Santa's Gingerbread Cookies

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and I'm truly grateful for everyone that was able to be with us. The food was so delicious and I pretty much stuffed myself silly, including sampling three different kinds of pie. And we even made it the next morning at 7 to do a little Black Friday shopping.

Now of course it's time to start baking up holiday treats for family and friends. We are big cookie lovers in our house, so every year I make our old favorites and try to make a couple of recipes that I've never made before.

This year I bought the magazine Christmas Cookies, put out by Better Homes and Gardens. It's packed with yummy recipes that I want to try, including this one for delicious Santa's Gingerbread Cookies.

They are easy to make, and my granddaughter Ashley loves baking with me in the kitchen, so we teamed up to make them. I made a couple of changes because I didn't have time to chill the dough as the recipe called for. I honestly don't think it mattered because I can't imagine them coming out any better than they did. I also didn't have any freshly grated nutmeg on hand, so I used ground instead. But I'll give you the recipe as it is in the magazine and you can adjust it if you like.

These cookies are great for giving as gifts, and have stayed super fresh since I made them a couple of days ago. You can make them in different sizes, be sure to adjust the baking time for them.

Recipe for Santa's Gingerbread Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons baking soda

3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

dash of ground cloves

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar

1/2 cup molasses

1 egg

Directions:

In a medium bowl, stir together first 7 ingredients (through cloves). In a large bowl, beat butter with a mixer on medium 30 seconds. Add brown sugar and molasses. Beat until combined, scraping bowl as needed. Beat in egg.

Gradually beat in flour mixture until combined. Cover and chill about 1 hour or until dough is easy to handle.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll 2 tablespoon portions of dough into balls. Place balls at least 1 inch apart on cookie sheets. Flatten balls slightly.

Bake 13-15 minutes or until edges are set. Do not over bake. Cool on cookie sheets 10 minutes. Remove and cool on wire rack.

Makes 18 cookies.

-Post by Patricia