Now we’re knee-deep in the Christmas season. Some of us are busy bakers, making treats and cookies for gifts and cookie trays. I know that not everyone enjoys baking. Baking can be very intimidating, especially if you are a “Holiday Warrior,” only baking the few weekends before Christmas.
I think of gingerbread cookies as the most traditional Christmas cookie. They can be a difficult recipe to master. I have very fond memories, (3-4 years old) of my mom making gingerbread boys a few nights before Christmas.
My mom didn’t have a gingerbread cookie cutter, so she drew a gingerbread boy on wax paper and cut it out of the wax paper, then traced it on the rolled-out gingerbread dough. This is my earliest Christmas cookie memory, which includes the spicy aroma of those cookies baking. That’s how traditions are imprinted and passed on for generations.
Over the years I’ve made gingerbread boys and enjoyed decorating them with my kids and grandkids, hoping to imprint a memory that they will also be able to conger-up during their future celebrations of Christmas.
This recipe that I want to share with you is a very simple version of a gingerbread cookie, with all the traditional flavor and aroma, but without the need of a cookie cutter or the need to make your own stencil.
This is a very close copycat recipe of Starbucks ginger molasses cookie recipe. It is an easy-peasy recipe for novice and experienced bakers. Starbucks hasn’t sold or had them for years in their coffee shops, but they were delightful.
They were very large cookies, in fact the recipe made 12 cookies, my version, although the same, makes 20-22.
Ingredients
2 ¼ cups flour
1 cup dark brown sugar
¾ cup butter, room temp
¼ cup of molasses
1 large egg
½ teaspoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons of baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon salt
¼ teaspoon nutmeg
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Prepare a couple of baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. In a large bowl, with an electric mixer or in the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together the brown sugar and the butter until light and airy 3-4 min.
Slowly stream in the molasses, once combined, scrape the sides of the bowl and add in the egg, mix until fully combined and airy again. Add in the flour, salt, baking soda and the spices into the bowl and combine on low speed until a thick dough forms.
Scoop out about one tablespoon of the dough into the palm of your hand and roll into a ball. At this point you can roll the ball in a small bowl of granulated sugar.
Set the sugar-coated balls on the cookie sheet and press down with your fingertips to flatten the top a bit. Bake one sheet at a time on the middle rack of your oven. Bake for approximately 8 minutes, until the cookies are firm on the edges, but soft in the middle.
Take the cookies out and let cool. When cool, they keep in the freezer for up to 3 months and a week to 10 days in a cookie jar, if they last that long.
Hot tip: you can make the dough and all the balls on one day, put it in the fridge and bake them the next day. These cookies are crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the middle. I hope you like them; they are my husband’s favorite.
Happy baking! May we all be blessed with joy, love and peace in our hearts to share with all this Christmas and make some lasting sweet memories.