12 Days of Christmas... Sorta...

You know how crazy this time of year is.  I know you do.  Because you are in the middle of buying gifts, decorating, running around between events, and trying to please everyone in every way to make this dang holiday jolly even if it kills you.  I know you are because I am and if you aren't then my whole "vive la Pinterest" thing is a bad life decision.  I don't have time to make bad life decisions.  I'm too busy.  In lieu of the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies this year, I thought I'd try something a little different.  This year, it's one cookie 12 ways!  I have taken the humble shortbread, very simple and delicious on its own, and jazzed it up with lots of yummy, Christmas-time flavors!  Each portion will make 10-12 cookies, so when you're done, you'll end up with nearly 12 dozen cookies to share or hoard however you see fit.

Start with a basic shortbread recipe:

3 C butter
1 1/2 C sugar
7 C flour
Cream butter and sugar thoroughly.  Add flour gradually, 1 C at a time.  Mix until well blended; do not over mix.  Then, separate into sandwich bags, putting a heaping 2/3 C of dough into each one. Add desired ingredients and press to combine. Roll into one-inch balls, or desired shape, and place on un-greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 325° for 15-20 minutes.  Note that some have special baking or ingredient instructions.

 

1 tsp orange zest, 1/16 tsp ground cloves, dash ground nutmeg, 1/8 tsp cinnamon

 

Vanilla Mint: 1/8 tsp peppermint extract, 1/8 tsp vanilla beans or 1 tsp vanilla extract

 

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip: 1/2 oz chocolate chips (I used chopped semi-sweet baking chocolate), 1 tsp peanut butter, 1/16 tsp salt

 

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/4 tsp ground ginger, 1/16 tsp ground cloves, 1 tsp molasses

 

1 heaping Tbs pecans, 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon. When cookies come out of the oven, drizzle tops with maple syrup.

 

1 tsp lemon zest

 

Makes 12 cups, Roll dough into balls, then press into a mini cupcake tin, using a spoon or your fingers to make the cup shape.  Bake 15 min, run knife around each cup immediately and pop out before they cool. Filling: 1/2 C cream cheese, 1 tsp sour cream, 1/2 tsp vanilla extract, 2 Tbs powdered sugar, 2 tsp lemon juice, place in a plastic bag, and cut the corner out, fill the cups with the mixture and serve, no additional baking required.

 

1/4 tsp jam, Recipe found at The Kitchn

 

1 tsp dried juniper berries, crushed, 1/16 smoked tea, crushed (Notes: These actually taste like a Christmas tree smells!  I love them.  Try them with a goodish hunk of mild goat cheese.  I used Wuyi Smoked Pine tea from Shen Zen Tea.  If you can't find something comparable in your area, you can omit it. I found the juniper berries in the bulk spices section at a local grocery store.)

 

Roll into balls, then press 1/2 Seattle Chocolates HotButter Rum candies, or other favorite chocolate candy into the top

 

1 Tbs sprinkles, 1 tsp vanilla extract

 

1 tsp vanilla, when cookies are done baking, sprinkle lightly with ground nutmeg

If you want to make a larger batch of one cookie, you can double the ingredients, but for larger batches than that, for the cookies where fluid is added, I would just add enough to make the cookie pliable, you don't want it to get too wet and gooey.

Wishing each and every one of you a very happy low-stress holiday season!

The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap 2014...

Last year I participated in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and I loved it.  The boys loved getting surprise cookies in the mail, heck, I loved getting surprise cookies in the mail.  Who wouldn't love surprise cookies?  So of course I signed up again this year!

This year I got cookies from:

 Aida at The Crafting Foodie

Lisa at Taste Cook Sip

Hetal at Pretty Polymath

and I sent these darling little Animal Crackers to:

Ann Marie from Let's Give Peas a Chance

Hannah from Fleur-de-Licious

and 

Holly from Happy Food Healthy Life

 Love and Olive Oil and The Little Kitchen with be co-hosting the round-up at the end of the week so you can see all the delicious cookies the fantastic bloggers who participated this year shared with each other!

And so, without further ado...

Animal Crackers

Recipe from Crackers and Dips More than 50 Handmade Snacks by Ivy Manning

1 ½ Cups plus 2 Tbs unbleached all-purpose flour

½ C oat flour

¼ C packed light brown sugar

¼ C granulated sugar

2 tsp finely grated organic lemon zest, plus 1 Tbs freshly squeezed lemon juice

1 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp fine sea salt

4 Tbs chilled, unsalted butter, cut into ½ inch pieces

¼ C buttermilk

2 tsp honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

In the bowl of a food processor or a large bowl, pulse or whisk the all-purpose flour, oat flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, lemon zest, baking powder, and salt to combine. Add the butter and pulse or use a pastry blender or your fingers to cut the butter into the flour until the mixture resembles coarse meal. 15 pulses with a food processor.

In a measuring cup, combine the buttermilk, honey, and vanilla and stir until the honey has dissolved. Add to the flour mixture and pulse or sir with a wooden spoon until the dough just comes together. Remove the dough from the processor or bowl and knead gently on a lightly floured surface until smooth, 10 strokes. Flatten the dough into two equal-size disks, cover in plastic wrap, and chill them for at least 1 hour and up to 2 days.

Preheat the oven to 375. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats or parchment paper. Place one piece of the dough on a well-floured surface. Roll out the dough until it is 1/8 inch thick lifting the dough and rotating to make sure it's not sticking to the work surface and adding all-purpose flour as necessary.

 

Use lightly floured cookie cutters to cut out animal shapes. Using a lightly floured bench scraper or offset spatula, transfer the cut-outs to one of the prepared baking sheets. Re-roll the scraps once and cut them out in the same way. Bake the animal crackers until light golden brown around the edges, 8 to 10 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once from back to front while baking. Cool the crackers on the sheet until they firm up, 5 minutes, and then transfer them to a wire rack to cool. While the first batch of crackers is cooling, repeat the rolling, cutting, and baking process with the remaining dough and scraps.

Ms. Manning has an icing recipe in her book if you'd like these to be even more festive!  Happy Holidays to all my fellow bloggers!  Keep your eyes peeled for another batch of CotC cookie recipes coming soon!

S'more S'mores, Please!

I've got two boys.

I've got two boys who like campfires.

I've got two boys who like campfires in the Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter.

I've got two boys who like campfires in the Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter, because campfires mean S'mores.

All...

Kinds...

Of...

S'mores...

Let's count the ways, shall we?  Number 1, cookies and marshmallow.  You may remember my post from last year featuring these bad boys:

Or, 2, why not try it with Everybody's Mom's Chocolate Chip Cookies?  No need for an extra chocolate slice!

 

3) My eldest came home with the next idea from Scout Camp.  And let me say:  It's genius.  Put your S'mores toppings into an ice cream cone, wrap it in foil, and put it in the fire!  I added walnuts 'cuz yum.

4) A few of you may recall my facebook post encouraging Peep hoarding this Spring.

The number one thing I learned from facebook this year is that people hate Peeps, ya'll. This next picture is for those people:

Trust me on this, our neighbors taught us that Peeps over flame turn into a completely different thing.  It's like crème brûlée.  Then you smash it between graham crackers and chocolate.  This picture is for those of you who love Peeps.  And also for those of you who hate them, 'cuz they're pretty mutilated.

And, yes, they stay fresh this long.  Preservatives ftw.

If you'd like to skip the preservatives, I've got something for you... 

Number 5: Homemade S'mores

This one uses another technique we've learned from friends, chocolate frosting instead of chocolate bars.  No waiting for it to melt.  Just slathering and eating.  Our friends used store-bought frosting.  Not my thing, so homemade frosting it is.  Before you ask, I did try multiple times to make homemade vegan marshmallows.  They did not happen.  They were delicious, but they were gloopy and completely campfire incompatible.  I have not given up, but this post had to go up someday so for the time being, these are store bought 'shmallows.

Homemade Graham Crackers
America's Test Kitchen Family Baking Book  p. 177

1 3/4 C Graham flour (or whole wheat flour)
1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
8 Tbs unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces and chilled
5 Tbs water
2 Tbs light molasses
1 tsp vanilla extract

Heat oven to 375°.  Process the flours, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cinnamon in a food processor until combined, about 3 seconds.  Add the butter and process until the mixture resembles coarse meal, about 15 seconds.  Add the water, molasses, and vanilla and process until the dough comes together, about 20 seconds.  Divide the dough into 2 even pieces.  Roll each piece of dough out between 2 pieces of parchment paper to a 16X8-inch rectangle, 1/8 inch thick.  Remove the top pieces of parchment and trim each piece of dough into a tidy 15X7 1/2-inch rectangle with a knife, and then score each into eighteen 2 1/2-inch squares.  Prick each square several times with a fork.  Slide each piece of dough and parchment onto separate baking sheets.  Bake the cookies until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes, switching and rotating the baking sheets halfway through baking.  Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets, then break them apart along the scored lines and serve.

Notes:
I dusted some of mine with a mixture of sugar and cinnamon.
These freeze really well.

Frosting
1 C Powdered Sugar
1 stick Butter
2 Tbs Cocoa Powder
1 Tbs cream

Beat the butter a little, then slowly add the sugar and cocoa powder.  If it's a little dry, mix in the cream.

12 Days of Christmas Treats Day 9: Chewy Eggnog Cookies

     Have I got a recipe for you eggnog lovers out there!  I always love a chewy cookie but am rarely successful in making one at home.  The folks at America's Test Kitchen came up with an easy one that works pretty well.  It's not as ooey-gooey chewy as the ones at the store, but it's also not sporting the entire contents of a university chem lab in the ingredient list.  A couple of years ago I created an eggnog cookie with quite a bit more nog in it.  I was surprised how little it took in these to make a recognizable flavor.  This recipe is entirely an ATK invention, the only thing I did was sub in eggnog for the milk.

Chewy Eggnog Cookies
Yield: 2 dozen

2 1/4 C flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 C sugar, plus more for rolling
2 oz cream cheese, cut into 8 pieces
6 Tbs unsalted butter, melted and still warm
1/2 C vegetable oil
1 large egg
1 Tbs eggnog
2 tsp vanilla extract

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 350°.  Line two large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper.  Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt together in a medium bowl.  Set aside.

Place 1 1/2 C sugar and the cream cheese in a large bowl.  Place the remaining 1/3 C sugar in a shallow baking dish or pie plate and set aside.  Pour the warm butter over the sugar and cream cheese and whisk to combine (some small lumps of cream cheese will remain but will smooth out later).  Whisk in the oil until incorporated.  Add the egg, milk, and vanilla; continue to whisk until smooth.  Add the flour mixture and mix with a rubber spatula until a soft homogenous dough forms.

Divide the dough into 24 equal pieces, about 2 Tbs each.  Using your hands, roll each piece of dough into a ball (handle dough as briefly as possible as overworking will result in flatter cookies).  Working in batches, roll the balls in sugar to coat and set on the prepared baking sheet.  12 dough balls per sheet.  Using the bottom of a drinking glass, flatten the dough balls until 2 inches in diameter.  Sprinkle the tops of the cookies evenly with the remaining sugar, using 2 tsp for each sheet. (Discard the remaining sugar.)

Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, until the edges are set and beginning to brown, 11 to 13 minutes, rotating the sheet after 7 minutes.  Cool the cookies on the baking sheet for 5 minutes; using a wide metal spatula, transfer the cookies to a wire rack and cool to room temp.

Notes:
      So I used a cookie scoop instead of dividing by 24 to make my cookies.  The result was around 54 thinner cookies.  This is probably why they weren't super chewy.  (They're still super delicious!)

12 Days of Christmas Treats Day 8: Dipped Ritz Cracker Sandwiches

    The first time I had Ritz peanut butter crackers dipped in white chocolate I was at the Christmas tree farm of an old friend of my family.  When she told me about them, I was skeptical.  Until I ate one.  Hello.  The problem with white chocolate though, is it's hard to find one that doesn't have all kinds of chemicals in it.  So I decided to try dark chocolate this year.  

     Instead of using just my family as lab rats, I subjected three unsuspecting food bloggers as well.  This year I joined The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap for the first time.  Besides providing a link-up to all kinds of great bloggers, it raises money to fight children's cancer.  This year they've raised over $13,000!  It's not too late to donate!  Go to The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap webpage find the donation button at the bottom. 

     The swap works is just like a regular mail swap: you get three names, three other people get your name, you send out three dozen cookies, and you receive three dozen in return.  The only difference here is that we link to each other's websites and share the recipe with you guys, too!

 

These tree bloggers sent me cookies:

Counter Dog

La Pêche Fraîche

A Dash of Soul

The boy's favorites were all of them.  "Oh Mom!  These are my favorite!"  "You just said that about the other ones." "I know, it is, too!"  "I agree."

I sent these treats to these three bloggers: 

Moo Shu Jenne

Kosher Kitchen

The Crafting Foodie

I hope they arrived in one piece, ladies!

And now it's time to share my recipe with you!  Start with the Ritz Crackers from  day one of the 12 Days of Christmas.

Ritzy Peanut Butter Crackers in Chocolate

(1 Recipe of Crackers yields about 24 sandwiches)
6 oz Enjoy Life Semi-Sweet Chocolate Chips
10 oz Felchlin Old World Chocolate 74% Organic

Zest of 1 tangerine

Make cracker sandwiches using about ¼ tsp peanut butter per sandwich. (I like a lot on mine generally, but much more than ¼ tsp tends to seep out the sides and melt into the chocolate.)

     In a double-boiler, melt 6 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips with 10oz dark chocolate, making sure not to scrape the sides (this can introduce crystals into the chocolate that will make it seize). You can also do it in the microwave in a glass dish by setting it to half power and microwaving them for about a minute (chocolate is done when about half the chips have melted, stir them up and use the heat of the melted ones to soften the ones that aren't quite ready.)

     Dip sandwiches in chocolate using a couple of forks to aid in flipping, removing, and not burning your fingers off, place on parchment paper, and top with orange zest. Leave to dry.

Notes:

If you do make these with white chocolate instead, try topping them with crushed up candy canes!

Review:
The chocolate chips take some of the bitterness out of the dark chocolate and the orange brightens it up.  My kids prefer it without the zest, but the more adult palates in our household enjoyed them immensely.  

To see the rest of the round-up visit Love and Olive Oil for one half and The Little Kitchen for the rest!

12 Days of Christmas Treats Day 6: Thumbprint Cookies

     Look out!  Ya'll are about to get Rich Rolled.  This time you'll not be getting unexpectedly serenaded by an 80's crooner, you'll be devouring loads of tasty jam-filled cookies.  These are another of the last-minute phone call to Dad cookies.  They also came from the Better Homes New Cookbook by Meredith Press copyright 1965.  I used a jar of mixed fruit jam I made in the Summer, but any pretty jam will do.  In fact, you can swap out the jam for a Hershey's Kiss if that's the kind of tune your taste buds like to dance to.

Rich Rolled Cookie

Yield: 44 cookies

1 C butter

2/3 C sugar

1 egg

2 ½ C sifted flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 tsp jam per cookie

Cream butter sugar and egg. In a smaller bowl sift together flour and salt. Add flour mixture to the creamed mixture and combine thoroughly. Add vanilla. Chill dough 3-4 hours before rolling (or about 30 minutes in the freezer). Roll balls, press cookies in the center with a finger or thumb, use 1/4 tsp jam to fill the print.  Bake at 350° 8-10 min or until slightly colored.

Review:

My family loves these!  Yours will, too. 

12 Days of Christmas Treats Day 5: Peanut Butter Cookies

     Can I just say that my Dad is a saint?  Every Christmas that I've been doing the 12 Days for you guys, my Dad gets a phone call at the last minute from his frazzled daughter begging him to look through Mom's old cookbooks and recipe box for weird cookies he doesn't even remember eating half the time.  The recipe box never seems to have anything in it I'm looking for and the cookbooks have terrible tables of contents with mislabeled page numbers.  One even has a recipe title listed in the index that isn't actually in the book at all.  This cookie, though, everybody remembers because it's delicious.  I have modified it a bit from its 1965 beginnings to reflect my preferences (butter instead of shortening, etc), but it's still a delicious cookie your friends and family will love.

Peanut Butter Cookie 

From Better Homes New Cookbook 

by Meredith Press 1965

Yield: almost 6 dozen

1 C butter, softened

1 C sugar

1 C brown sugar

2 eggs

1 tsp vanilla

1 C peanut butter

2 C sifted flour

2 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

Cream butter, sugars, eggs, and vanilla.  Add peanut butter.  Sift dry ingredients together, stir in.  Drop by rounded spoonfulls, make a criss-cross pattern on the top of each cookie with floured fork.  Bake at 350° for 10 min.

Review:

These are crispy and crunchity and peanut buttery and you will like them.

12 Days of Christmas Treats: Pecan Sandies

     This is another one from my Grandmother's recipe box.  It is basically a Southern Grandmother's dream recipe.  Butter and pecans with a couple other things thrown in to hold the two together.  Well, perhaps it's my dream recipe...

Pecan Sandies 
1 C butter
1/2 C powdered sugar, sifted
2 C plain cake flour, sifted
1 tsp vanilla
1 C finely chopped pecans

Cream butter.  Add sugar.  Mix well.  Add flour.  Mix, and add vanilla and pecans.  Roll into small balls.  Bake at 325° for 20 minutes.  If oven tends to overheat, lower temp and set pan under sheet to keep bottom of cookies from burning.  Makes 34 cookie scoop size cookies.

Review:
Nobody doesn't like pecan sandies!  

UPDATE!
Cara has posted her kick-butt gingerbread ninjas on Fork and Beans!  Too stinkin' cute! 

12 Days of Christmas Treats:Pfeffernüsse

This recipe came from Mom's old Better Homes and Garden's Cookbook.  It's so old that the copyright page is missing, but I suspect 60's era.

 

Pfeffernüsse is a German cookie whose name means "pepper nuts."  They are rock hard and actually contain pepper, though there are many recipes out there.  Mom's other oldie but goodie book The Joy of Cooking has a recipe with citron in it and no pepper.  I think I'm going to try that one next year!  But for this year, I'm going with the recipe Mom used to make.

Pfeffernüsse
In a saucepan, combine 3/4 C light molasses and 1/2 C butter.  Cook and stir till butter melts.  Cool to room temp.  Stir in 2 beaten eggs.  Sift 4 1/4 C sifted all-purpose flour, 1/2 C sugar, 1 1/4  tsp baking soda, 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp cloves, 1/2 tsp nutmeg, and a dash of pepper.  Add to molasses mixture.  Mix well, chill several hours.  Shape chilled dough into 1 inch. balls. Bake on a greased cookie sheet in a moderate oven (375°) for 12 minutes.  Cool, roll in confectioner's sugar.  Makes 4 1/2 dozen. (59 cookie scoop size)

Review:
Your kids will not go nuts over these.  You might not either.  But I like them.  So there.

12 Days of Christmas Treats: Gingerbread Men

     What is more Christmasy than a gingerbread man?  Nothing.  Nothing is more Christmasy than a gingerbread man.  Except maybe a nativity scene.  Or a candy cane.  Or a nativity scene made out of gingerbread with all the shepherds holding candy canes.   I will let somebody else eat the baby Jesus...

      This recipe came from a book called Better Homes and Gardens Old Fashioned Baking Cookbook (1995 edition).  They are called "Ginger Kids" in there.  I'm thinking that may actually be less PC than gingerbread Jesus, so I'm going to call them Gingerbread Men (and Women).

Gingerbread Men  (And Women)
1/2 C butter
2 1/2 C flour
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C molasses
1 egg
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 recipe Powdered sugar icing
 
In a large bowl, beat margarine with an electric mixer on medium to high speed about 30 seconds or till softened.  Add about half the flour.  then add sugar, molasses, egg, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves.  Beat till thoroughly combined.  Beat or stir in the remaining flour.  Divide dough in half.  Cover and chill about 3 hours or till easy to handle.

Grease a cookie sheet, then set aside.  On a lightly floured surface, roll each half of dough in to 1/8 inch thickness.  Using 3 to 4 inch people shaped cookie cutter, cut dough into shapes.  Place 1 inch apart on the prepared cookie sheet.  Bake in a 375° oven for 5 to 6 minutes or till edges are firm.  Cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute.  Transfer cookies to a wire rack.
 

Powdered Sugar Icing
1 C sifted powdered sugar
1/4 tsp vanilla
Milk 

In a small mixing bowl, combine powdered sugar and vanilla.  Stir in 1 Tbs milk.  Stir in additional milk 1 Tbs at a time, till icing is smooth and of drizzling consistency.
Makes about 1/2 C.

Notes:
I added 1/2 tsp freshly grated ginger to pump up the ginger in these a little bit.  Perfect!  Also, 1/2 C of the icing doesn't look like much, but I was able to do a whole batch of cookies and still have some left over, so unless you are going to be making a ton or using a bunch of icing this is just the right amount for this recipe.

Review:
This is a great one for the kids to help with.  They love the process and they love the result!

12 Days of Christmas Treats: Chocolate Peppermint Cookies

     Here's another recipe I've been making for years.  It's another one from my "Low-Fat" cookbook so naturally, I added all the fat back in and threw in some chocolate chips for good measure.  Can't have all that stupid health at Christmas, now can we?

     I used a food processor for the first time this year to chop the candies,  you can always use the old-fashioned "bash 'em with a hammer" method, but this was quicker and more uniform.  Process for about 10 seconds until most of the mints are dust, but there are still a few pea sized chunks in there, too.  I used Trader Joe's brand peppermints because they don't have artificial colorings or flavors.  They are smaller, though, so I used about 35 candies.

Chocolate Peppermint Cookies (Modified from Low-Fat Ways to Cook Desserts)
Yield: 53 cookie scoop size cookies, 44 if you follow the directions
1/2 C stick butter, softened
1/2 C sugar
1/2 C firmly packed brown sugar
2 Eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 1/4 C all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 C plus 1 Tbs unsweetened cocoa
2/3 C finely crushed round peppermint candies (about 30 candies or 8 candy canes)
1/2 C chocolate chips

Beat margarine at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add sugars, beating well.  Add egg substitute and vanilla; beat well.  Combine flour and next 4 ingredients.  Add to margarine mixture, stirring just until blended.  Stir in crushed candy.  Drop dough by level Tbs 2 inches apart onto cookie sheets lined with parchment or wax paper.  Bake at 350° for 10-12 minutes.  Remove from cookie sheets and let cool on wire racks.

Notes:
You definitely want these to be on some sort of barrier instead of relying on cooking spray or any magical non-stick properties your pan may possess.  They can be super sticky!

Review:
I really like these especially with the smaller pieces.  The kids love them with hot chocolate! 

12 Days of Christmas Treats: Ginger Cookies

     One of my favorite Christmas flavors is ginger.  Ginger snaps are so crunchy and yummy and just perfect for a dunk in hot chocolate or tea!  I've made this recipe for years.  It originally came from a book called Low-fat Ways to Cook Desserts, but I gave up on the "low fat" thing a while ago when I figured what a funny mass of molecules margarine was.  I subbed butter for the margarine and replaced the vegetable cooking spray with a simple sheet of parchment paper.

Ginger Cookies
Yield: 52 cookie scoop size cookies; 26 if you follow the directions
1/4 C plus 2 tbs stick margarine, softened
2/3 C plus 3 T sugar, divided
1/4 C molasses
1 egg
2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground mace
Vegetable cooking spray

     Beat margarine at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add 2/3 C sugar, beating until light and fluffy.  Add molasses and egg; beat well.  Combine flour and next 4 ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture, stirring until well blended.  Divide dough in half; wrap each portion in plastic wrap, and freeze 30 minutes.  Shape each portion of dough into 26 (1-inch) balls, and roll in remaining 3 Tbs sugar.  Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 350°  for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from cookie sheets; cool on wire racks.  Store in an airtight container. 

Notes:
If you forget like I did and add the three extra Tbs of sugar to the cookies instead of leaving it out to roll them in, fear not!  They still look and taste great!

In the interest of being minutely less processed, I substituted Evaporated Cane Juice for the white sugar in all my treat recipes this year.  For these ginger cookies, the larger crystals really look beautiful and glittery!