Protective Diet Class #277 Notes:

Holiday Special—Gingerbread Cookies & Sugar-Free Royal Icing

This class gives new life to your cookie cutters with protective, delicious gingerbread traditions that engage the creativity of all ages, efficient smart cookie techniques that contain the mess and double as active meditation, and variations for a quick lunchtime cookie bake or an entire evening of festive fun. Sugar-free, plant-based holidays are exciting and unifying on a Protective Diet.

Announcements

• Engage in our support group, Protective Diet Living (PDL). Enjoy the holidays with us, Protective Diet style.
• Shop www.protectivediet.com/bulk for many PD staples in bulk at low prices, including rolled oats and tapioca starch.

Vocabulary

Essential Kitchen Tools

The PD Groove

Wonderful Why

Restriction

Active Meditation

Action Steps to Smart Holiday Cut-Out Cookies

• Make it Easy with PD Pantry Staples and Essential Kitchen Tools
• Carefully read the entire recipe. There are tips in every section. Green links in the recipe take you to more information.
• Follow PD-Ed guidance for stocking oat flour, frozen ginger root, instant vanilla and plant-based yogurt in your PD pantry.
• Oat flour—PD cookies start with well-blended oat flour. Use a high-speed blender to avoid grainy cookies.

– Save money & time—blend your own oat flour in advance. Buy oats in bulk for ~65¢/lb at www.protectivediet.com/bulk.

– Blend in the morning when your blender is completely dry. Blend 3 cups oats for 1 full minute to achieve a fine powder.

– Store oat flour in an air-tight container for convenient use in making Protective Diet baked goods.

• Ginger root—wash, air dry & freeze with skin on. Microplane a generous, fluffy Tablespoon directly into the bowl. Estimate.
• The spices in gingerbread cookies are ultra-protective. Salt brings out their flavor. Pepper increases their bioavailability.
• Measure vanilla and yogurt accurately. Just pouring it in will affect the ratio of dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
• A dough whisk is sturdy & can handle mixing from dry, to moist, to full dough in a round-bottomed bowl. Alternative: a fork.

• Enjoy a Mess-Free Experience with PD Smart Cookie Techniques
• Preheat the oven to 350˚ with the rack in the center to ensure the best results with the specified bake time.
• Work the cookie dough on a silicone mat to contain the mess. Knead, like playdough, incorporating dry bits to form a log.
• Lay a piece of plastic wrap (the size of the silicone mat) flat over dough log and mat for easy rolling without extra flour.
• Enjoy a mess-free, active meditation, sensory experience rolling the dough in even thickness to the inner edge of the mat.
• Remove plastic wrap. If a section of dough lifts, press it back down, replace plastic and re-roll that section; very forgiving.
• Press cookie cutters into dough and gently wiggle to create a space between the cookie and negative edges of dough.
• Transfer the entire mat of rolled and cut dough to a rimmed baking sheet. Bake 15 minutes. Cookies will not swell in baking.
• Cool. Remove the negative dough pieces surrounding each cookie and refrigerate or freeze in an air tight container.
• This recipe makes a soft gingerbread cookie. Leave cookies out if you prefer them crisp. Icing will soften cookies.

Add Layers of Fun:

Make cut-out cookies using PD Vanilla Wafers and Thin Mints to create variations in color and flavor.	Use all different shapes of cookie cutters: stars, hearts, circles and various sizes/shapes of gingerbread people.	Make a contest to see who can fit the most cookie cut-outs on a mat of rolled dough.	Inspire imagination and play while identifying random shapes in the cookie negatives, making them a positive delight.
Cover the workspace with newspaper, parchment or festive wrapping paper to catch icing drips for easy clean-up.	Transfer icing to a squeeze bottle or icing bottle and draw details with a controlled, fine tipped drizzle, like a marker.	Get creative with icing. Easy squeeze bottle application makes you look like a professional baker. Watch an icing demonstration.	Make another flavor of icing by replacing the ¼ tsp. vanilla extract with ¼ tsp. almond extract.
Drizzle Sugar-Free Royal Icing on Italian Anisette Biscotti and/or Mandel Bread. Bag and bow for beautiful neighbor gifts.	Use a butter knife, a pizza wheel, or the lid of a jar to cut squares and circles if you don’t have cookie cutters.	Use the back of a wooden matchstick, a chopstick, or a skewer to make icing buttons and eye dots w/o a squeeze bottle.	Use a spoon to drizzle icing, dip cookies for complete coverage, or just sprinkle with Sugar-Free Powdered Sugar “snow”.

• Handle Holiday Stress with Confident Consistency
• Ask to bring something to share such as a starter vegetable platter and dip, or just show up and bring what you love.
• Do not argue. You may feel unsure about defending your choice to adopt a Protective Diet. Others may defend their choices by making your choice appear foolish, extreme or wrong. Don’t debate over a dinner table of mixed diners. The time to talk to someone about what they are doing is when they ask you what you are doing because they want to know.
• Make time to talk about it later. Even if they ask, don’t discuss it at the table. Be together. Love each other. Don’t educate.
• Secure your own mask first. Represent success. Get in the groove where the rewards are so abundant and apparent.
• Earn their respect. Firmly walk your different path and they will respect it. Toggling back and forth invites questioning.
• Send a clear message. If you are sending a mixed message, they have to survey you every time anything involves food.
• Follow through to avoid discomfort. Otherwise you will feel like a pain that everyone has to accommodate.
• Make yourself some cookies if you are spending the holiday alone. Have fun with it. Being separated from family and friends this year might be a Wonderful Why that reduces stress and gives you an opportunity to get this new lifestyle down.

Cooking Tips

• UPDATE: Vanilla Wafer and Thin Mints recipes have been changed to include an additional 2T. yogurt for better rollability.
• Erythritol is not a 1:1 substitute for sugar–70% the sweetness of sugar & palatability decreases when used in large quantities.
• Stock up on organic ginger root and turmeric in the fall and winter months. Freeze a large quantity in a bag. Put the piece you are currently using in a container in the freezer door for easy access addition of fresh, grated protection to many PD recipes.
• Yogurt—add milk to starter & incubate. Do not shake or stir. Yogurt thickens with each batch. Soon it will be “vintage” & thick.
• Tapioca Starch, also called tapioca flour, can be sourced at Asian markets, online, or in bulk at www.protectivediet.com/bulk.
• Measure flours by scooping directly with the measuring cup and smoothing off the top w/your finger, making a packed cup.
• Dough sticks to dough. Rinse the dough off your hands as needed for a stick-free, fat-free dough handling experience.
• Cookie cutters have a thick side and a thin side. The thin side cuts the dough and the thick side protects your hand as you press.
• To pour a thick liquid into a narrow mouth squeeze bottle, place the squeeze bottle in a bowl to catch any drips, hold the container of liquid high above the bottle, using a spatula to guide, pour in a thin stream directly into the bottle, or use a funnel.
• Freeze icing drizzled biscotti in serving size containers for easy defrosting as an after dinner treat.

Student Q&A

• Q: Can erythritol be substituted for sugar in any recipe? (5:50)
• Q: Does the erythritol in Sugar-Free Royal Icing dissolve without boiling or blending? (49:23)

Encouragement

• Stay consistent. You know you want this. You’ve been longing for optimal health and the protection of a Protective Diet.
• Start today. Dive in 100%. Pick out a breakfast, lunch and dinner. Go to the store. Get familiar with the cooking techniques. Use the recipes as your guide. There is no restriction. There are no foods to eat in moderation. There is no special magic. There are just magic recipes filled with protective ingredients that will get you to your goals. All the negatives are out of these recipes.
• My friends are eager to come over for a healthy meal. They know that everything they eat at my home is going to be interesting, fun, exciting and make them even better for eating it. They are going to ask a lot of questions without doubt.

“It’s hard to believe we can eat these cookies and look like we do and feel like we do and live a full life, satisfied and happy while effortlessly maintaining it.”

Recommended Recipes

Plant Based Yogurt	Sugar-Free Powdered Sugar	Mandel Bread
Instant Vanilla Extract	Sugar-Free Royal Icing	Italian Anisette Biscotti
Vanilla Wafers	Sugar-Free Gingerbread Cookies	Thin Mints
Country Wheat Stuffin Muffins	Sugar-Free Fruit Jam	Apple Pie Filling
French Onion Dip	Classic Cranberry Sauce	Caraway Coffee

Recommended Classes

#064 Secure Your Own Mask First	#269 Getting Comfortable Enjoying Delicious Food	#129 Daily Actions to Eliminate Stress
#106 Holiday Stress	#110 PD Holiday Mock-Tail Party	#056 Protective Diet & The Holidays
#250 Instant Vanilla Extract	Plant-based Yogurt Made Easy	#133 Spices and Aromatic Herbs

Class Description:

This class gives new life to your cookie cutters with protective, delicious gingerbread traditions that engage the creativity of all ages, efficient smart cookie techniques that contain the mess and double as active meditation, and variations for a quick lunchtime cookie bake or an entire evening of festive fun. Sugar-free, plant-based holidays are exciting and unifying on a Protective Diet.

Tagged with: 50/50 Plate Practice • Beta Glucan Fiber • Blood Flow • Capsaicin • Carcinogen • Cruciferous • Day Fasting • Defrosted Tofu • Dry Browning Technique • Dry Steaming • Endothelium • Epithelium • Food Additive • Fresh Restock • Gut Microbes • Herb Storage Box • Kitchen Efficiency • Kitchen Systems • Neurotransmitter • Nitric Oxide • Plant Fiber • Pressure Cooking Pasta • Set Up for Success • Sulforaphane • SUS • Workplace for Wellness
Class URL: https://protectivediet.com/courses/protective-diet-education/lessons/class-277-holiday-special-gingerbread-cookies-sugar-free-royal-icing/