Running With Perseverance

Last weekend I participated in my fourteenth annual Christmas cookie bake-a-thon. It was an unseasonably warm day, so I wore this cute t-shirt that I got from Cafe Press last year:

We mix up the cookie selection once in a while, but there are two recipes that I make year in and year out: Ginger Spice Cookies and Eggnog Spritz cookies. After I posted pictures last weekend, people have asked me for the recipes, so here you go!

Ginger Spice Cookies
2/3 cup sugar
1/4 cup + 2 Tbsp stick margarine, softened
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground mace (this is the first year I actually bought and used mace!)

• Beat sugar and margarine with a mixer until creamy, add molasses and egg and beat well.
• Combine dry ingredients and blend by hand before gradually adding to batter and blending until thoroughly mixed.
• Divide dough in half, wrap each half with plastic wrap and chill for at least 1/2 hour.
• When you are ready to bake, preheat over to 350F.
• Shape dough into 1 inch balls, roll in sugar, and place 2 inches apart on a baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray or lined with parchment paper.

• Bake for 12 minutes, until the surface is crackled and the cookies are lightly browned.

I use my medium Pampered Chef scoop to make uniform cookies and Williams-Sonoma gold sanding sugar makes them look extra-special. (I used a whole jar on a double batch!)

I think this is an old Cooking Light recipe because I have nutrition information:
If you make 52 cookies, each cookie should have about 45 calories and 1.5 g fat.

Eggnog Spritz Cookies
2/3 cup sugar
1 cup butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1/2 tp salt
1 tsp ground nutmeg
2 tsp vanilla
2 1/4 cup flour

• Preheat over to 400F.
• Beat sugar, egg, salt, nutmeg and vanilla with a mixer until creamy and slightly fluffy.
• Add flour gradually, beating until well blended.
• Fill cookie press with dough, cover remaining dough and store in refrigerator.
• Using cookie press, form cookies 1 inch apart on a cookie sheet–do not use cooking spray–the dough won’t release from the press properly.
• Decorate with colored sugar or other decorations.
• Bake for 6-8 minutes until a light golden color.
• Remove from baking sheets and cool on a cooling rack.

The hardest part about making these cookies is using the cookie press. The dough has to be just the right temperature for the cookies to form correctly. I have found that if I make them in a “cold” kitchen, it works easily, but if I already have been baking it can take some trial and error to get it right. If the cookies don’t form correctly, you can just pick the dough up off the cookie sheet and try again after letting the dough warm up or chill for a few minutes.

Here’s a collage with some of the other cookies we made: sugar cut-outs, chocolate pinwheels, frosted pumpkin ginger cookies, snickerdoodles, frosted lemon drops (with walnuts), and date pinwheels.

What is your favorite holiday cookie?