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I’ve asked some Guest Bananas to help me out over this holiday week so I could take a little break from the blog (my first in over a year and a half, yikes!) Today features one of my favorite bloggers (and she who has the best blog name ever!) Jessica of Gin and Juiceboxes. Thanks, Jessica!

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Umm…so I have this problem with sweets. And that is if I have them around the house, I eat them. Like all of them. Good eating habits….BE GONE! And so I spend much of the year not baking and not buying sweets from the store.

But….I give myself a break for the holidays because December just calls for cookies. (Especially if you live somewhere cold and dreary. Gosh, if I had to deal with a cold winter I’d just start eating cookies in November and carry on right through February. We’re trudging along through a San Antonio December with it’s sunny 70 degree days. Give me some snow!).

My favorite cookies have always been chocolate chip. My grandma makes the BEST chocolate chip cookies – just the right amount of chewy and crunch. These cookies have been consumed at just about every family function we have ever had.

Sadly, mine never turn out as good as hers. So this year I decided to make something different. I’m not a huge molasses fan but something about these Ginger Molasses Cookies from Food 52 caught my eye. Maybe it was their beautiful picture (seriously, go look at it – I’m not much of a photographer). Maybe it was the fact that I had a piece of fresh ginger sitting on my counter (although you don’t use fresh ginger in these cookies. Umm. yeah. I realize there is no fresh ginger in these cookies but I didn’t realize that until I started making them). Whatever. Whatever it was that prompted me to make these cookies did me a serious favor because these guys are seriously delicious.

We are going to set some of these out for Santa to munch on this year. Whatever we have left, anyway.

Santa’s Favorite Gingerbread and Molasses Cookies
adapted from Food 52

Serves 24

What you need:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• 3/4 cups unsalted butter, room temperature
• 3/4 cups packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1/3 cup finely diced candied ginger (optional)
• granulated sugar for rolling

What to do:

1. Combine flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, salt and cloves in a bowl and mix well.
2. Beat butter and sugar together in bowl of electric mixer until light and fluffy, 3 minutes.
3. Add egg and molasses. Mix to combine well. Stir in dry ingredients. Stir in candied ginger if using. Refrigerate batter 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 375 F. Roll dough into 1 1/2″ balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar. Arrange on baking sheets lined with parchment paper and gently flatten. Bake in oven until set and crinkled on top, about 12 minutes. Remove and cool.

 

Some Final Tips: I made these cookies twice – once with the dough cold and once with the dough room temperature. Both batches turned out fine but my husband and I both thought the cold dough turned out a better cookies so if you have the time, don’t skip refrigerating it. Also, I used light brown sugar worked fine.

Happy Holidays!