Soft Ginger Cookies

As part of my bridal shower gift people gave me one of their favorite recipes! This is my Auntie Janet's cookie recipe. I made them bite sized but they are great as large cookies too! I would describe them as a soft ginger snap. They are easy to make ahead and travel easily.

These are perfect with a nice cup of tea!

Soft Ginger Cookies
makes 24

2 1/4 cup flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 tbsp sugar

Preheat oven to 350F
Combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.
In large mixing bowl beat butter on low until softened. Gradually add sugar and beat until fluffy.
Add egg and molasses, beat well.
Stir dry ingredients into beaten mixture.
Shape into 1 1/2 inch balls.
Roll in the 2 tbsp sugar and place on a cookie sheet.
Bake about 10 minutes or until light brown and puffed.
Let stand for 2 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.

BBQ Chicken

Catching up on some posts with this snowy snowy weather!!

BBQ  was a crowd pleasing surprise! I baked the chicken in the oven as we are having a big snow storm but the kids asked for me to make it again! Yay! I couldn't find my brine recipe I used over the summer so I made this one up. When you brine chicken it will keep it more moist especially when it needs to cook for a while, this made such a difference!

Normally I'm all about my silpat mat, but for this it didn't work as planned and I'd recommend using tin foil to line your cookie sheet instead.

I served this with our other family favorites: White Rice and Oven Roasted Broccoli!

BBQ Chicken
Brine
2 tbsp brown sugar
1 cup apple juice
1 cup warm water
2 tsp salt
2 tsp soy sauce

4 Chicken breasts, cleaned and butterflied
BBQ Sauce

Combine all the ingredients for the brine. Soak the chicken for 2-4 hours. I let the chicken defrost while it soaked in the brine.

Grill Directions
Preheat grill on high
Remove chicken from brine and shake to remove some of the water.

Oven Directions
Preheat oven 400F.
Remove chicken from brine and shake to remove some of the water.
Place chicken on foil lined cookie sheet.
Bake 15 minutes.
Remove from oven, cover in bbq sauce, bake 7 more minutes.
Remove from oven, flip, cover in bbq sauce, bake 7 more minutes
Continue until chicken is cooked thru
When chicken is cooked, one file time... flip, cover in bbq sauce, broil on high for about 5 minutes.

Butter Spritz Cookies

Catching up from my holiday baking... My brother and his girlfriend got me a cookie press a couple years ago and I've been wanting to try it but it seems so intimidating!! These cookies were tedious but very pretty! I'll make these again but they are special occasion cookies and not ones I'd want to make every day.

Don't bother using your nice silpats or new nonstick pans. Our old burnt cookie sheets worked best for this! It took some practice but by the end the dough was the right temperature and the cookies were coming out smoothly.

These were dainty and light cookies that can be changed for the holiday based on the sprinkles you use!

Pressed Sugar Cookies
adapted from Williams - Sonoma

makes 100ish cookies

2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 tsp salt
2 1/2 cups sifted all-purpose flour
Colored sugars or icings for decorating

Preheat an oven to 375°F.

Using a stand mixer, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on high speed until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg, vanilla and salt and continue beating until well mixed. Using a spoon, stir in the flour until blended. Let chill about 30 minutes.

Pack the cookie dough into a cookie press according to the manufacturer's instructions. Fit with the desired-shaped cookie plate and press the dough out onto ungreased baking sheets (count to 5 and pick straight up), spacing the cookies 1 inch apart. Cover with sprinkles.

Bake until the cookies are light golden, about 10 minutes.
Transfer the cookies to wire racks and let cool. Decorate with icings as desired. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.