Hello Hallmarkies! Today marks the beginning of Hallmark Channel’s Countdown to Christmas 2018! All day and into tomorrow is a marathon of past favorite Christmas movies, and tomorrow begins a whole season of new movies, from October 27th all the way to December 29th.
The first new Christmas movie of the season is Christmas at Pemberley Manor starring Jessica Lowndes as Elizabeth Bennett and Michael Rady as William Darcy. It airs Saturday, October 27th at 8pm/7c.
Pemberley Manor, a beautiful mansion in a small quaint town, is owned by high-profile billionaire William Darcy, and Elizabeth Bennett is a New York City event planner who wishes to organize a holiday festival in the Manor. When Elizabeth arrives, Darcy is about to sell the mansion but she persuades him to first allow the festival, and along the way, their romance begins. But complications arise and the festival is canceled. What will happen to the festival? Will their love survive? Tune in and find out!
From watching a trailer for the movie, there is a scene where Elizabeth and William are baking and frosting gingerbread cookies of various shapes. For this movie recipe, I offer my grandmother’s recipe for gingerbread cookies. These are the ones I grew up with, and I still remember rolling out the dough and cutting with various shapes of cutters, some of which I still have.
I hope you enjoy the cookies and the movie!
- ½ cup softened butter, or solid vegetable shortening (either one works)
- ½ cup granulated white sugar
- ½ cup light molasses
- 2 Tablespoons white vinegar
- 1 large egg, beaten
- 3 cups All-Purpose Flour
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground ginger
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- In a medium saucepan, bring butter or shortening, sugar, molasses, and vinegar to boiling. Cool, then mix in the beaten egg. Transfer mixture to bowl of electric mixer.
- Add sifted dry ingredients and mix well. Chill dough until it becomes the consistency to roll out.
- To make cookies, place dough, part of it at a time, on a floured surface and roll out to about ¼-inch thick. Cut into shapes with desired cookie cutters. Repeat with remaining dough.
- Place cookie shapes onto a lightly greased baking sheet or line with parchment. BaKe in a preheated 375 degree F oven for about 10-12 minutes. Remove to a wire rack to cool completely. Decorate as desired.
You know….. I used to love the countdown to Christmas when it started toward the end of November…. but I can’t get enthusiastic for this anymore. October is way too soon for me. I love all the holidays at this time of year and I don’t want to blow past the autumn ones just to get to Christmas. I love 4 seasons. That being said, your grandmother’s gingerbread cookies look wonderful!!! I may just try them out in a month.
Hi Dana- There are many who don’t like Christmas anything too early, me included, but I do enjoy the early Christmas movies if only to get my brain away for a couple hours from all the negative and sad news that is everywhere on television. If you try the gingerbread cookies, I hope you like them! It’s also the recipe we used in our family to make the cookies to hang from the tree. I would form little circles at the top of the cookies before baking and then when cooled, slip in a red or green ribbon and hang them.
lol And I am one of those that could watch Christmas movies year round and never get tired of them because of the feel good happy feeling you get. Like reading a book it is a chance to escape for a little while. 🙂 And your recipe sounds good and going to try it tomorrow. 🙂 Merry Christmas to one and all.
Merry Christmas to you too, Kat! I’m with you on the movies! I hope you enjoy the cookies.