Ginger Molasses Cream Cheese Cookie Bars

I’m getting ready for holiday baking, but I still have a few recipes that I plan to make before I start. This recipe has so many things I like: ginger, molasses, cream cheese, and cinnamon sugar. While the recipe calls for quite a few ingredients, these are baked in an 8” square pan. That tells you that these bars are substantial, and they certainly are!

One oddity of this recipe is that the bars call for a tablespoon of water or orange juice, and then the filling calls for lemon juice. I don’t typically have both orange and lemon juice on hand, and I don’t have the fruits around unless I am doing a lot of baking. Since both quantities are quite small, I just decided to use what I had on hand. I ended up using pineapple/orange/guava (POG) juice. The version we had was 100% juice, and perhaps it added a little extra flavor.

This ginger molasses dough comes together well, although you need to stop the mixer and stir the dough to ensure that there aren’t any floury bits at the bottom of the bowl. The dough doesn’t need to be perfectly divided, and I found that I needed less dough to make the top layer. I baked mine for about 25 minutes, and it seemed done, but once I cut them I realized they could have baked a little longer. None the less, they were still excellent, and I received many compliments about how wonderful they were.

Ginger Molasses Cream Cheese Cookie Bars
3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 tablespoon water/juice
1/4 cup molasses 
2 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg 
1/4 teaspoon salt

8 ounces cream cheese, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
3 tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla 
Cinnamon sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium until light. Add the egg, water/juice, and molasses and mix on medium to incorporate. In a separate bowl combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stopping to stir the mixture with a spatula and bring up any dry parts from the bottom of the bowl 

Press half of the dough into the prepared pan, then make the cheesecake filling.

In a medium bowl combine the cream cheese, sugar, sour cream, lemon juice, and vanilla. Whisk until the mixture is smooth. Spoon over the dough base, and then top with the remaining dough. Sprinkle the bars with cinnamon sugar. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, until a knife inserted into the bars comes out clean. It can be a little difficult to tell when these are fully baked. Allow the bars to cool before removing from the pan and cutting into bars. 

Recipe from Wallflour Girl

Aggression Cookies

I came across these cookies, and I had a good laugh. Aggression cookies? How interesting. With a little research, I discovered that the idea of aggression cookies came from humorist Erma Bombeck, and this and similar recipes have been circulating for quite some time. The idea is that you simply add all the ingredients in a bowl, and then mash them together with your hands, thus getting out all of your aggression. 

This cookie is an oat cookie flavored with cinnamon and nutmeg. I have seen variations with added chocolate chips or dried fruit, but the base recipe is the same. I looked through the possible add-ins that I had in my kitchen, and I decided I would use crystallized ginger. Adding raisins or dried fruit can be troubling to some, and chocolate chips didn’t catch my fancy. Oats and ginger are a great combination anyway!

Unlike the advertised recipe, I didn’t use my hands to mix the dough as I made it in my mixer. I did find, however, that as I was shaping the cookies, I needed to knead the dough with my hands to keep it together, so the aggression idea works! These baked up well, spread just a little, which meant I shaped them as they came out of the oven. I baked the batches for slightly different times, and with these cookies it didn’t seem to make much of a difference. I loved the ease of these cookies and will have them in mind when I have a particularly bad day.

Aggression Cookies
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon vanilla 
2 cups rolled oats
½ cup diced crystallized ginger

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Place all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Using a mixer or clean hands, mix/knead the dough until the dough comes together and no loose oats or flour remains.

Shape the dough into 1-1/2” balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies slightly. Allow room between the cookies for the cookies to spread. 

Bake for about 10 minutes, until they are golden along the edges. The cookies will likely be misshapen; place a round cookie cutter around each cookie and swirl the cookie cutter around to shape the cookie. Allow the cookies to set on the baking sheet for at least 10 minutes to allow them to set fully.

Recipe from Southern Recipes

Crystallized Ginger Lemon Cookies

Summer is a challenge for baking, as not only is my kitchen awfully warm, but I also don’t have as many options to share my baking with others. Refrigerator cookies are very appropriate, since I can take a few minutes to make the dough, stick it in the refrigerator, and then bake them up when I have time. Having to simply slice the cookies and bake them up saves me from having to be in the kitchen too long.

This recipe started as one of the possibilities to use up a large batch of basic cookie dough. The original recipe makes enough dough to create four different cookies. Thankfully, I was able to pare down to one fourth of the dough. Some recipes make it nearly impossible to divide! I made the abbreviated amount of dough and then added the crystallized ginger and lemon zest, and you are done.

When I buy crystallized ginger, it is already chopped quite small (it’s called mini) but I still find it a bit tricky to evenly slice the cookies. A couple of the cookies were crumbly, and I had to piece them together, but that isn’t an issue with this type of cookie. Some cookies are a little thicker, some thinner, but I found that baking them around 12 minutes worked. Some are just slightly softer! These cookies have a lovely ginger flavor, perfect with a cup of tea.

Crystallized Ginger Lemon Cookies
½ cup butter, room temperature
75 grams sugar
½ teaspoon salt
1 egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
150 grams flour
85 grams finely diced crystallized ginger 
Zest of 1 lemon
Additional sugar

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and salt. Mix on medium until well combined, about 3 minutes. Add the egg yolk and vanilla and mix again on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, add the flour. Once the flour has almost disappeared into the dough, add the crystallized ginger and lemon zest. 

Remove the dough from the mixing bowl and shape into a log about 2” in diameter. Roll in sugar and then wrap the dough log in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for several hours.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a baking sheet (or two) with a silicone baking mat. 

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and discard the plastic wrap. Slice the dough into 3/8” rounds and place on the prepared baking sheet(s).

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are golden and the edges are set. Allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from A Spiced Life

Chocolate Ginger Marble Cookies

I’ve already planned out my baking for post-Thanksgiving and December, but there is a little time left for posting before the busy season begins. When I had looked at my mom’s Better Homes & Gardens magazine, I found several recipes that I wanted to try. One I made at the end of October, and this ginger/chocolate cookie was the other one that I couldn’t wait to make. I was intrigued by the swirly-ness of the cookies.

This recipe is a little more time-consuming than some of the other recipes I make. You make a dough, then divide it into two halves. One half is the chocolate half, and the other is the spiced half. I was happy that the candied ginger was a part of the base cookie recipe! I used a little less chocolate than was specified, since I decided to grate the chocolate bar and that was very tiring! Grating the chocolate distributes it within the dough better, so I knew that the flavor wouldn’t be impacted that much.

The original recipe had you shape each half of the dough into rectangles, then cutting each into 30 pieces. I simply weighed the dough and figured out how much each piece should weigh. Yes, this takes some time, but it worked better for me. You then pair up a piece of each type of dough, smoosh it together, pinch it into two, turn and stick it back together, then roll them into a ball. It sounds like a lot, but it was fun to shape the cookies and then see how they looked after baking. These turned out great! They have a good ginger flavor, but I would add even more ginger next time.

Chocolate Ginger Marble Cookies
2 cups flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/3 cup finely chopped candied ginger
2 teaspoons ground ginger
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon cloves
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons cocoa powder
2 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
Sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt; stir in the candied ginger. In a separate bowl, combine the ginger, cinnamon, and cloves. 

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and vanilla; mix again to combine. With the mixer running on low, add the flour mixture and stir until combined.

Divide the dough in halves. Add the spice mixture to one half of the dough. Mix the cocoa powder and chocolate to the other half of the dough. Weigh each piece of dough and divide each into 30 even pieces or shape each piece of dough into a rectangle approximately 5” x 6” rectangle and cut into 30 pieces.

Combine one piece of spiced dough and one piece of chocolate dough together and pinch and roll the dough to make a marble effect. Roll the dough in sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies with the bottom of a glass coated in sugar, until the cookies are about 1-3/4” across.

Bake for 10-13 minutes, until the cookie begins to brown on the bottom. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Better Homes & Gardens, October 2025

Cinnamon Chai Blondies

They are doing a lot of road construction around our area, and I have gotten to the point that I almost don’t want to go anywhere. First, they closed the road to the left of our place. That’s back open but now they have closed the road to the right. That is more inconvenient in some ways, as now I have to take a different route to work. And there are many more stoplights to contend with. I’m just hopeful that all of these closures will make the area better in the end.

I’m in the house and when I am home, I want to bake. For this recipe, I wanted something homey, but I also knew that I wouldn’t be taking them elsewhere. I looked for a small batch recipe, and this recipe was perfect. The blondies are a simple brown sugar blondie, then you top it with a mix of chai-inspired spices. The original recipe called for ¼ teaspoon of cardamom, which isn’t my favorite, so I simply added some additional ginger.

These baked up well but sank a little as they cooled. Sometimes that means that they needed to bake more, but I would be hesitant to do that with these blondies, which seemed perfectly baked. You want these to have a soft texture, so baking more would likely dry them out. Some bakers noted that they were unable to find cinnamon chips, which can be a challenge. I tend to order them online, where they are consistently available, as I love cinnamon chips and I’m happy to use them whenever I can!

Cinnamon Chai Blondies
½ cup butter, room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla
1¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup cinnamon chips

2 tablespoons sugar
1½ teaspoons cinnamon
½ teaspoon ginger
⅛ teaspoon nutmeg
⅛ teaspoon cloves

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square baking pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

In a large mixer bowl, cream the butter and brown sugar on medium, until the mixture is light. Add the egg and vanilla and mix again on medium to combine. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, mixing until the dough just comes together. Fold in the cinnamon chips with a spatula. 

Spread the dough in the prepared pan. Make the chai topping: in a small bowl, whisk together the sugar, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and cloves. Sprinkle the chai topping over the unbaked blondies.

Bake for 20 minutes, until the bars begin to brown along the edges. Allow the blondies to cool before removing them from the pan and cutting into bars.

Recipe from The Salted Sweets

Spiced Pistachio Cookies

My husband occasionally finds recipes and sends them to me, and that is the case with this recipe. It was originally called a gingerbread pistachio date sugar cookie, and that sounded so good. I pinned the recipe, but my pin got a little strange, so I found a different link that worked better. The original recipe was in grams and milliliters, and while I do prefer using grams while baking, it may not be familiar to everyone. I have used a combination of grams and volumetric measures.

I love pistachios and try to always keep them on hand. The spices used in these are also something that I use all the time. I have another recipe that called for dates, so I recently stocked up on those. This recipe, however, doesn’t use dates but uses date sugar. I think I may have had date sugar after visiting a date farm years ago, but no longer. Molasses was the suggested substitution, so I used that.

These come together quickly, although I think it took just as much time to adapt some of the measurements to teaspoons. The dough is very sticky, and refrigeration is a must. I refrigerated the dough for about two and a half hours, and it was still fairly sticky. I found that the cookies spread quite a bit, but the flavor is fantastic. Perhaps I used a heavy hand when adding the spices, but I’m not complaining! These are perfect for fall, and they smelled out of this world while baking.  

Spiced Pistachio Cookies
240 grams flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger 
½ teaspoon cloves 
1/2 teaspoon salt
180 grams butter, room temperature
100 grams sugar
115 grams brown sugar
5 tablespoons molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla 
1 egg
120 grams pistachios 
Cinnamon sugar

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt; set aside. In a large mixer bowl beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until fully incorporated. Add the egg, molasses, and vanilla and mix on medium again to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. When the dough is cohesive, remove the bowl from the mixer and stir in the pistachios with a spatula.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and roll the balls in cinnamon sugar. Place on the prepared baking sheet, leaving plenty of space between the dough balls.

Bake for 10 minutes. Remove the cookies from the oven and allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack.

Recipe from Bengingi

Gingerbread Thumbprints with Cranberry Jam

While I tend to plan my holiday baking a bit in advance, it seems that I never quite bake according to the list I develop. This can be for many reasons; sometimes I find a recipe that I just have to make, or something ends up taking more time than I have, and sometimes recipes don’t quite turn out and I need to take the time to tweak the recipe before I try it again. I hadn’t planned on making these cookies, but I saw them and was convinced. Oh, and that other recipe needs some tweaking as well.

I saw this recipe and the only thing I needed to see if we had on hand was cranberry jam. We buy different jams all the time, so I was fairly confident! We did have a jar of Christmas jam, which was cranberry with some orange flavor added in, which sounded perfect for these cookies! The only difficult was the original recipe called for “walnut-sized balls” and I honestly don’t have a good reference for that. I just made each cookie weigh 25 grams. 

These cookies were fun to make, but they do take a little time and patience to get them shaped right. I found that shaping the cookies and then flattening slightly on the baking sheet helped maintain their shape when I make the indentation in the cookies. I also don’t list a quantity for the jam. I made about 30 cookies, and each cookie uses about 1/4 teaspoon, so you don’t use a lot. These are the most beautiful ginger cookies with a perfect, and perhaps unexpected, flavor or cranberries. This recipe is not one to miss.

Gingerbread Thumbprints with Cranberry Jam
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
100 grams sugar
1 egg
160 grams molasses
420 grams flour
1 teaspoon ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
Cranberry/Christmas jam

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until well combined. Add the egg and molasses and mix until incorporated. It may look slightly lumpy, but it will work once all of the ingredients have been added. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture and stir until the dough comes together.

Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for about an hour.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4 inch dough balls. Round them in your hands and then flatten them slightly. With your thumb or other tool, make an indentation in each cookie, pressing the edges back together if the cookies split slightly. Fill each indentation with a small amount of jam.

Bake for 12 minutes, until set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes and then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from Polabaker

Glazed Ginger-Citrus Shortbread

Sorry for the delayed post, we have been out of power for four days! We are so glad we have lights and heat again!

I tried making these cookies a bit ago, but I had some struggles with the recipe. I did use vegan butter in place of the traditional dairy-based butter, and I don’t think that was the best choice for a shortbread cookie. I use vegan butter occasionally, and it typically works great, but there are some recipes that just aren’t to be edited. My original batch were too browned on the bottom, but my husband/cookie taster said that they didn’t taste burned. Hmmm.

I wanted to have these cookies so I wanted to get these made. Even though I had to adapt a couple of ingredients, based on what I had, but the flavors sounded great. The recipe called for lemon emulsion, and I had lemon oil and I hoped that was close. I also used orange oil instead of orange peel or orange jammy bits. King Arthur Baking makes pre-diced candied ginger that is diced very finely. It’s the best as chopping candied ginger is very difficult!

So the cookies baked ok, it’s just one of those recipes that you have to watch carefully or they will burn. I figured the glaze would help me out, since that compensates a lot. The glaze was great and in the end the cookies looked just fine. You do sprinkle diced ginger to finish the cookies, which makes these very ginger-forward. I love that I hope that you do too!

Glazed Ginger-Citrus Shortbread
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon lemon zest
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 cup butter, room temperature
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon lemon oil
 2 3/4 cups flour
 2 tablespoons mini diced ginger
1/4 teaspoon orange oil
1/2 teaspoon ginger

2 cups powdered sugar
2-3 tablespoons lemon juice
Additional diced ginger

Make the dough: in a large mixer bowl, combine the sugar, powdered sugar, lemon zest, and salt. Mix for about 30 seconds until the sugar is fragrant. Add the butter to the mixer bowl and mix on medium until smooth. Add the egg, vanilla, and lemon oil and mix for about a minute. The mixture may look curdled- don’t worry.

With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, diced ginger, orange oil, and ginger. Mix on low until the dough comes together.

Shape the dough into two logs, each about 2” in diameter. Wrap the dough logs in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, two hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Unwrap the dough logs and slice into rounds, about 1/3”. Place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, rotating the baking sheet once during the process. The cookies with be slightly browned along the edges. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for a few minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the glaze: in a medium bowl whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice. If the glaze is too thick, add additional lemon juice until you reach the right consistency.

Half dip each cookie in the glaze and wipe away any excess. Place on a lined baking rack (to catch any extra glaze) and then sprinkle with additional diced ginger. Allow the cookies to set before serving.

Recipe from King Arthur Baking

Lemon Ginger Cookies with Crystallized Ginger

At work we were having a celebration for one of my colleagues who is having a baby! I didn’t have too many specific requests but wanted to avoid chocolate if possible. I came across a couple of recipes and ended up choosing a lemon ginger shortbread that I had been waiting to make. Since I only needed to change the butter to vegan butter, I also made these dairy free (except for the egg). I made the slice and bake cookie dough and then baked the cookies, but they baked too long. They looked fine on top, but the bottoms were burned.

I had to go with Plan B, which is a cookie with crystallized ginger, and to honor the original cookies, I added lemon zest to the dough and added a lemon glaze to them. They don’t look the same, but they have the same flavors, and that’s good. This dough came together with no issue, and the cookies came out of the oven nice and crinkly, which was perfect. I could have left of the glaze, but I wanted to include more lemon flavor in these cookies.

You do need to be thoughtful when baking with vegan butter. For the most part it works just like butter, but I do think the original shortbread I made browned too quickly because the vegan butter acts just a little differently. For the glaze, I used the glaze from the original recipe. It called for lemon juice, but I needed to thin it a touch so I had purchased some non-dairy milk that I could use. When I dipped the cookies, I suppose that the glaze could have been thicker, but it still worked well.

Lemon Ginger Cookies with Crystallized Ginger
120 grams butter or vegan butter
200 grams sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 egg
1 teaspoon lemon zest
250 grams flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
150 grams finely chopped crystallized ginger
2 cups powdered sugar
2-1/2 tablespoons lemon juice
Pinch of salt
Additional lemon juice or milk, as needed

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, sugar, and vanilla. Beat on medium until light. Add the egg and lemon zest and mix again to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and ginger. Mix on low until the dough almost comes together. Add the chopped crystallized ginger and mix again, on low, until the dough is cohesive.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 12-14 minutes, until the cookies are set and beginning to turn golden. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing them to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the glaze: in a medium bowl combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice, and salt. Whisk until a smooth glaze forms, thinning with additional lemon juice or milk if needed. Dip the cooled cookies halfway into the glaze, wiping off any excess. Allow the cookies to set on a wire rack before serving.

Recipe from Where is My Spoon? Glaze recipe from King Arthur Flour

Maple Molasses Cookies

We have a fairly large quantity of maple syrup in the house, and it is finally the season to find maple recipes! I’m not 100% back at work yet, but I will be before you know it thus it is time for fall baking. I have so many ideas, more ideas than there are weeks in the fall, but I will make it work somehow.

While I have made a couple different maple cookies, I am still finding new recipes to try. I wanted to make something with molasses, and I initially was going to use that recipe. It contained oats, that I wanted to use, but I need to do some editing as it was created for high altitude, plus I want to incorporate maple syrup in addition to maple extract. That will come soon!

These don’t contain oats, but do contain molasses, ginger, and nutmeg, so my house smelled amazing while these were baking. I used slightly less than 1 teaspoon maple extract, but fairly close. The maple flavor increases as they age, although I don’t think mine will last long! I made my own icing recipe, since I just wanted powdered sugar and maple syrup. I did need to add some milk or it would have been too thick. These are a perfect fall cookie, with the flavors of home and just a hint of sweetness.

Maple Molasses Cookies
2-1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
½ cup butter, room temperature
¼ cup sugar
¾ cup packed brown sugar
1 egg
¼ cup molasses
1 teaspoon maple extract

1 ½ cups powdered sugar
About 2 tablespoons milk
About 2 tablespoons maple syrup

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, and nutmeg; set aside.  In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and brown sugar on medium until light. Add the egg and mix again on medium. Stir in the molasses and maple extract, mixing until all of the ingredients are incorporated.

With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture, stirring just until the dough comes together. If needed, stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure even mixing.

Scoop the dough into the prepared baking sheet, using about 1-1/2 tablespoons dough per cookie.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the bottom begins to brown but are still puffy. The cookies will deflate slightly as they cool. Cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, drizzle with icing: in a medium bowl combine the powdered sugar and a tablespoon of milk and a tablespoon of maple syrup. Whisk until the icing comes together, adding more milk and maple syrup as needed. The maple syrup adds flavor, but is thick so the milk helps thin the icing as needed. Drizzle the icing over the cooled cookies and allow the icing to set before serving.

Recipe from But First We Brunch

Lemon Ginger Bakewell Slices

I planned to make these bars and I thought I was good on ingredients with the exception of lemons, so my husband and I stopped at the store and picked up some fresh lemons. I got home and I thought I had lemon curd, or something that I could use in its place. I didn’t have lemon curd, so I checked to see what I could use. I identified four possibilities, yes, I am well stocked! I had apple cinnamon curd, apricot pineapple preserves, lemon marmalade, and ginger curd. My husband thought that ginger curd would be good, and I agreed since I love ginger.

Since I used ginger curd, I decided to use a little less lemon zest to these bars. I didn’t add lemon to the base, and I just used the zest of one lemon in the filling. Perhaps I should have added some ginger to the base, but certainly it needed some salt. I did refrigerate my pastry base, but just for 15 or so minutes. It had firmed up but didn’t become so hard that I couldn’t shape it. In retrospect, I think I could have rolled the pastry base thinner, but I didn’t do that this time.

I will say that the ginger curd isn’t super strong, and I cut back on the lemon, so these bars don’t have a prominent flavor. Normally a Bakewell tart/bars have raspberry filling and this was intended to be a lemon version, so mine is a lemon and ginger version. Despite not having a strong, in your face flavor, these bars are excellent. They’d be easier to slice if the pastry base was thinner, but I can envision all sorts of variations made with different types of curd and preserves!

Lemon Ginger Bakewell Slices
1¼ cups flour
6 tablespoons butter, chopped into small pieces
3 tablespoons powdered sugar
1 egg yolk
1+ tablespoon water

7 tablespoons butter, room temperature
⅓ cup sugar
Zest of 1 lemon
2 eggs
¾ cup ground almonds
2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons lemon/ginger curd
2 tablespoons sliced/flaked almonds

In a large mixer bowl, combine the flour and butter and mix on low until the mixture is crumbly. Add the powdered sugar, then stir in the egg yolk. Add water, mixing intermittently on low, until the dough comes together. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8-inch square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Once the dough is chilled, roll the dough out to slightly larger than 8 inches square (trim as needed). Press the dough into the base of the prepared pan, pressing the dough into the edges and corners of the pan. Bake for 10 minutes.

Make the filling: in a large mixer bowl bear the butter, sugar, and lemon zest on medium to combine. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the ground almonds and flour. Mix until cohesive.

Once the bottom crust comes out of the oven, spread with a thin layer of curd. Top with the almond filling and carefully spread into a smooth layer, doing your best not to disturb the layer of curd. Sprinkle with sliced almonds.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the bars are golden. Allow to cool before cutting into squares.

Recipe from Scrummy Lane

Chai Sugar Cookies

I have made some cookies in the past that were similar to these, but you can never go wrong with the spices in these cookies! These cookies call for five different spices, and you have the option of using the spices that you prefer. The original recipe called for cardamom, and that isn’t my favorite, so I took that out and added some nutmeg. I know that cloves can be strong, so I decreased the amount slightly. In the end, they are spice cookies of your own creation, and that is great!

This recipe uses a combination of volume and weight measurements. When I bake, I do like using weights, as that’s always going to be precise. For a teaspoon, the weight might be too small, so it makes sense to use a combination. The one cup of sugar weighs 200 grams, but I find sugar very easy to measure. When you are baking, and I hope you are doing it because you enjoy it, and you can do what works for you.

This dough comes together easily, but make sure you make the flour mixture first. With so many spices, it’s best to make that combination first so you don’t have to think about it later. I flattened the cookies slightly, but I don’t know how much that changed the shape of the cookies. For the glaze, I changed the coffee glaze to a cinnamon glaze, which I preferred. I tried to be artistic with the glaze, and I think the look good. I love the flavor of these cookies, perhaps they are a fall cookie, but I could make these any time of the year.

Chai Sugar Cookies
270 grams flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon cloves
142 grams butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 tablespoons honey
1 egg + 1 yolk

1 1/4 cups powdered sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2-3 tablespoons milk

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cornstarch, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, and cloves; set aside. In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar until light. Add the honey, egg, and egg yolk and stir on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. The dough may be slightly crumbly and doing the final mixing with a spatula helps bring the dough together.

Shape the dough into 1 tablespoon balls and place on the prepared baking sheets. Flatten the cookies slightly with your hand or a flat spatula.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Once the cookies are cool, make the glaze: in a small bowl combine the powdered sugar and cinnamon. Whisk in 2 tablespoons milk, adding additional milk until the glaze reaches a thick drizzling consistency. Drizzle the glaze over the cooled cookies and allow the glaze to set before serving the cookies.

Recipe from Handle the Heat

Candied Ginger Shortbread

I love the ease of slice and bake cookies, and you can do almost anything with this type of cookie. My only limitation is that I don’t like these cookies to have large chunks or nuts or similar things as that can make them impossible to cut. I figured that candied ginger wouldn’t be too difficult to cut, so I made the dough for these to have it ready to go.

I have used many different types of candied or crystallized ginger. Most commonly, I buy it in pieces and then I have to dice it up. Dicing up candied ginger is very difficult, and your knife gets sticky, and it’s just a mess. I took a ginger baking class through King Arthur Flour and they used mini diced ginger and it is just perfect. It’s already chopped, and it is the perfect size for baking. I can’t recommend this enough if you like to bake with ginger.

This dough is so simple and it can be assembled in minutes. Shaping the dough isn’t bad, as I don’t worry too much about the length of the cylinders and just the diameter. It all works out in the end. I was able to slice these cookies and fit them all on two baking sheets. They baked fine, but hardly browned at all. I have not baked items at 275 before, and I wonder if a somewhat warmer oven for less time would be better. I know I don’t want a shortbread to bake at too hot of temperature, but these took a long time!

Candied Ginger Shortbread
1 cup butter, room temperature
½ cup sugar
1 egg yolk
1.5 cups flour
½ cup cornstarch
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup finely chopped candied/crystallized ginger

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and sugar on medium until light. Stir in the egg yolk, then gradually add the flour, cornstarch, and salt. Stir in the candied ginger with a spatula.

Davide the dough into two halves and shape each half into a cylinder about 2 inches in diameter. Wrap the cylinders in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Heat the oven to 275 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

Remove the dough cylinders from the refrigerator and discard the plastic wrap. Slice the dough into disks about 13” thick and place on the prepared baking sheets. Reshape the cookies into a round shape if necessary.

Bake for about 30-32 minutes, until barely browned on the bottom. Cool on the baking sheets for 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Recipe from A Farmgirl’s Dabbles

Gingerbread Snowballs

I have made a couple of different recipes that are similar to this, that are reminiscent of a Russia Teacake or Mexican Wedding Cake. It is a butter cookie rolled in powdered sugar, and you can change up the flavors in any way that you want. I have used different fruits, nuts, and I even made a brown sugar spice variety. This one is gingerbread flavor- which is consistently excellent.

One of the hallmarks of these cookies is that they melt in your mouth. To ensure that’s the case, this cookie, like most that are similar, uses powdered sugar as the sweetener. They don’t have much sugar in them, but since the final cookie is rolled in powdered sugar, they are not lacking any sweetness. They also don’t contain any leavening, so this is one recipe that you can put the cookies closer together on the baking sheet.

Since these cookies are small, this recipe makes about three dozen. I love the combination of spices, but I would likely add more ginger, since I am such a fan! I was happy that rolling them in powdered sugar while they were warm covered the cookies completely, which isn’t always the case. These do melt in your mouth, and I know that gingerbread doesn’t usually have nuts, but I keep thinking that these need some nuts to be proper. Maybe next time!

Gingerbread Snowballs
1 cup butter, room temperature
½ cup powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
¼ teaspoon allspice
¼ teaspoon cloves
1 tablespoon molasses
2 ¼ cups flour
Powdered sugar

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, beat the butter until light. Add the powdered sugar, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, allspice, cloves, and molasses and stir until smooth. Add the flour and mix until the dough comes together, which may take a few minutes.

Shape the dough into 1-1/4” balls and place them on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the cookies are set and begin to brown on the bottom. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 2-3 minutes and then immediately roll in powdered sugar. Cool completely on a wire rack. Once cookies are cool, reroll the cookies in powdered sugar if desired.

Recipe from Crazy for Crust

Gingerbread Brownies

Nothing says the holidays like gingerbread figures! I was looking at a couple of gingerbread brownies from this site, although I guess one was gingerbread rocky road. I like this one as it is a spiced brownie then topped with gingerbread cookies, gingerbread crumbs, and chocolate. As you will note, the recipe gives the quantities in weight measurements, which I find to be a lot easier and is generally more precise. This is a British recipe, and since I use a lot of British cookbooks and blogs, I have learned to love weight measurements!

The challenge I had for these cookies was finding the gingerbread cookies for the top. I envisioned a bag of small gingerbread people, but all I could find was Walker’s Shortbread Gingerbread. Don’t get me wrong, they are excellent, but they are a little bit big and there were only 8 in the package. I used two for crumbs, 5 to top the brownies, and one for the baker. Perhaps smaller cookies come out closer to the actual holiday?

This makes a fairly thick brownie, which is ok, but I did find I needed to bake mine longer than I had initially expected. I melted the chocolate for the topping, and it started to seize, which was frustrating, so I ended up piping that on rather than drizzling. The cookies are quite large, which was tricky. I photographed the brownies as a whole, as they looked quite strange once cut. None the less, these a lovely moist brownies with a balance of chocolate and spice flavors!

Gingerbread Brownies
200 grams butter
200 grams dark chocolate
3 eggs
275 grams brown sugar
90 grams flour
35 grams cocoa powder
3 teaspoons ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
250 grams chocolate chips

Gingerbread Cookies
Melted Chocolate

Heat the oven to 355 degrees. Line a 9” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Place the butter and dark chocolate in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave in 30 second increments, stirring frequently, until the mixture is smooth. Allow the mixture to cool slightly.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the eggs and brown sugar. Whisk for several minutes, until the mixture doubles in size and becomes pale. Whisk until the mixture is similar to a mousse in consistency. Fold in the melted chocolate mixture, then the flour, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir in the chocolate chips. Spread in the prepared baking pan.

Bake for 25-35 minutes, until a cake tester inserted into the brownies comes out clean. Allow the brownies to cool in the pan.

Once cool, drizzle with melted chocolate and top with gingerbread cookies. Cut into squares.

Recipe from Jane’s Patisserie

Ginger Molasses Cookies

This past weekend, I took a Ginger baking class. I am very fortunate that King Arthur Baking Company has two locations for classes: Vermont and Skagit Valley, Washington. Skagit Valley is about an hour and a half away, and made for a lovely weekend away. I had signed up for this class last year, but it was cancelled because of low enrollment. I was very happy that the class successfully ran this year!

We made three different ginger items: gingerbread with fresh ginger, lemon ginger scones, and these ginger molasses cookies. I love a molasses cookie, and I do have a number of similar recipes, but this one is so great. I enjoyed the class in that the instructor talked about different ways you could change the recipe, how you could try different flours, and other ideas. I really appreciated her sharing her knowledge.

I rolled my cookies in sanding sugar, which I like, but my husband doesn’t like it so he topped his with additional crystallized ginger. I like the crunch that sanding sugar adds to this soft cookie, but if you just want a soft cookie you could top it with any number of ingredients. I love the ginger and molasses in these cookies. You get the sharpness of molasses, but it’s not at all bitter. The mix of spices is fantastic, but if you have a favorite you want to include, feel free to do so. Just remember that you use less nutmeg or cloves than cinnamon!

Ginger Molasses Cookies
170 grams butter, room temperature
213 grams brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
½ teaspoons cloves
¼ teaspoon allspice
1 egg
85 grams molasses
92 grams diced crystallized ginger
300 grams flour
Sparkling sugar

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Line baking sheets with parchment or silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter, brown sugar, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and allspice. Beat on medium until combined. You may need to stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the egg and molasses and mix again on medium to combine. With the mixer running on low, add the crystallized ginger and flour and stir until the dough comes together.

Scoop the dough into tablespoon balls and roll in sanding sugar. Place the dough on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 10-12 minutes until fragrant and set. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheets before removing to a cooling rack.

Recipe from King Arthur Baking Company

Triple Ginger Cookies

This week has been a difficult week for me and my family, and I just didn’t have time to bake a new recipe this week. This is a flashback to one of my favorite cookies, triple ginger cookies. I love ginger and have even signed up for a ginger cooking class in a few weeks. This is a lovely molasses cookie that is made even better by the addition of ground ginger, candied ginger, and fresh ginger grated on a microplane. How could you go wrong?

There are other triple ginger cookies out there, but I love the ginger flavor in these. The original recipe for these cookies makes a lot, so the recipe you see here is a half recipe. I roll my cookies in orange sanding sugar, which I try to always have on hand. You could use any color of sanding sugar, or regular sugar, but that just wouldn’t be as special.

These aren’t difficult to make but do make sure that you get all of the flour mixed in completely. This is quite hard, so I always expect to mix the last of the dough by hand. They don’t need to be refrigerated before baking, which is a great time saver. Is there a better cookie for fall? Perhaps, but I don’t know what it would be!

Triple Ginger Cookies
2-1/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
3/4 cup shortening
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
2 tablespoons diced candied ginger
1/2 teaspoon ginger root, grated on a microplane
Orange sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and salt, set aside. In a large mixer bowl, mix on medium until shortening is smooth. Add the sugar and beat until fluffy. Add the egg and the molasses, mixing until combined. Stir in about half of the flour mixture and then mix in the candied ginger and the ginger root. Add the rest of the flour mixture. You may need to finish mixing everything by hand, as the dough is heavy.

Shape the dough into 1-inch balls. Roll in the orange sanding sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets.

Bake for 11-12 minutes. Cookies may look slightly undone but will set as they cool. Cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet before removing to a wire rack to cool.

Adapted from Sunset Magazine’s Giant Ginger Cookies (November 1998)

Glazed Lemon Ginger Cookies

Anything with lemon is typically popular on this blog. The same can be said for items with ginger. I was thrilled when I found a lemon and ginger cookie. I had picked up a lemon because I knew I wanted to make these soon. All of the other ingredients are items I have on hand, but I will need to get some candied ginger soon, as my supply is running low.

I made up the dough, although chopping candied ginger is a sticky proposition! I can buy chopped candied ginger, but it is never quite right, so I chop it myself. As love as I love ginger, it isn’t something that you necessarily want to have a big bite, so chopping it myself helps. I made three dozen cookies with this recipe, and the cookies are on the smaller side, which is fine since I will be sharing them with my friends at work.

The original recipe has you dip the cookies into the glaze while the cookies are still warm. I contemplated drizzling the glaze, as that is a lot easier, but I went ahead and dipped the cookies. It wasn’t too difficult, and the cookies cooled for a couple of minutes, so they didn’t burn my fingers. I was slightly short on the amount of lemon juice for the glaze, so I added a teaspoon of milk to help the glaze get to the correct consistency. These cookies look and taste great. The lemon works well with the ginger, moderating the ginger so it is present but not too sharp.

Glazed Lemon Ginger Cookies
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons lemon juice
2 tablespoons lemon zest
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup finely chopped candied ginger

2 cups powdered sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with silicone baking mats.

In a large mixer bowl, combine the butter and sugar. Beat on medium until light. Add the egg and beat on medium to incorporate. Add the vanilla, lemon juice, and lemon zest and stir to combine. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour, baking soda, and salt. Fold in the chopped candied ginger.

Shape the dough into tablespoon-sized mounds and flatten slightly.

Bake for 12-15 minutes until the cookies barely start to brown. Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack. It is important to glaze the cookies while they are still warm.

Make the glaze: while the cookies are baking, whisk together the powdered sugar and lemon juice in a small bowl. Brush the glaze on the warm cookies. Sprinkle with sugar, if desired

Drop dough by TBS scoop onto prepared pans about 2" apart. Flatten slightly with fingers. Bake in oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until bottoms just start to brown. Let sit on baking sheet for 1 minute before removing to wire rack.

While cookies are baking, make glaze by combining the powdered sugar and 1/3 cup lemon juice in small bowl. Dip cookies while they are still warm, into glaze and place on wire rack to cool and allow the glaze to set. Sprinkle with coarse sugar, if desired.

Recipe from Renee’s Kitchen Adventure

Gingerbread Brownies

Maybe I should call these Ginger Brownies so that you don’t think that they are only for the holidays. I love ginger and make many recipes that include ginger in some way. Many think that ginger is for fall or winter baking, but I think it is good any time of year. While these would be great around the holidays, don’t limit yourself too much!

My friend came over to do some baking and after evaluating lots of recipes, we chose to make these. We are both fans of ginger! In the end we were glad that we worked on this together, as the recipe ended up having more components than we realized. You make two different doughs and then alternate them in the pan, which would be a lot if you were by yourself.

Neither of the doughs is difficult to make, and it’s handy that you use the egg yolk in one dough and then the white (plus a second egg) in the brownie dough. I think this recipe makes for too much gingerbread dough, and I really love ginger. Instead of layering the dough, next time I would start by putting in all of the brownie batter than topping with about half the quantity of gingerbread dough. Regardless, these brownies have a great chocolate and ginger flavor, decadent but not too sweet.

Gingerbread Brownies
½ cup butter, room temperature
⅓ cup packed brown sugar packed
¼ cup molasses
1 egg yolk
1⅓ cup flour
1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ teaspoon cloves
½ teaspoon baking soda
⅛ teaspoon salt

½ cup butter
¾ cup chocolate chips
1 egg + 1 egg white
 ½ cup packed brown sugar
 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
⅓ cup flour
¼ cup cocoa powder
¼ teaspoon salt

Heat the oven to 350 degrees. Line an 8” square pan with foil and spray the foil with nonstick cooking spray.

Make the gingerbread dough: in a large mixer bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar on medium until light. Stir in the molasses and egg yolk. In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda, and salt. With the mixer running on low, gradually add the flour mixture. Set the gingerbread dough aside.

Make the brownie batter: in a microwave safe bowl, melt the butter and chocolate chips in 30 second increments, stirring frequently. Allow to cool slightly. In a large mixer bowl, beat the egg, egg white, and brown sugar until incorporated. Stir in the cooled chocolate/butter mixture and mix until incorporated. Mixing on low, stir in the oil, flour, cocoa powder, and salt.

Spread half of the brownie batter into the prepared pan. Dot with about half of the gingerbread dough, pressing down to flatten the dough slightly. Top with the remaining brownie batter and gingerbread dough.

Bake for about 25 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the brownies will come out with a little bit of batter. The brownies will be slightly jiggly.
Cool the brownies in the pan for about 15 minutes and then lift them from the pan and cool completely on a wire rack.

Recipe from Broken Oven Baking

Gingerbread House Bark

Merry Christmas! Christmas Cookie #12. I hope that you and those you love are able to spend some peaceful time together. Our Christmas will be fairly quiet, but that’s ok. Our weather has been so terrible that we’ve been house-bound for too many days. We have some smaller celebrations planned, but honestly it will be nice to simply get out of the house.

This is a recipe that you can change in any way that works for you. The base is made with gingerbread chocolate, and that is an important element. I use Theo Chocolate, as that is local to me, but I think that there are many varieties out there. You could use non-flavored chocolate, and I’m sure that would also be tasty.

The toppings are what you like; I tried to stick to the original as much as possible. The gingerbread people are critical! The other bits were surprisingly difficult to find. I used holiday corn, red hots, and some small peppermint pillows. I didn’t add any icing, but it looked just fine to me! I really enjoyed making this bark; it was easy to put together and is great for the holidays.

Gingerbread House Bark
16 ounces gingerbread spiced chocolate
7-10 gingerbread men
20 red hots
10 hard candies
20 holiday/reindeer candy corn
Royal/white icing

Line a baking pan with parchment paper.

Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a medium microwaveable bowl. Melt the chocolate, stirring every 30 seconds, until smooth. Pour the chocolate onto the prepared baking pan and smooth with a spatula.

While the chocolate is hot, top with random gingerbread men, then the red hots, hard candies, and holiday candy corn. Pipe icing around the additions to the gingerbread bark.

Refrigerate at least 30 minutes to set. Break into pieces to serve.

Recipe from Sweet Recipeas