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| Molasses cookies straight from the oven |
As my nearest & dearest know, I have been buying cast iron cooking equipment like mad recently. Among my purchases was a Bacon Press (see photo) and also two cast iron cookie sheets.
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| Bacon Press on top of cookie sheet on top of griddle |
What madness is this, I hear you say, cast iron cookie sheets? Well, they weigh a ton and I bought them in the States, so the shipping was high. There is a supplier in Hamburg that sells them, but I would have paid twice of what I paid to my American supplier, even including postage.
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| Cookie dough |
The trouble with regular aluminum sheets is that they stick and bend, and with non-stick sheets that the non-stick eventually comes off and ends up in your food, and I don't think that is healthy. Both aluminum and non-stick last about three years with me. The trouble with cast iron sheets is that they are heavy - but if I use two hands that is OK. They are also hot - but so is everything that comes out of a hot oven. And you know what, cast iron lasts practically forever!
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| Sheet after I lifted off the cookies- no residue, nothing stuck! |
Anyway, today I decided to bake molasses cookies using my new cookie sheets. They are from Lodge and pre-seasoned. Usually I season cast iron pots and pans at least half a dozen times, but this time I just lightly brushed them with lard and put them in the hot oven while I prepared the cookie batter. I took the sheets out of the hot oven, added the cookie batter in little mounds, and put the sheet back in the oven.
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| After lifting off the cookies I brushed the sheet with lard (perfect for conditioning cast iron) |
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| Little dough lumps ready to be baked |
After 15 minutes I checked the cookies, they were done. I took the sheet from the oven, placed it on a wooden board, and waited three minutes. Then I was able to lift the cookies off WITH MY FINGERS!!!! They were hot, of course, but did not stick to the sheet at all. Not even a tiny bit. I brushed the sheet with lard, added more lumps of cookie dough, and baked another batch. Normally I need two cookie sheets, one bakes while I scrape the cookie crusts off the other. But not this sheet, I just used the one sheet uninterruptedly. I am really pleased with these sheets, well worth the postage!
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| Use silicon gloves to handle the hot cookie sheets! |
The cookies are rather good, too!
Have a good week, everyone!
