at holidays festivals but this classical cookie is always made its most impressive appearance at Christmas. The Food Network chefs proved the sky is the limit with creativity and ginger bread. They build an entire winter scene complete with a ginger bread forest and cozy mountain lodge. But you don’t have to be a master chef to create edible art. And that’s right, anyone can do this. Just make sure your ginger bread not too pretty to eat.