Cookie Recipe Exchange Party

Welcome to the Christmas Cookie Exchange... the only one you'll attend that you won't consume too many sweets...yet. Who could look at all these yummy delights in Sara's link-up and not actually make the cookies? Not me. Let me tell you, the smell of these Ginger cookies baking is almost as good as the taste.

Ginger Chewies

Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- NOTE – I take the spices as an advisement and use whatever I want and I don't like cloves so none of that for me.
- 3/4 cup (1 ½ sticks) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 1 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/4 cup molasses
- About ¼ cup granulated sugar (regular sugar)

Method:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper
2. Recipe says to sift flour, baking soda and spices into a bowl and set aside. I don't do this, I just dump them all in together later.
3. In a large bowl using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and brown sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute.
4. Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended and an even light brown color.
5. Mix in flour mixture on low speed just to incorporate.
6. Roll ¼ cup of dough between the palms of your hands into a 2” ball then roll the ball in granulated sugar (the ones I just made I forgot to roll in sugar).
NOTE – Using ¼ cup of dough is great and gives you perfect giant cookies, but I normally use a small ice cream scoop, this makes reasonably sized cookies that still use the same baking time. They are also more uniform because the scoop is exact and makes a rounded ball with less rolling. Once you have the balls rolled in sugar, freeze them if you want to. If you want to freeze them, do it in a single layer where they aren’t touching until they are quite solid, then you can put them in a bag or Tupperware or whatever and they won’t all mush together. I use the same baking temp and time for frozen ones as for fresh.
7. Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm but they are still soft in the center and there are cracks on top, about 14 minutes.
8. Devour and enjoy!


Head on over to Sara's for more recipes.