Progressive Deliciousness (and ROW80 Update)

Ginger Crinkles

It’s baking day! In some homes this means hundreds of cookies and several recipes, laughter and songs and… I don’t know, Muppets? Elves? I’m not really clear on what other people’s traditions involve. In my house, I might make a few kinds of cookies, but only one at a time (and somewhat grudgingly). I made chocolate chip for the kids’ teachers last week (using the Nestle Tollhouse recipe, so I had Phoebe Buffay’s voice in my head the whole time).

Today, I’m making ginger crinkles.

They’re one of Santa’s favourites. I can’t guarantee that he’ll leave more or better presents if you leave these out for him, but it can’t hurt. And hey, even if they’re for your friends and not the big man himself, they’re fantastic. Gingery and yummy and soft, and they make your house smell FANTASTIC while they’re baking. Wins all around!

Simon (8) just tasted one for the first time this year. His initial reaction was “It’s nice… I guess I like it.” After another two bites, we reached, “MOM. My heart explodes when I eat these!”

Good review.

You want the recipe?  Here you go, with my own substitutions (original recipe calls for shortening, I used coconut oil):

Ginger Crinkles

Ingredients:

2.25 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
.5 tsp ground cloves
.25 tsp salt

1 cup brown sugar
.75 cup coconut oil (soft, but not liquid)
.25 cup molasses
1 large egg

white sugar for rolling

-Stir together first 6 ingredients
-In a separate bowl, combine remaining ingredients (except for white sugar) and beat well
– add dry ingredients to mixture, beating well (mine came out really crumbly today… don’t know what that was about, but it still worked)
-form 1″ balls of dough and roll in white sugar. Place 2″ apart on cookie sheet
-bake in 350 degree (F) oven for 15 minutes*

*Your oven may vary… mine has been CRAZY lately. Original recipe says 10 minutes. Bake until they’re getting brown on the bottom, anyway.

There you go. My gift to you. Enjoy!

Now, it’s Sunday, so that means…

ROW80 Update!

I guess this will be my last one for this round, unless I manage to post on Christmas Day. Wow. Well, I’d call this round a success. I won NaNoWriMo, but more importantly I finished a re-draft of the second novel in this series. I wrote most days, though not all. I’ve been slacking off a lot this month, but still edited and posted a story, something that wasn’t on my goals list, but I’m glad I did it. So far it’s getting some lovely comments.

Next round is going to be insane, but I’m trying not to think about that right now. Nope, as of right now it’s just deep breaths, get through Christmas, and hold off on worrying about all of that until the new year.

And then, presumably, freak out. That’s a sound business strategy, yes?

So, what have you been baking? Or buying? Or scraping off the soles of your shoes to serve to your guests? I won’t judge.