"Not the Gumdrop Buttons!" | Gingerbread Cookie Recipe

Hi lovely readers! Tomorrow is Christmas Eve! Are you ready? I know I am. I love all the personal traditions that these next few days will bring and look forward to them every year. One of those traditions is to bake gingerbread cookies! I started at about 10 and have been mixing, baking, and icing since then. 

The recipe is simple and the cookies delicious. They are great to set out for Santa, put at guest's places at the table at your holiday party or put them in a cute little tin and give them as a gift!

You will need:
2/3 cup shortening
1-1/4 cups sugar
2 eggs
2 tablespoons buttermilk
2 tablespoons molasses
3-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Icing (of your choice)
Candy to decorate (M&M's, chocolate chips)
(This recipe makes about 24 cookies)

In a mixing bowl, cream shortening and sugar. Then add the eggs, one at a time, and beat well after each addition. Beat in the buttermilk and molasses.

Now in a separate bowl, combine the dry ingredients and mix them.

Gradually add the dry mixture to the creamed mixture.

Mix well. Then set the dough aside in the fridge to chill for several hours. I would suggest using wax paper and putting some flour on it before transferring your dough to chill, to prevent the dough from sticking. 

After the dough has chilled you are ready to start cutting out shapes and baking! Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. For rolling out the dough, I usually make mine about 1/8 of an inch. This again is really up to you, just be sure not to make them to thin because it make them harder to transfer to the pan. Another tip is to dip the cookie cutters in flour before cutting out the shapes, again, prevents sticking. Bake the cookies on cookies sheets for 8-10 minutes or until the edges start to brown.

Place the cookies on wire racks and allow them to cool completely before decorating. Then decorate!

Perfect little gift or keep them all for yourself! Do you have other favorite holiday cookie recipes? Xx

Cheeky Quote Tuesday

Christmastime Goals | Happy December

Hi lovely readers! The holiday season is officially here and I hope your first few days of December have been good. I have been quite busy lately as I'm sure many of you University students can relate to as well, with the semester wrapping up! Winter break cannot come soon enough as I am ready to relax and enjoy this lovely season. I am definitely one of those people who gets a great deal of satisfaction from making lists and then crossing things off, so when this time of year comes around and there are tons of things that I want to do, I sit down and write them all out. I love reading and hearing what other people are planning on doing to be festive and it usually inspires me to add to my own list. I thought it would be fun to share my "Christmastime Goals" with you all and I would love to hear what yours are too! I also plan to have some posts centered around these "events", so stay tuned!

Do we have any of the same goals? Any suggestions of other fun and festive things I should do?