It’s the holiday season which means it’s the holiday cookie season hooray! This means I will probably bake as much as eat but that is ok! It is, after all, it is the holiday season and one must be festive right?
Two necessary cookies to make on the holiday cookie roster are mom’s sugar cookies and my fave thimble cookies. Every year we decorate the sugar cookies, cut into different festive shapes. I love the snowflake cookie cutters we did last year. We used powder blue and white icing and it was so pretty! If you make a little hole in the top of the cookie you can string them up as an edible ornament for the tree or use them as a decoation on your gifts. If you have little ones or pets, maybe reconsider this idea or make sure to hang the cookies high enough on your tree. I had a wiener dog with a stomach-ache one year after I realized too late that I hung the ornaments too low.
The thimble cookies are little shortbreads rolled in coconut that have a well in the top (made with an actual trusty thimble) to fill with jam. Homemade strawberry or raspberry freezer jam are the best choices because they are delicious and they also retain their bright red colour making the cookies even more festive looking. Our neighbour Gary thankfully sacrificed his last jar with me but will be rewarded with the results. Thanks Gare!
I ran into one of the lovely owners of our local fave coffee shop, Bean Scene the other day and it reminded me of the recipe they shared in one of my cookbooks, The Butcher, The Baker, The Wine & Cheese Maker – In the Okanagan. The recipe is for their famous Ginger Cookies that are absolutely the best ginger cookies ever (hence the name) and perfect for the holiday season.
Bean Scene’s Best Ever Ginger Cookie
Makes 20 cookies.
Ingredients:
2 ¼ cups (560 mL) all-purpose flour
1 tsp (5 mL) baking soda
1 ½ tsp (7.5 mL) good quality cinnamon
1 ½ tsp (7.5 mL) ground ginger
½ tsp (2.5 mL) nutmeg
¼ tsp (1 mL) allspice
½ tsp (2.5 mL) cloves
¼ tsp (1 mL) black pepper
¾ cup (1 ½ sticks) melted butter
1/3 cup (75 mL) brown sugar, packed
1/3 cup (75 mL) white sugar + ½ cup (125 mL) for rolling cookies
1 large egg yolk
1 tsp (5 mL) real vanilla extract
½ cup (125 mL) fancy molasses
Directions:
Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
Whisk the flour, baking soda, salt (if using), and spices in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a stand mixer, using a paddle attachment, beat butter, brown sugar, and 1⁄3 cup (75 mL) of white sugar together on high speed, until light and fluffy. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and continue mixing on a lower speed until blended. Add molasses and mix again, about 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and add the dry mixture, mixing on low speed until all the flour is incorporated. The dough will be soft and slightly sticky.
Roll dough into 1 tablespoon-sized balls and drop onto a plate containing 1⁄2 cup (125 mL) of white sugar. Roll cookies in sugar and press lightly to form a disk, making sure to coat both sides. Place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, spaced 1 inch apart. Bake 1 cookie sheet at a time on the middle rack for 11 minutes. The cookies should come out of the oven with their trademark crackle appearance and looking slightly under baked.
Allow cookies to cool on the pan for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
The perfect pairing for these cookies is a cup of coffee from The Bean Scene.
Purchase a bag of Bean Scene Coffee beans. I would suggest Espresso Graf – it makes the darkest most delicious home brew (not just for an espresso machine!). These are also my favourite beans because they are named for my mom’s cousin (my second cousin) a lovely, lovely man named Patrick Graf who was one of our provinces OG coffee roasters and trained Deb and John at Bean Scene how to roast coffee beans.
Have the beans ground to your specific coffee machine at home if you don’t own a grinder and make a pot. Place yourself within viewing distance of your Christmas tree, light it up and then pour yourself a cup with cream and indulge in these cookies, still warm from the oven. Bliss.