Christmas Cookies

I had a little post planned for today. It was about all the Christmas cookies we've been baking and it included a recipe. Then this morning at 6 a.m. while I was putting away dishes I came upon this.

It's not real, but a 6 a.m. it sure looked real. And I am pretty certain that my little scare took 5 years off of my life. I'm also pretty certain that I know who's behind this.

Still think she's innocent? Don't be so sure. Yesterday, while I was making dinner (also known as not giving my sweet princess her much needed adoration and constant attention) I caught her out of the corner of my eye walking around the kitchen nonchalantly carrying the mouse. Innocent, I think not.

Ok, on to the originally planned post..cookies! We've been getting ready for Christmas.

We cut down our tree. I don't think we'll be making this a yearly event. I'm pretty sure I got frostbite and I can't stop thinking of The Lorax.


We've been doing Christmas projects.

And of course, we've been making cookies..

lots..

and lots..


of cookies. Maddox wanted gingerbread dinosaurs instead of gingerbread men. We still haven't decorated them. I am not a big fan of gingerbread or molasses-ey cookies so I didn't want an actual gingerbread cookie recipe. After a lot of searching I found this one and made a few changes.

Ginger Spice Dinosaurs

Adapted from Whimsical Bakehouse

3 1/3 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1-2 teaspoons ground ginger (I used 1 b/c I'm not big on the ginger-y flavor)

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

1 stick butter

3/4 cup honey

1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

Whisk together dry ingredients. In a small saucepan, melt together butter, honey and brown sugar. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture and beat with mixer until dough forms. This dough is quite gooey. Plop the gooey dough onto a piece of saran wrap.

Maddox called it his dough baby.

He didn't want me to put it in the fridge to let it chill. He just wanted to keep loving on it.

I let Maddox's dough baby chill overnight and then it had to sit out for about 2 hours the next day before it was soft enough to roll out. I would suggest only chilling it for an hour and then check it's firmness.

Roll out the dough and cut out your cookies.

Bake at 350*F on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper for 12-15 minutes. These harden a lot after cooling so be careful not to over bake! I would start checking them around 10 minutes.

After the dinosaurs we made our family out of cookies. I don't think I'm going to be able to bring myself to let them get eaten. I guess we'll just have to use them for ornaments on our Lorax tree.