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Christmas Spice Cookies- Slice and Bake Style

Christmas Spice Cookies

Christmas Spice Cookies are as good a reason as any to bring up a subject we all feel now and then. Holiday dread.

Don’t get me wrong, I love Christmas and all the other reasons we celebrate this time of year. But there’s one little part of the holiday that gets me a little down. Christmas Cookies. Just the phrase Christmas Cookies brings up visions of sugar plum fairies ransacking my kitchen– leaving a sticky red and green sugar residue across everything.

Which I suppose means that it’s not the holiday mayhem or even the Christmas Cookies themselves that I dread. It’s the cookie decorating. It can be so tedious and fussy. That’s where these Christmas Spice Cookies come in. They’re every bit as festive as any cookie dribbled in sugary food dye, but they’re a breeze to make.

It’s a recipe I spiced up from a classic sugar cookie recipe. The standard holiday version is rolled and cut out with cookie cutters. That’s the classic way to go. But I don’t see the point of all that muss and fuss. Because the main reason cookie cutters were invented was to open the door to cookie decorating. You know what cookie decorating leads to don’t you? That’s right, way too much sugar, messy food dyes, sticky counters and neat little piles of cookies tied up in red and green ribbons. I don’t think so. Not my style.

Because if I want a Christmas Spice Cookie– I want it soon. So my extra buttery version gets made in advance. The dough is kept in the fridge or freezer until the cookie monster strikes. Then in true slice and bake style I have fresh from the oven cookies in 7 or 8 minutes. Any time, any day… Even Christmas Day.

However I realize it is the holidays and I’m not immune to a little Christmas cheer, so I also rolled the edges of these Christmas Spice Cookies in turbinado (raw) sugar. Because even if I don’t much like cookie decorations, a little bling never hurt no cookie. GREGChristmas Spice Cookies

Ginger & Spice Refrigerator Cookies 

Print This Recipe Total time Yield 100Published
spice cookies

Ingredients

  • 3 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 1 teaspoon ground cloves
  • ½ teaspoon ground cardamom
  • ½ teaspoon ground ginger
  • ½ teaspoon kosher salt
  • 2 ounce crystallized ginger (finely chopped)
  • 1 cup ubsalted butter (at room temperature)
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 tablespoon whole milk
  • ½ cup turbinado sugar

Directions

In a large bowl sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ground ginger, and salt. Stir in crystallized ginger; set aside. 

Place butter and granulated sugar in bowl of electric stand mixer and beat until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Add the egg and milk and beat to combine. Put mixer on low speed, gradually add flour mixture, and beat until the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl. 

Divide the dough in half, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate at least 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Remove 1 wrapped pack of dough from refrigerator at a time, un-wrap the dough and roll it by hand into a log about 1‑inch in diameter. Repeat with the second pack of dough. If dough has warmed during rolling, return it to the refrigerator for about 10 minutes. The dough may even be frozen at this point and thawed when ready to bake.

Sprinkle a work surface with half of the turbinado sugar. Roll one of the logs through the pile coating the entire log with as much of the sugar as will adhere. Repeat with the remaining sugar and the second log. Slice each log crosswise into generous ⅓‑inch thick rounds. Place them at least 1‑inch apart on greased baking sheet, parchment, or silicone baking mat, and bake for 8 minutes or until cookies are just beginning to turn brown around the edges, rotating cookie sheet halfway through baking time. Let sit on baking sheet for 2 minutes after removal from oven and then move to complete cooling on wire rack. Store in airtight container for up to 1 week