Christmas Cookie Recipe

You were probably thinking I may be in a sugar coma since I haven't written anything in a week. Well, it was hard to resist the temptation, and I may have had a couple of cookies, OK, a couple more but I'm still around.Do you remember when I was telling you about the 10 lbs of flour I sifted? Well, this last week I used them all. 19, yes nineteen, dozen of cookies, 8 cinnamon swirl breads, 7 challahs, 3 dozen dinner rolls plus other minor baking projects.I'm still in sock I survived all that baking. I may have lost my mind, hopefully I get it back soon. I hope you forgive me if my next 5-6 recipes are going to be cookies. I promise after the holidays are over I get back to vegan recipes.

These ginger cookies I made for a cookies swap. I love how the dough is so versatile. I used it in 4 different ways. I did cut-outs (as shown above), I made peppermint bark topped cookies

Plain cookies

And different shaped cookies

It's really easy to work with this dough, although it does require a little bit of kneading by hand. The cookies stay soft for a couple of days if left on a cookie plate and way longer if kept in an air-tight container.The ground ginger is just enough to pinch your tongue when eating. It can be substituted with cinnamon, nutmeg, all spice, cloves or a combinations of all of them.
  
Ginger cookies
Ingredients3/4 cup light brown sugar1 cup room temperature butter2 tbsp cocoa3-5 tsp ground ginger2 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
Directions In a large bowl sift  together the flour, cocoa and ground ginger. Set aside. In a mixing bowl, add the butter and sugar. With the paddle attachment mix them for a couple of minutes until creamed. Slowly add the flour mixture to the creamed sugared butter. Divide the dough into 2 pieces and place it in the fridge in freezer bags or wrapped in plastic foil for about half an hour up to a couple of days. For longer periods I suggest wrap it well and place it in the freezer. Take one piece at a time out of the fridge, break it into pieces, sprinkle 1 tbsp water over them and knead until the water is incorporated. 
Preated the oven to 350F. 
Now it's up to you which types of cookies you'd like to make. If you decide to make peppermint bark topped cookies, plain or different shapes the dough yields 2 dozen of cookies. For cut-outs, it depends on how big/small you make the cookies.