25DoCC-Ninjabread cookies

I think this might be a cookie fail.  I these ninja cookie cutters last year for Christmas and I REALLY wanted to make gingerbread men with them.  But since they are ninjas I thought they needed a cookie with a little extra kick.  I've seen recipes that used black pepper which sounded like it would taste ok but I wasn't sure if they'd be noticeably different from normal gingerbead.  Then a friend told me about peanut butter cookies made with Sriracha (If you don't know what Sriracha is, read this).  I thought I might be able to adapt that to gingerbread so I made 1 batch of gingerbread split in half.  One half with pepper, one half with Sriracha.

December 9,2012-Ninjabread cookies

Ingredients: (whole batch amt)

-Cookies
1/2c butter, softened
1/2c packed brown sugar
1/2c molasses
1 egg
1tsp baking soda (orange box)
1tsp ground ginger
1/2tsp salt
1/4tsp cinnamon
1-2tbs cold water
3c AP flour

(1/2 batch amt)
1/8tsp cloves, ground
1tsp black pepper, ground
1tbs Sriracha

-One and Done Icing
1 pkg (8oz) cream cheese, softened
1tsp vanilla
1 stick (1/2c) butter
1c conf sugar

Directions:

1. Cream butter, molasses, and brown sugar.  Add the 1 egg and beat mixture.
2. Since I was splitting the dough I added the baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and water and beat everything together, then I split the mixture in half.
3. To half the dough I added 1tsp black pepper and 1/8tsp cloves and then add 1 1/2c AP flour
4. To the other half of the dough I added 1tbs Sriracha and then ended up adding 1tsp ginger (additional), a dash of cinnamon, and a pinch of cloves because the Sriracha overpowered everything.
5. I covered both sets of dough and refrigerated them overnight, but you could just chill them for a few hours
6.  On a well floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4in thickness (*if you want to use floss use it before the cutters) and cut with cookie cutter and place cookies on non-stick or greased cookie sheet
7. Bake @ 350F for 8-10min, until the edges turn golden (my cookies were a little thinner so I averaged 6-7min)
8. While the cookies are cooling, cream butter, conf sugar, cream cheese, and vanilla together, then whip for 2min
9. Place the icing into a piping bag and cut off the tip to the appropriate size and decorate cooled cookies

Notes:
-If you set out your butter and cream cheese for the icing when you start making cookies, it will probably be soft by the time you're ready to start making icing
-If you have trouble with your dough sticking to the table resulting in misshapen cookies when you try to scoop them up, you can either roll the dough then place it on the cookie sheet, cut the cookies there and peel the excess away, OR (this is what I like) you can use unflavored floss to slide under the dough before you cut the cookie shapes.  If your cookies still stick, use more flour.
-It works best if your cookie shapes are all about the same size/shape so they cook evenly OR make 1 tray of each type of cookie, so they bake evenly 
Yield ~4 dozen


The Verdict: 
-I liked the pepper cookies, a lot but I would add more pepper next time
-The Sriracha cookies were not as terrible as I expected when I first tasted the dough.  They are definitely more savory (almost like a cracker instead of a cookie), but it had a nice burn at the end and the more cookie you ate the hotter things got.
-Both cookies could use more ginger, or fresh ginger, or both


Original Recipe from: "Taste of Home Best Loved Cookies and Bars"
Sriracha PB cookie recipe from Sugar Pixie