December 4th is National Cookie Day.

While there seems to be an endless variety of cookies worldwide, there are eight basic types of cookies.

The recipe below is for the ginger cookie—a seasonal choice that is neither gingerbread nor gingersnaps.

Ginger cookies are a type of drop cookie. A ball of dough is dropped onto the cookie sheet, and spreads out into a flat cookie as it bakes. Molasses cookies and spice cookies* are close relatives.

The Toll House cookie may be the most familiar example of a drop cookie.

Ginger became prominent as a holiday spice in the Middle Ages. At the end of the 11th century, Crusaders returned to Europe from the Middle East with ginger and other spices.

In addition to savory uses, ginger began to be used to flavor cakes and cookies. It was costly, however—as was sugar—that most “regular folks” only enjoyed ginger cookies and gingerbread (Lebkuchen) during the Christmas season.

(Trivia: Only Lebkuchen Guild members could bake gingerbread, except during Christmas, when anyone could bake it.)

See the difference between ginger cookies, gingersnaps and gingerbread below.

Thanks to Plugrá, the favorite premium butter of America’s pastry chefs, for the recipe.
 
 
RECIPE: GINGER COOKIES

These are delicious with coffee or tea, hot chocolate, milk, or a glass of mulled cider.

Check to see that your aromatic spices (ginger, allspice, cinnamon, cloves) still have plenty of aroma. If the aroma is faded, the flavor will be, too.

Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. PREHEAT the oven to 350°F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.

2. WHISK together the flour, spices, baking soda, salt and pepper in a medium bowl; set aside.

3. CREAM the butter with 1/3 cup of the granulated sugar and 1/3 cup brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer, at medium speed.

4. SCRAPE down the bowl and beat in the molasses and egg. Gradually add the flour mixture and stir on low speed until well blended, scraping the bowl occasionally.

5. FORM the dough into 1-inch balls and place onto parchment lined cookie sheets. Refrigerate for 30 minutes or until the dough is firm. Roll the cookies in remaining ⅓ cup of granulated sugar to completely coat each ball of dough.

6. BAKE for 10-12 minutes or until the cookies appear cracked on top and firm.

[1] Unlike gingerbread and gingersnaps, ginger cookies are soft to the tooth, and chewy (photo © Plugrá).

[2] Line your cookie sheets with parchment. It helps the cookies bake more evenly, and its non-stick feature helps prevent the cookies from cracking or breaking when lifting them off the sheet (photo © Paper Chef).

[3] European butter, with a minimum of 82% butterfat mandated by law, is has more rich butter flavor than typical American butter. U.S. butter is required to have only 80% fat. The extra 2% fat makes the butter creamier, softer and richer. Pastry chefs use 82% butter to achieve better results (photo © iGourmet).

A ginger cookie is a soft, molasses-type cookie that is flavored with ginger and other spices. It is larger than, and otherwise differs from, a gingersnap.

Unlike the fancier gingerbread, a gingersnap is a small, thin, plain round cookie with a hard, smooth texture like a gingerbread cookie. It is a smaller version of the traditional German Christmas cookie known as Lebkuchen. Like a gingerbread cookie, gingersnaps break with a “snap.”

Gingersnaps contain a larger amount of ginger, and thus are spicier, than the chewier ginger cookies.

 
 
> GINGERBREAD HISTORY

> THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF COOKIES

> THE HISTORY OF COOKIES
 
 
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*Spice cookies and ginger cookies have similar seasonings, but the ginger flavor is much more prominent in ginger cookies.

[1] For a larger group, create this Christmas tree antipasto. Arrange the ingredients in a triangle, like a tree (both photos © DeLallo).

[2] Smaller, for just a few people. DeLallo has selected among its Colossal Calamata Olives, Garlic Herb Stuffed Pepperazzi, Garlic Stuffed Olives, Lemon Feta Antipasti, Red Pepperazzi Peppers, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Stuffed Grape Leaves and Marinated Artichokes. All are available online.

We love the munchies that are served with cocktails before dinner. We could make a meal of them!

For the Christmas season, DeLallo suggests a self-serve antipasto, and has created two variations, for groups large and small.

Thes eye-catching platters in the photos are as fun to nibble as they are to create.
 
 
WHAT YOU NEED

Be sure to use festive colors to give your platter a holiday feel.

We like as much red and green as possible.

Ingredients

The “evergreen” is made with rosemary sprigs. See below for how to freeze leftover rosemary.

Of course, you don’t need all of these. Sketch out your tree on paper, designating which food goes in each row. Everything should be bite-size.

 
Don’t forget:

 
Begin your assembly by arranging the rosemary sprigs in the outline of the tree, as in the photos.

 

HOW TO FREEZE ROSEMARY

In addition to preserving the extra rosemary, you can recycle the sprigs from the platter. Simply rinse, pat dry, allow to air-dry (to avoid ice crystals from the water)and follow these same instructions.

 
You can do the same with fresh thyme.

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*Cabot Cheese makes flavored Cheddars in Cracked Peppercorn, Everything Bagel, Garlic & Dill, Habanero, Horseradish, Hot Buffalo Wing, Smoky Bacon, Spicy Jack and Tuscan.

†Popular semi-hard cheeses include Blue di Bufala, Gouda, Gruyere, Provolone. For goat cheese lovers: Cabra Romero, Drunken Goat. For sheep cheese lovers: Melange Brebis, Tomette Brebis. The cheese counter staff can recommend other varieties.

‡ Using real evergreen branches is not advised. Not only are the leaves toxic if consumed, but the aroma will overpower the scent of the foods.

‘Tis the season for adding a little something special to the conventional.

So here’s a twist on a chocolate shake: a Chocolate Fruitcake Shake.

It was created by American Heritage Chocolate, which focuses on historical chocolate products and recipes.
 
 
RECIPE: CHOCOLATE FRUITCAKE SHAKE

Prep time is 45 minutes, cook time is 10 minutes. However, you can save most of that time by purchasing chocolate syrup—although it won’t be as good, and it will likely have high fructose corn syrup.

If you make the syrup from scratch, refrigerate the extra for another use.
 
Ingredients For 2 Shakes

For The Chocolate Syrup

 
For The Fruitcake Shake

 
Preparation

See Step 7 for the optional chocolate rim.

1. MAKE the syrup. Combine the water and ¼ cup sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a simmer stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Add the chocolate to saucepan stirring constantly until chocolate dissolves.

2. ADD the remaining ¼ cup of sugar, continuing to stir until sugar dissolves.

3. COVER the pan and refrigerate 30-40 minutes, until chilled.

4. PREPARE the shake. Place the dried fruit in a small bowl with the vanilla and rum extracts, and pour boiling water over the fruit just just to cover. Chill in the refrigerator for 30-40 minutes. When the fruit is chilled…

5. DRAIN the water and place the rehydrated fruit into a blender. Add the milk, 3 tablespoons of chocolate syrup, and the spices. Blend until the fruit is puréed and the ingredients are well blended.

6. ADD the ice cream and blend until smooth and frothy. Pour into glasses and serve immediately.

7. PRIOR to making the shake (Step 4)—up to 2 days in advance—melt your chocolate of choice (dark, milk, white) in the microwave at 30 second intervals, watching until it bubbles. Remove from the microwave and dip the rims of the glasses in the melted chocolate. Wait until semi-hard, then sprinkle with chopped coconut. If you have larger coconut flakes, chop them.
 
 
> CHOCOLATE GLOSSARY: TERMINOLOGY & TYPES
 
 
> THE HISTORY OF CHOCOLATE

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*This American heritage product is crafted to go with its recipes. Their Finely Grated Baking Chocolate is not sugar-free, but is 57% semisweet chocolate with sugar, anise, cinnamon and nutmeg, red pepper and other flavors. You can buy it online.

[1] ‘Tis the season for a Chocolate Fruitcake Shake (photos #1 and #3 © American Heritage Chocolate).

[2] American Heritage Chocolate’s Fine Grating Chocolate (photo © Shops At Mount Vernon).

[3] Grated cinnamon (actually, it’s cassia—here’s the difference).

[4] Just as with pepper, freshly-grated nutmeg is so much flavorful than the pre-ground variety (photo © McCormick).

[1] The most fun and flavorful gift for a tea lover (photox #1 and #2 © Vahdam Teas).

[2] Holiday surprise: so many teas to discover.

[3] The gift provides a different variety of tea for 25 days (photo © Julia Sakelli | Pexels).

What could a tea lover love more, than the chance to enjoy 24 different top-quality teas?

We highly recommend the experience of a Holiday Advent Calendar from Vahdam Teas.

Vahdam Teas is the winner of the prestigious SOFI 2019 and 2020 or the BEST NEW PRODUCT along with 6 World Tea Championships.

It is loose leaf tea, which is the pick of the crop.
 
 
A TASTE OF 24 PREMIUM TEAS

Imagine discovering a different type of tea every day (or space it out as you wish).

The Christmas gift set includes so many different tastes of black, green, herbal and flavored teas. In alphabetical order:

 
 
FEEL-GOOD PRODUCT SUSTAINABILITY

The brand is certified carbon-neutral and plastic-neutral.

The company measures its overall carbon and plastic footprint and offsets it via investments in environment sustainability initiatives in India.

An innovative supply chain model ensures that the tea farmers get a better price for their produce and that consumers get the freshest teas.

There’s also a social initiative, TEAch Me, which directs 1% of revenues towards the education of the growers’ children.

Vahdam Teas was established in India by a 28-year-old fourth generation entrepreneur, who is very consumer conscious:

If you don’t like the product, the company will issue a 100% refund.

Just don’t drink up the entire box and claim you didn’t like it. 🙂
 
 
GET YOUR BEAUTIFUL BOX OF TEA

You can purchase it:

 
 
> TEA HISTORY

> TEA BAG HISTORY
 

Today’s tip comes from Jacqueline Parisi of Hello Fresh, the largest meal-kit provider in the U.S.

These natural DIY room scents are made with everyday foods.

Plus, if you use a glass vase or attractive jar, they double as festive tabletop centerpieces.

It couldn’t be simpler.
 
 
RECIPE: HOLIDAY HOME SCENTS

Ingredients

Select a scent (photo #1), and purchase enough to fill the pitcher, jar or vase you’ll be using.

Don’t worry about buying too much: These are ingredients you fan use every day (well, maybe not the pine twigs).

 
Plus

 
Preparation

1a. COMBINE the ingredients in a glass jar and fill the jar to the brim with warm water.

That’s it! The fresh and slightly sweet scent will linger pleasantly in the room.

For an alternate approach, here’s is an old trick to make a pleasant-smelling home when guests are expected.

The ingredients are simmered on the stove so it takes some watching, like any stovetop cooking.

1b. SIMMER the ingredients in a pan on the stove.

Bring the water to a boil, then lower to a simmer and keep it on a simmer as the fragrance fills the air.

Be careful, though. Once the water evaporates, the citrus can easily burn, delivering the opposite of what you want to achieve.
 
 
Happy holidays from The Nibble.

[1] You don’t need a fancy jar—a Mason jar is fine (photos #1 and #2 © Hello Fresh).

[2] Choose your scent.

[3] Extra citrus makes a holiday garnish with the leftover cranberries or pomegranate arils (photo © About.com [now closed])