Spiced Brown Sugar Cookies and Good Morning

There are a few things I’m required to ask people before we enter into serious friendship.

1. Are you a good eater?
2. Do you turn your phone noises off at night?
3. Do you like being told you’re awesome?
4. Are you ready to tell me I’m awesome?
5. Are you ready to party?

Because:

• #1.  I am a feeder.  I will feed you well.
• #2.  I wake up sometimes at obnoxiously early hours of the morning slash still night, and wake up ready to say lots of things.  If your phone is not silent, you will be woken up by such important things as:

What I want to eat.

What I want to feed you.

• #3-#4.  I am the cheerleader you wish you had in junior high school.  Nobody is allowed to not feel awesome around me and you better be willing to accept compliments because they will be thrown at your face fiercely. But I willingly accept slash expect the same in return, because even the awesomest of people need to be told they’re awesome from time to time.
• #5.  I just really wanted to say ‘are you ready to party?’.

I’ve been up since 2:45 this morning.  And I’m ok with it.  I got some great things accomplished, like:

1. Sitting.
2. Staring.
3. Thinking of things to say to you when you wake up.
4. Photo editing and recipe sharing.

Which brings me to this post.  I have been absent from this area in quite some time and I’m sorry. But I have good reason.

I’ve been busy, yo!

But so have you.  It’s just that time of year when we’re all just trying to keep up.  So this morning when I found myself with some extra time in the day, I thought I’d share with you a new cookie recipe.

(Is it too late for Christmas cookie recipes?)

(Nah.)

So these guys are like sugar cookies

(Who doesn’t love sugar cookies?)

(Nobody.)

and snickerdoodles

(Who doesn’t love saying snickerdoodles?)

(Nobody.)

(Snickerdoodles.  Snickerdoodles.  Snickerdoodles.)

but also kinda like gingerbread.

They’re not too sweet, with the perfect amount of salt, they’re soft and chewy, and I just plain like ’em.  I served them at my cocktail party this year, but feel kinda bad for the guys, because they went up against my Peppermint Brownies that everyone seems to dive face first into every year.

Sorry, little guys.  You’re still awesome!

And yes, so am I.  Thank you.

SPICED BROWN SUGAR COOKIES

In a large mixing bowl with an electric beater (or the bowl of your stand mixer with the paddle attachment), beat together the following until creamy…

• 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, completely softened at room temperature
• 1 cup light brown sugar

Add in…

• 1 large egg
• big splash vanilla extract

Beat again until light and fluffy.

In a separate bowl whisk together the following dry ingredients…

• 2 cups AP flour (sub whole wheat pastry flour for a higher fiber cookie)
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp kosher salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• roughly 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg (I grate mine fresh and don’t measure exactly)

Once the dry is fully mixed, add it to the bowl of butter and sugar slowly, while mixing.

Once all the dry has been added and you have a firm dough, transfer it to a clean counter top and separate into two sections.

Shape each section into a log and wrap tightly in plastic wrap.

Refrigerate until firm (or freeze for up to 3 months if placed inside a freezer zip bag*!!)

Unwrap and slice into roughly 1/4 inch thickness.

Place onto 2 ungreased cookie sheets, a couple inches apart.

Bake at 350 for 12-15 minutes, rotating and swapping the cookie sheets halfway through for guaranteed even cooking.

Allow to cool on the cookie sheets until firm before finishing cooling on racks.

Serve room temperature.

And not next to Peppermint Brownies.

(*let the frozen logs sit out for about 20 minutes, but while still firm and cold before slicing and baking as directed)

…

Thanks for reading, y’all!  Have a great day and a merry holiday if I don’t catch ya before. xo