Gingerbread Mushroom Cookie Season
I keep very few holiday traditions, but one is gingerbread cookie season. I only make this recipe from mid-November to mid-January.
A little cafe in Mill Valley, California served gingerbread tiles year-round. Dark and dense, they were halfway between bread and a cookie. It’s been more than a dozen years since I’ve tasted one, and the memory has achieved a legendary status: the spicy, earthy confection nibbled with a companion pot of jasmine tea. When the weather turns chilly, I yearn for this experience.
I don’t really expect to find similar gingerbread in Hawai‘i, but even searches in California during holiday season have proved disappointing. Fortunately, I am able to approximate my memory in the kitchen.
I pieced together a few recipes found online into my favorite, which happens to be gluten-free, refined sugar-free, and low sweetness. The addition of molasses gives them an enticingly dark flavor and adding black pepper gives an extra spicy kick.
These cookies are delicious plain, but they are amazing dipped in chocolate. The fun, mushroom shape gives them a special, festive feel. The idea for the shape came from my friends who make traditional Lithuanian grybai mushroom-shaped cookies. If you don’t want to bother with sculpting mushroom parts, you can form regular cookie shapes. They work well with cookie cutters, too, but decrease the bake time for thin cookies.
Ingredients for about 16 mushroom cookies:
2 cups almond flour
1/4 cup coconut sugar
3 Tablespoons powdered ginger
1 Tablespoon powdered cinnamon or pumpkin spice blend
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon sea salt
pinch of powdered clove
pinch of ground black peppercorns
3 Tablespoons butter or ghee
1 Tablespoon molasses
1 egg
dash of apple cider vinegar
chocolate for dipping: dark, milk, mylk, or white
toppings, like sesame or poppy seeds, cacao nibs, or spices
Directions:
Set the oven to 350°F and prepare a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
In a mixing bowl, combine the dry ingredients: almond flour, coconut sugar, spices, baking soda, and salt.
Add the wet ingredients: butter, molasses, egg, and vinegar. Mix in thoroughly with your hands.
Hand-form separate stem and cap shapes and place on the cookie sheet.
Bake for about 17 minutes. When the cookies start to brown, turn off the oven and crack the door to dehydrate.
When the cookies are cool, temper chocolate.
Pick up a mushroom cap cookie and turn it upside-down. Place a dap of tempered chocolate and affix a stem cookie to it. Turn the mushroom right side up and place back down on the cookie sheet. Adjust the balance of the mushroom before the chocolate hardens. Repeat with the rest of the cookie pieces.
When all the cookie pieces are “glued” together, pick up the first one and dip its cap into the same or a different tempered chocolate. Set right side up on the cookie sheet and add a topping. Repeat with the rest of the mushrooms.
My favorite combo is using dark chocolate to glue the stem and cardamom mylk chocolate garnished with ground black peppercorn on the cap. I also enjoy using citrus-flavored white chocolate which adds a bright contrast in flavor. Dabbing the white chocolate on the entire undersurface of the cap looks like gills.
I made my first batch of season today, and I can’t wait to enjoy some with jasmine tea tomorrow morning.
Hooray for gingerbread mushroom season!
Also: Lulu Press is having a Black Friday sale. Use the coupon code JOYFUL30 for 30% off One Cacao Tree this weekend.