My cousin Lori and I started a Christmas tradition a decade ago when we were only 18 years old (still teenagers!) We started doing our Christmas baking together, and this year is the 10th anniversary of this tradition!
Back when we started this, we seriously lacked baking efficiency. Our cookies always turned out great, but we would spend hours upon hours in the kitchen tediously making our dough, placing our cookies on the pan and baking them in a very disorganized fashion.
Today, Lori and I are a finely tuned cookie baking machine. We have our craft down to a science, determining the order in which we make the cookies by bake time, bake temperature and if refrigeration is required. We divide the wet and dry ingredient duties, and tag-team the rolling of the cookie dough. We have taken something that used to take us an entire day and got it down to an afternoon.
Once we have baked all our cookies, we divide them up and put them into tins to share with our friends and family. Every December I look forward to baking cookies with my cousin!
Every year, we have made the same three kinds of cookies: shortbread, mint chocolate chip and ginger cookies. Last year, we did Nanaimo bars as the fourth.
So to celebrate our 10 year cookie anniversary, I decided to share our ginger cookie recipe with you, just on time for your Christmas baking!
Why are ginger cookies delicious?
Because they are soft and full of butter! Some cookie connoisseurs may be the fan of the classic ginger snap, but Lori and I prefer the soft ginger cookie full of spices and buttery goodness.
Why are ginger cookies Christmas-y?
It could be that these ginger cookies are reminiscent of the gingerbread men and gingerbread houses that are a Christmas tradition for many. But really, it’s likely because they look like reindeer poop sitting on the pan before they are baked.
So if you need a cookie for your Christmas baking, or even a nice cookie to snack on all year round, these ginger cookies will do the job just right!
Bon appetit,
Julie
To view printable Word version of recipe, click here:
Soft Ginger Cookies
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Soft Ginger Cookies
INGREDIENTS:
2 and 1 / 4 cups flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3 / 4 tsp cinnamon
1 / 2 tsp cloves
1 / 4 tsp salt
3 / 4 cup butter
1 cup white sugar (sub half for brown)
1 egg
1 tbsp water – sub tbsp orange juice
1 / 4 cup molasses
2 tbsp white sugar – for rolling – try brown sugar and cinnamon
DIRECTIONS:
- Preheat oven to 350
- In a medium bowl, sift flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt.
- In large bowl, cream together butter, sugar with electric mixer until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Mix in the water and molasses.
- Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet mixture.
- Let batter sit for 1 hour in fridge or 20 minutes in freezer.
- Shape cookies into walnut sized balls. Roll in remaining sugar. Place on pan and flatten slightly.
- Bake for 8 – 10 minutes. Allow to cool for 5 minutes before removing from pan.