Ginger Cookies. . . perfection!

Good morning sweet friends! As promised in my last post, I'm sharing the ginger cookie recipe with you. These cookies are extra special for 3 reasons: one, the recipe comes from an AMAZING woman and cook, Linda Eicher, my sister's mother-in-law. two, I do NOT usually like ginger cookies because they're always TOO SWEET but these...? Ohhhh these.... just wait. three, they're the perfect cookie for the season... what's better for an after Thanksgiving turkey treat..?... or for those few hours after opening gifts on Christmas morning where you just lounge and drink 5 pots of coffee before drudging yourself into the kitchen in your jammies to think about making dinner...? They're the perfect option. Not too sweet, but just sweet enough! SO, without further ado, I give you, the (halved) Linda's Ginger Cookie recipe! (noted with slight revisions because of things i was missing in the pantry)

What you'll need:

• 1/2 cup brown sugar (i had to use 1/4 cup brown & 1/4 cup white... not ideal but still worked great!)
• 1/6 cup butter softened (i just filled up half of my 1/3 cup. also used unsalted butter but salted will work as well)
• 3/4 cup molasses (you can use half molasses, half honey here if you so desire)
• 1/3 cup cold water

• 1 & 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 & 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ginger (ground not fresh)
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice (sadly, i didn't have allspice or cloves, so i substituted pumpkin pie spice)
• 1/2 teaspoon cloves (same as up there, no cloves, substitute pumpkin pie spice)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

So here we go! Preheat your oven to 325 degrees. Mix together your the first 4 ingredients with an electric hand mixer. Now add in the flour, mixing well after each addition. Finish off adding in the rest of the ingredients and mix well- there are some POWERFUL flavors in these cookies and nobody likes biting into a giant crumb ball of baking soda and ginger! *beware, this dough is THICK and sticky, darn molasses, so i HIGHLY RECOMMEND using an actual cookie scoop! i didn't have one seeing as i was not working out of my own kitchen, they turned out just fine but, my goodness my fingers might as well have been glue covered popsicle sticks at a pre-school craft day.*

Okay back to the recipe... I would recommend making the dough balls about 1 tablespoon, fairly small in size, just because then I can trick myself into thinking that eating 5 small cookies isn't NEARLY as awful as eating 1 giant one (sometimes you just gotta play those games when ginger cookies are on the line). Anyways, dip the tops of the dough balls in sugar before baking. Again, if you're using a cookie scoop, this presents a problem so sprinkling it is fine too, I did both. Bake for 12-15 minutes! If you like them gooier, 13, if you like them crisp on top, 15. I like crisp, and they're still soft inside!

And there they are, friends! Linda, you're a genius! Really though, if you're going to make ANYTHING from the blog today, I recommend the pot roast and these cookies, because who couldn't use a heart warming, rib sticking fall meal? They're both SO tasty and would go together like 'rama lama lama ke ding a de dinga a dong.' Yes. I did that. Sorry, I love Grease.

On a side note friends, go check out my sweet friend Jessi's blog today! She was SO generous in featuring me today on her post, along with a few other fabulous women so let's go show her some love! Also EVERYONE needs to go buy her custom designed advent calendar immediately... they are the most beautiful little creations and will brighten and bless your home! I'm thinking of hanging mine on the clothes line outside my mother- in- law's house since we'll be spending Christmas there! Hope you don't mind, Judy! ;) 

LOVE YOU GUYS! Happy ginger cookie making! xo