The perfect Ginger Cookie has a crisp exterior with a soft spicy interior – at least that would be my description of the perfect ginger cookie.  This recipe I think hit’s it pretty close to home.  With a cup of hot tea, preferably a pumpkin spice tea, it is the perfect afternoon snack or bedtime treat. Ginger Cookies have always been a favourite and not just for cooler weather either, they are a great cookie to bake year round. The heat of the ginger and cinnamon entices us to bake with them more once the winds of winter start to blow. Speaking of wind, the north wind has been howling today which is why I probably had the craving for Ginger Cookies.

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My daughter was home from Law School for our Thanksgiving long weekend and she requested a Soft Chewy Chocolate Chunk Cookie. Now that is a recipe that was not in my repertoire so some google searching  was in order. The first one that caught my attention was on Pinch Of Yum and I used her recipe for soft cookies as my base. I made mine without using any appliances as I thought that the softer touch would be key to keeping the texture chewy. A soft chewy cookie is a difficult beast to master without having to add bad things like corn syrup or shortening to your recipe, but I think this one nails it just right. I think it is the mixing by hand and just slightly underbaking the cookies that are the important points.

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What would you expect 6 – 24 year old girls to be doing on a Friday night?  Decorating Sugar Cookies probably wasn’t the first thing that popped into your mind. But here we are with my daughter Elizabeth and 5 of her girl friends enjoying their Friday night decorating cookies, drinking wine and eating nachos and dip.  I think I learned a lot tonight from the wide variety of subjects they covered- amazing group of young ladies!

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Well this recipe is another foray into the gluten-free recipe world. I always feel terrible when I bring treats into work and not everyone can enjoy them so I am trying to incorporate some really great gluten-free recipes into my repertoire and according to the reviews this one is a keeper. Of course it could be that the main ingredient is peanut butter so really how could you go wrong with a recipe that is mainly peanut butter?

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My children have grown up eating Genetti made by their paternal grandmother Doris from a recipe she learned from her mother-in-law Nicoletta. The only difference is that in this Italian family Genetti were called Ninna Nonna. For the last 30 years I never knew that the fluffy little cookies with a vanilla glaze really were derived from this Italian traditional cookie- Genetti. Where the term “Ninna Nonna” came from I don’t think we will ever know- but in our house they will always be known as Ninna Nonna. Now the other fact is that mine don’t taste quite that same as Grandma Doris’s, but as she past away this winter this rendition is all the family has left.

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Well March is finally here, unfortunately the snow is too and it is still falling! When will spring come??? At least we have a fun little day to celebrate early in March – St. Patrick’s Day so I thought I would start working on some green inspired delights. These Pistachio Thumbprint Cookies are a delectable little bite of a cookie rolled in bits of green pistachio – like little green St.Patrick’s Day decorations. The cookie base has very few ingredients so doesn’t take much time to whip it together.

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These Lemon Crinkle Cookies are an amazing lemon cookie, crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. Even on day 2 the cookies are still crispy – yummy! They are full of lemon flavour – there is lemon zest and lemon juice in the ingredients. The recipe takes no time at all to mix together and only 11 minutes of baking time- you can’t make a batch of cookies much quicker than that.

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This week I decided it was time for chocolate cookies to appear on the blog. Chocolate just isn’t my thing, but that doesn’t mean that the rest of the family doesn’t love all things chocolate. So in anticipation of the next holiday which is all things chocolate and putting my preferences aside- chocolate was up next.

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Well it is just over a week until Christmas Day! Do you have all of your baking done? Today I was doing baking for some of my friends and it really does smell fantastic in my kitchen right now.

I have just finished Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti, Shortbread, Chocolate Toffee Shortbread and Pecan Toffee Cookies! These are all cookies recipes that I have posted here on the blog and recipes that I have been making for Christmas for many years. Now after 6 hours of baking I am pooched and just sitting on the couch listening to Christmas carols as the last pan of cookies bakes in the oven. It is such a feeling of accomplishment to see all those packages of cookies waiting to go to their homes to be enjoyed over the holidays.

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Shortbread is probably my favourite cookie dough to experiment with. You can add fruit, flavours, dried fruit, nuts, chocolate- pretty well anything that tickles your fancy. I have quite a few variations that I make for the holidays season but this Cranberry Shortbread is my newest!  Cranberry Shortbread is the perfect Christmas cookie with the flecks of cranberry topped with the sparkle of sanding sugar. The lemon zest highlights the tartness of the berries. The result is a cookie that isn’t too sweet- just perfect with a cup of tea.

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