Spice up Your Holiday Cookie Exchange with these Triple Ginger Cookies

How did it get to be the middle of December? The days are flying by. Am I the only one who feels like they are in the carpool lane flying by all the other cars? I think I'm ready to exit this highway and hit the side roads! Wanna join me?

A couple of years ago I was invited to my first cookie exchange with a co-worker. I had never met the host but knew she must be cool to host a sugar fest cookie party. Over the years the host, Lori from Fake Food Free and I have stayed in touch and become friends. This weekend Lori, a friend and I are co-hosting another cookie exchange. Bring on the sweets! But aside from an in person exchange, this year Lori has partnered with Adrienne from Gastroanthropology to host a virtual cookie exchange.  

We exchanged recipes with another blogger and were asked to create a favorite cookie recipe of theirs making any modifications necessary. One of my favorite cookies, Snowball Cookies was paired up with Joanne from Eats Well with Others.

I was paired up with Jen from Domestic Divas to make her Triple Ginger Cookies. She is a self proclaimed ginger fiend, something I'm not, so I was a little cautious when I made these cookies. Since I have two little cookie monsters I decided to decrease the amount of ginger and made a little chocolate addition. Well, needless to say after looking at the amount of dough missing from the bowl, you may say that these are darn good! For those wondering, this dough is much safer to eat since there are no eggs in the recipe.





Triple Ginger Cookies

adapted from Domestic Divas original recipe

1 stick of unsalted chilled butter (I used an Earth Balance Vegan Buttery Stick instead)

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp fresh ginger, peeled and finely minced (I omitted this from my cookies)

1 tbsp ground ginger

2 tbsp cocoa powder (My addition)

1/2 tsp vanilla (I used 1 tsp for extra flavor)

1 cup whole wheat pastry flour

1/4 tsp baking soda

pinch of salt

1/4 cup crystallized ginger (I used a little less since I did not top all cookies with ginger)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream butter and sugar with electric mixer until smooth and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add minced ginger, ground ginger, cocoa, vanilla, flour, baking soda and salt. Mix until dough comes together.

Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface (I used powder sugar on the surface). Cut out cookies and push a small piece of crystallized ginger into the center of the cookie.

Bake on parchment pager until the edges are lightly golden, about 10-12 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on rack.