Wow, you made it!

 

Did you come to find out who ate all the cookies?

I didn’t see who did it, but while I have your attention, I wanted to say thank you! I’m grateful for your trust and appreciate the relationship we’ve built over the years. I’m excited about another fantastic year and looking forward to working with you this year.

In the meantime I’ve got cookies to make, and I’d love to share my favourite holiday recipe with you and yours.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Wow, you made it!

 

Did you come to find out who ate all the cookies?

I didn’t see who did it, but while I have your attention, I wanted to say thank you! I’m grateful for your trust and appreciate the relationship we’ve built over the years. I’m excited about another fantastic year and looking forward to working with you this year.

In the meantime I’ve got cookies to make, and I’d love to share my favourite holiday recipe with you and yours.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

My sister gave me a copy of the 75th Anniversary Edition of The Joy of Cooking when I got married. I love this book, and I don’t think there has been a week that has gone by in the past 12 years that I haven’t referenced it. I’ve got loads of favourites, but at this time of year my go-to classic is the gingerbread cookie. It’s so much fun to make, great time saver, because you can make the dough ahead of time, and everyone just loves them!

Gingerbread Cookies

1 cup of butter
1 cup of sugar
1 cup of fancy molasses
4 1/2 + 1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tbls ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350F

  1. In a medium saucepan, melt butter. Once butter is melted add sugar and molasses, and stir over low heat until sugar is dissolved and the mixture no longer feels gritty. Remove from heat and set aside to cool to lukewarm.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together 4 1/2 cups of flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon and nutmeg.
  3. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, pour in the butter mixture and beat until everything is is blended together.
  4. Work in the remaining 1/2 cup of flour, beating until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
  5. Remove from the bowl and knead 3-4 times until smooth and pliable.
  6. Divide into 2 to 3 sections and wrap well to rest. Refrigerate until thoroughly cool. This can be done several days in advance. Breaking these up into a few sections will allow you to do these in workable batches so the dough doesn’t warm up while you’re working with it.
  7. Roll out 1 section at at time, to a thickness of about 6mm. Using your favourite cookie cutters, cut out your cookies and place them on a lined cookie sheet. If dough isn’t still chilled at this point, pop them back in the fridge (or outside if you have no room in your fridge and you baking these in the winter as I have done a few times). Keeping the dough cold right before baking will minimize spread and keep the beautiful shape of your cookies.
  8. Pop these in a preheated oven for 8-10 minutes or depending on size and shape, when the edges start to darken.
  9. Once removed from the oven, place on cooling racks until completely cool before decorating.
  10. Decorate as you wish with royal icing or other sprinkles and goodies.
  11. Share and enjoy!
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