Next time, more wine & flour

I made a batch of gingerbread cookies for Galen's Christmas party. He, along with Shanna were happy with the outcome. So for Shanna's workplace hallway munchy fest I made another batch. This time the dough was much more sticky and clingy to work with. When cooked, the cookies spread out as wide as the Mississippi River. The man-shape had turned into something more akin to the profile of a celery root. The dough wasn't frozen prior to cutting. And I measured instead of weighing the flour. I thought the vagueness of humidity, water content of the flour, temperature of the cooked dough had all made an impact. But they tasted OK - oh yes, we sample around here. That's a chef's prerogative.

The house elected that I make yet another batch of gingerbread cookies for Santa (my choice of peanut butter was overridden). First I measured out all the flavorings; ginger, clove, cinnamon, and molasses. Then I started the flour and brown sugar - and immediately realized why the second batch spread out as wide as the Mississippi River. The scoop I keep in the flour jar is 1/2 cup - and I used three of these in the second batch. The three-cup recipe was baked with 1 1/2 cups of flour.

No, I wasn't drinking when I made the second batch, or at least not as much as when I made the first batch. Lesson learned.