Groundhog Day and Cookies
A sweet Druid holiday
Colorado native Lilah didn't know about Groundhog Day, that quintessential Pennsylvania holiday that brings cheer to the dark days of mid-winter. The world is turning and the days are incrementally getting longer. Tied to the ancient Druid festival of Imbolc, which celebrates the Feast of the Lactating Ewes, Groundhog Day comes at a time when our frozen spirits need a good reason to rally. And if you don't celebrate that, there is always the Super Bowl to raise a ruckus.
We made Groundhog Cookies using Elaine Light's recipe and were happy to watch the events at the Knob with weather anchorman Joe Murgo on WTAJ. Phil DID see his shadow this year so--6 more weeks of winter!
Elaine Light’s Spicy Groundhog Cookies
On my first magical trip to Punxsey in 1992 I walked around town after breakfast and looked at the ice sculptures outside the Indiana University of Pennsylvania Academy of Culinary Arts. The students were handing out these little cookies shaped like groundhogs and they were excellent! Subsequent trips, however, have failed to track any of these down. There are plenty of groundhog-shaped cookies, but they are of the supermarket quality—thick, pale and overly sweet. Elaine Light developed the recipe for her cookbook after a dozen attempts. She recently gave me her tips for success with these cookies: be sure to use dark molasses for the dough; chill the dough overnight before rolling out; roll the dough out over saran wrap (or on a pastry cloth). These cookies are distinctive and well worth the effort to make them. You can purchase groundhog cutters online from the Punxsutawney Chamber of Commerce.
Makes 3 to 4 dozen small groundhog cookies or 12 to 15 large ones
2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 ½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ cup soft butter
1 cup sugar
½ cup molasses
1 egg yolk
1 egg, slightly beaten
Sift the flour, salt, soda, baking powder, and spices together. Set aside. Cream butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. Blend in molasses and egg yolk. Stir in the flour mixture and mix well. Form into a ball. Wrap in plastic wrap or wax paper. Chill for one hour or longer.
Preheat the oven to 350° F. Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper, or spraying them with cooking spray, or greasing them. Roll out a small amount at a time on saran wrap or on a pastry cloth to a thickness of 1/8 inch. Cut out the cookies with a lightly floured cookie cutter, groundhog shaped, if possible.   Place the cookies on prepared baking sheets. Brush with the lightly beaten egg. Decorate with a currant for an eye, buttons, etc. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in preheated oven. Cool slightly before removing from the baking sheet.
*Menu idea*
For a dessert in the spirit of the holiday, buy vanilla ice cream in a round quart container. Cut the container along the side and slice a round disk of ice cream and put it on a serving plate to suggest the frozen landscape at Gobbler’s Knob. Place a cookie on the ice cream and drizzle chocolate sauce behind it to suggest a shadow.
*Tip*
Don’t forget to brush the cookies with egg wash. The finished product has a wrinkled, furry appearance when you do this. If you forget, the cookies stay smooth and do not look as interesting. Experiment with leaving a couple unbrushed to see the difference. The groundhogs look naked.