Ginger Molasses Cookies

 

Ginger Molasses Cookies are definitely in my top 3 favorite holiday cookies.  I love the warmth of the cinnamon spice, the crackly tops and the chewy texture.  Utterly delicious!   My favorite recipe comes from Mandy at Baking With Blondie.  

Here's the part where I diverge from my normal baking protocol.  To ensure I get a great chewy texture on my cookies I tweaked Mandy's recipe slightly by replacing the butter with butter-flavored Crisco shortening.  What?!  Shortening instead of butter? Yes way!  Now, before you cast dispersions on me, hear me out.  I find that using shortening reduces the likelihood of these cookies spreading too much during the baking process.   Nothing worse in my opinion than a super flat ginger molasses cookie.

Normally I roll the dough balls in turbinado sugar before baking, but this year I left some without the sugar coating because I wanted to dip them in melted white chocolate.  I was a bit worried that the addition of white chocolate would render the cookies too sweet, but I'm happy to report I was wrong.  I only dip a small portion of the cookie in the chocolate so it's not overwhelming.  Plus, nothing beats the appeal and aesthetic of the green and red holiday sprinkles.

Lemon-Ginger Icebox Cake & a Giveaway

When BelGioioso asked me if I wanted to create a recipe for a traditional dessert "with a twist" using their mascarpone cheese I was more than happy to accept the challenge.   The first thing that came to mind was an icebox cake made with lemon and ginger.  This dessert is not only easy to assemble but also really light and refreshing.  I highly recommend you give it a try.  You can find the recipe on culture's website.  

As an added bonus BelGioioso was generous enough to host a giveaway to my blog readers.   One lucky person will win a gift package with an assortment of their cheeses.  I speak from experience when I say they all taste delicious!

Here are the giveaway rules:

1) Only open to residents with a mailing address in the continental US (i.e., no Alaska or Hawaii addresses.)

2) Leave a comment to this blog post.  You must include your email address in the comment in order to be entered.   Sorry, but that's the only way I'll be able to contact the winner. 

3) Only one entry per email address.  

4) Giveaway ends on Thursday December 11 at 11:59PM PST.  Winner will be selected from all eligible entries on Friday December 12.

UPDATE: The randomly selected winner from the eligible entries was Comment #1.  I'll be emailing you directly for your information.  Thanks again everyone for participating! 

Gingersnaps

Despite the extensive baking that I do for the most part I actually prefer store bought cookies.  Strange isn't it?  For me it's all about the "process" of creating rather than the end result.  By the time the cookies have been baked I've already mentally moved on to the next challenge.

Back to the store bought cookies....an old-fashioned favorite are Nabisco Ginger Snaps.  Ginger is one of my favorite spices and I love it in savory or sweet things.  When Cook's Illustrated published a recipe for these crispy, spicy cookies with a double dose of ginger (fresh and ground) I wanted to give them a try and see how they compared to Nabisco's.  

No competition whatsoever.  The homemade version was so much better than the boxed variety.  The ginger flavor really comes through without being too overpowering.  Absolutely perfect with a cold glass of milk!