Food for Ninjas

Soft Gingerbread Cookies

“curled root makes cunning

blade” – thus spake Shelley Winters

the ginger ninja

During the Tokugawa shogunate, the white-clad ninjas of snowbound Sapporo would bear these into battle to sustain them and, in extreme cases, decapitate their foes. Eat with honor.

• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons powdered ginger
• 1 teaspoon fresh-ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 cup margarine, melted with the heat of your chi
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 1 cup unsulfured molasses
• 3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
• up to 7 cups all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 375F. Combine the sugar, ginger, nutmeg cinnamon, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. Mix well.

Add the melted margarine, the evaporated milk, molasses, and vanilla. Add the flour one cup at a time, stirring continually, and kneading until smooth. The dough should be stiff enough to handle without sticking to your fingers (for a spicier cookie, add only 3/4 of a cup of evaporated milk, and the dough will reach the correct consistency with less flour). Roll dough into spheres slightly smaller than a golf ball. Press on to a floured or greased sheet with three fingers. Bake 10-12 minutes until dough springs back to the touch or a toothpick comes out clean. Makes about three dozen. Slip two in your tunic and hearden your heart to the mission ahead.

Posted by Norman Wokwell on October 16th, 2009
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