Your New Favorite Holiday Cookies

You probably didn’t know this, but today is an important day in this country. It’s National Bake Cookies Day! How could I have made it 36 years without knowing that there was a national day for this?!

So, today, I am sharing one of my favorite holiday cookie recipes. It’s for delicious ginger cookies. I usually use it to make drop cookies. But, this same recipe can be used for gingerbread houses and people. I like drop cookies because they are easy. But if you are more ambitious, maybe you’ll make an awesome gingerbread village like this masterpiece made from this recipe by my kids and their babysitter. Do whatever works for you on this very important national holiday!

Your new favorite holiday cookie

Ginger Cookies
Ingredients

  • 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  • 2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp ground ginger
  • 1 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp ground cloves
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1 cup packed brown sugar
  • 3/4 cup cooking oil or Crisco.
    (Note: I use oil for the cookies, which I like to be softer, and Crisco for gingerbread houses that need to be firmer)
  • 1/4 cup molasses
    (Tip: Spray your measuring cup with Pam or another cooking spray before you measure and the molasses will slide right out)
  • 1 egg
  • Sugar for rolling dough in (optional)

Directions

  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, cooking oil, molasses, and egg. Beat well.
  4. Add flour mixture and beat till well mixed.
  5. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls.
    (Tip: The dough will be really sticky. Use a cookie scoop if you’ve got one.)
  6. Roll in sugar if desired.
  7. Place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake 10 minutes or until done.

Fun fact: Ginger helps settle your stomach. These cookies were one of my go-to foods for helping with morning sickness with each of my pregnancies. So, if you’re dealing with morning sickness now or if you have a pregnant friend you were thinking of baking cookies for this holiday season, give these a try!

Besides laziness, one reason that I love to make the ginger cookies as drop cookies is that they are perfect for dipping in the world’s most delicious and easy to make dessert dip.

Sweet Pumpkin Dip

Ingredients

  • 2 (8 oz) packages cream cheese, softened
  • 1 (15 oz) can 100% pure pumpkin
  • 2 cups sifted powdered sugar
    (Note: I am too lazy to sift and it comes out fine, so you can skip this. I won’t tell if you don’t.)
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger

Directions

  1. Combine cream cheese and pumpkin in a large mixing bowl and beat until smooth.
  2. Mix in sugar, cinnamon and ginger.
  3. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.
  4. Serve with ginger cookies, fresh fruit, graham crackers, or whatever sounds good to you.

When you mix these two recipes, it’s like having pie and cookies all at once and it is AMAZING.

All right, moms, let’s go bake some cookies! It’s National Bake Cookies Day. That means making these sweet treats is practically our civic duty, right?

Laura
Laura is a mom of three who works full-time from home as a Development Director for a children’s charity. Laura grew up in Maryland, spent her 20s living in Southern California and South Carolina, and has spent her 30s and now 40s in Iowa, moving to Iowa City in 2010. Laura loves dancing, reading, baking, and music. She and her husband Ryan started dating in college (gasp – over 20 years ago!) and they have been sharing life’s adventures ever since. Their biggest adventure is, of course, parenthood. With three kids, the action is non-stop - which is just the way Laura likes it.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.