Just Baking

Gale Gand is one busy woman.  Besides being the pastry chef at Tramonto’s Steak & Seafood, Osteria di Tramonto, RT Lounge, Gale’s Coffee Bar and Tru (all luckily located in the same town of Wheeling, IL), she is also a popular cookbook author and host of Sweet Dreams on the Food Network.  To say she knows baking would be quite the understatement.  In a recent issue of Woman’s Day magazine, she did a quick Q&A, sharing some of her favorite baking tips.

Any advice to ease a novice baker’s anxiety?
Like any daunting project, break it into smaller pieces: Shop for ingredients one day, find the pan another, maybe even measure everything out another time, then finally do the mixing and baking.

What are the most important baking tools or equipment to have on hand?
I love my stand mixer.  You also need good rubber spatulas, a properly calibrated oven, and heavy baking sheets and pans.

Any “must-know” tips?
Use real butter, not (gulp!) margarine, and use good quality chocolate and cocoa powder for the best flavor.

What are good holiday recipes everyone should have?
Pumpkin pie and a cranberry quick bread, because both are easy to make, and molasses crisp cookies because the flavor simply evokes the holidays.

Gale Gand’s Molasses Crisp Cookie

Makes 72

Active: 30 min/Total: 3 1/2 hr (includes chilling)

INGREDIENTS:
3 sticks (1 1/2 cups) unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs
1/2 cup molasses
2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp salt
3 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

PREPARATION:
1. Beat butter and sugar in a large bowl with mixer on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. Beat in eggs one at a time. Beat until mixture is light and lemon-colored. Beat in molasses.

2. In another bowl, stir together cinnamon, baking soda, ginger and salt. Beat into butter mixture until blended. With mixer on low speed, gradually beat in flour just until blended.

3. Place dough on plastic wrap; flatten slightly and wrap. Chill at least 2 hours until firm.

4. Heat oven to 350°F. You’ll need a large baking sheet(s) coated with nonstick spray.

5. Roll level tablespoons dough into 1 1/4-in balls. Place on baking sheet 3 inches apart. Bake 9–11 minutes, until cookies are set. (The cookies will be thin and flat.)

6. Let cool on baking sheet 2 minutes, then transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

Per serving: 83 cal, 1 g pro, 12 g car, 0 g fiber, 4 g fat (2 g sat fat), 16 mg chol, 55 mg sod

Photo from Food Network.