Spice It Up!

The first thought one would have when there’s a plate of cookies in front of them is, sweet! (literally) But these cookies are a little different; spiced with some warm flavors including cinnamon and nutmeg these cookies will bring a different reaction to the dessert table on your Christmas Day dinner with the family. Although Christmas is just another day in my house (#brownfamilies), I like to pretend that the season has something in it for me too. I spent a Saturday night at home enjoying the peace and warmth of my own house while my parents visited some family friends in a town nearby. I didn’t really expect this recipe to be as generic as it was, but these tastes and smells are definitely not of your usual cookies! Here’s the recipe:

2 1/3 cups of flour

1 tsp. baking soda

2 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 tsp. ground nutmeg

¼ tsp salt

2 sticks butter (do not gasp, this is the only liquid)

2 tsp Vanilla Extract (okay I lied…)

You could also use an egg to make the dough more banded together. But being vegetarians, eggs have never even entered my household so even without the eggs…the show must go on! 

In a medium sized mixing bowl add the dry ingredients (flour, soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, salt). In a larger sized mixing bowl add the melted butter and some of the sugar, make sure to add a little at a time so it is easier to mix. You’re welcome to use a hand mixer for this part, I unfortunately hate using one just because of a previous little mishap with some splatter. After incorporating all of the sugar and the butter, add the vanilla extract in – it’ll smell like you’ve walked into a candle store. Once this is completely done, begin to add the dry ingredients INTO the wet ones. Make sure to follow that to the T, adding dry to wet is the only way to get the best consistency for any sort of batter or dough. Mix all of this together and you should start to see a dough form, it might be looser than what you’re expecting but don’t worry – I have a trick for this too! Once the dough is made, cover the bowl with a plate or some plastic wrap and let it cool down in the fridge. I’d say about 2 hours is good, but you will be making trips back and forth to the fridge once you start playing around with the dough. Don’t forget to also preheat your oven while you wait for the dough to cool. 375F is just perfect.

On a floured surface roll out the dough to a thickness you like – I used about ½ an inch (eyeball it!) and with whatever type of cookie cutter you like – start making shapes. If the dough starts to rip or gets really soft, ball it up and throw it back into the fridge to cool down for a little bit.

After all of your dough has been cut out into playful shapes, line them onto your greased cookie sheet or you can even use some wax/parchment paper on a cookie sheet. The cookies will take about 8-10 minutes to cook and the minute you pop that oven open, you’ll definitely be able to smell the cinnamon and vanilla instantly.

After the cookies have come out of the oven, I put them in the freezer for about 3 or 4 minutes, just because I know my family likes their cookies a little more on the crispy side. After they have cooled, I chose to ice them with some vanilla frosting – hoping to bring out some more of that lovely cinnamon flavor.

Yeah yeah I know rainbow sprinkles aren’t really Christmas-y but its someone’s birthday somewhere right? Hope you like the cookie and let me know what you think! :)