Roanoke, Texas —It's time to turn up the holiday cheer with something sweet! And what's more festive than gingerbread cookies?
Tiffany Taylor of Tiff's Treats stopped by Merit TV to share her recipe, and story of how the launch of her successful cookie company began. It all started after she stood up her now husband Leon Chen for a date back in the 90s. They were both college sophomores at the University of Texas in Austin. Well, what better way to make it up to him (she thought) than with hot-from-the-oven cookies to apologize. Leon convinced Tiff to turn her cookies into a business, and Tiff’s Treats was born. The company started as small as you can get, with the two of them taking orders on a cell phone and baking cookies in the oven at Leon’s apartment.
Ingredients: Salted Butter: 1 cup (Softened) Granulated Sugar: 1/2 cup Light Brown Sugar: 1 cup Large Eggs: 2 Pure Vanilla: 2 tsp Molasses: 2 Tablespoon Salt: 1.5 tsp Baking Soda: 0.5 tsp Cinnamon powder: 1 ¼ tsp Ground ginger powder: 1 tsp All spice powder: ½ tsp All Purpose Bleached Flour: 2 1/4th cup (add another ¼ cup if dough is too sticky)
Topping: Red green and white sugar crystals (optional) Makes roughly 2.5 dozen cookies 3-3.5” diameter
Directions: - Preheat oven to 375 F. - In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars together using a hand mixer/kitchen aid on medium speed until mixture is smooth. - Add eggs, molasses, vanilla, salt and baking soda to the butter mixture. Mix until no separation of liquids is seen and once well mixed add the spices right after (cinnamon, ginger and all spice). - Mix on medium speed until ingredients are blended and smooth. - Add flour. - Mix on low speed until flour is no longer loose, and medium speed only until flour is blended fully (add ¼ cup extra flour if dough seems too sticky after this step) and mix on low to medium speed. - Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. - Scoop cookie dough using a medium sized cookie scooper slightly rounded, and place at least 2 inches apart onto cookie sheet (approx. 1.75 tablespoons of dough for each cookie). - Dip top of the dough balls into the crystalized sugar mixture (red, green, white), and place the dough balls sugar-side-up on a baking sheet (optional) - Bake at 375F for 9-11 minutes, taking out when tops are still white but edges are brown. - Slide parchment paper with cookies off the baking sheet directly onto the counter for cooling. (If not using parchment paper, let cookies sit for one minute and then remove to cool on the counter or wire rack).
Annie Gimbel
