Two Pittsboro bakers – Wendy Tomblin of The Country Bakeress and Danielle Rose of Carolina Cravings – share a special holiday recipe they’re offering this season.
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Carolina Cravings’ Gingerbread Men
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
3⁄4 tsp. ground cinnamon
3⁄4 tsp. ground ginger
1⁄2 tsp. ground allspice
1⁄2 tsp. ground cloves
1⁄2 tsp. salt
12 Tbsp. unsalted butter (11⁄2 sticks), room temperature
1⁄2 cup packed light brown sugar
2⁄3 cup unsulfured molasses
1 large egg
INSTRUCTIONS
Make dough (can be prepared two days in advance)
Sift flour, baking soda,cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, salt in a medium bowl.Set aside.
In a large bowl, beat butter until light and fluffy.
Add brown sugar, and beat until mixture is light in texture and color, about 2 minutes.
Beat in molasses and egg.
With wooden spoon, gradually mix in flour mixture to make a stiff dough.
Divide into two thick disks, and wrap each disk in plastic wrap.
Refrigerate until chilled, about 3 hours.
Form cookies
Let dough stand at room temperature until just warm enough to roll out without cracking, about 10 minutes.
Place on a lightly floured work surface, and sprinkle with flour.
Roll to 1⁄8-inch thick (run a longmetal spatula or knife underdough occasionally to prevent sticking; sprinkle more flour as needed).
For softer cookies, rollout slightly thicker.
Using cookie cutters, cut out the cookies and transfer to nonstick cookie sheets, placing 1 inch apart.
Gently knead scraps together,chill and repeat.
Bake
Bake at 350 F until the edges of the cookies are set and crisp, 10 to 12 minutes, switching cookies from top to bottomrack and back to front halfwaythrough.
Cool for 2 minutes, and then transfer to wire cake racks to cool completely.
Decorate any way you wish!
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The Country Bakeress’
Banana Pudding Trifle
6 medium bananas, separated
1 Tbsp. + 1 tsp. lemon juice, divided
4 extra large eggs
2⁄3 cup granulated sugar1⁄4 cup cornstarch
1⁄4 cup all-purpose flour1⁄8 tsp. salt
2 cups half-and-half
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 tsp. Jackson Morgan Banana Pudding Cream liqueur
Package of vanilla wafers, Biscoff cookies orsnickerdoodles
For stabilized whipped cream:
12 oz. heavy cream, cold
2 Tbsp. powdered sugar
1 Tbsp. nonfat dry milk
2 tsp. Vanilla extract
1 tsp. Jackson Banana Pudding Cream liqueur
INSTRUCTIONS
Roast bananas
Heat oven to 325 F. Place 3 unpeeled bananas on baking sheet and bake until skins are black, about 20 minutes.
Let cool for 10 minutes.
Peel bananas and puree or mash until smooth.
Add 1 teaspoon lemon juice into banana puree.
Create the cream
In a large bowl, whisk eggs withsugar until thick and pale yellow. Add cornstarch, flour and salt.Whisk to combine. Heat half- and-half in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat until simmering, and then remove from heat.
Pour about 1⁄4 cup of half-and-half into the bowl with theeggs.Whisktocombine.
Pour egg mixture into saucepan and move to stove on medium-low heat. Continue to whisk until pudding-likeconsistency. Do not take your eyes off mixture; continue to whisk for entire time. This can take anywhere from 6 to 8minutes.
Pour the hot cream mixture into a large bowl, and then stir in banana puree, vanilla extract and liqueur.
Cover banana pastry cream with plastic wrap, placing wrap directly onto cream. Refrigerate until well chilled.
Cut bananas and make stabilized whipped cream
Peel and cut remaining 3 bananas into 1⁄4-inch slices and toss in a bowl with remaining 1tablespoon lemon juice.
Using a stand mixer fitted with whisk, whip cream, sugar, dry milk,vanilla and pudding cream liqueur on medium‐low speeduntil foamy, about 1 minute.
Increase speed to high andwhip until stiff peaks form, 1 to3 minutes.
Finish
Spoon 1⁄4 of custard into3-quart trifle dish and top with a layer of cookies, a layerof sliced bananas, stabilized whipped cream and anotherlayer of cookies. Repeat twice,ending with cream. Pipe lastlayer of whipped cream ontop using a star tip, and then sprinkle with cookie crumbs. Refrigerate a minimum of 4 hours. (It’s even better after sitting overnight!)
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