Caraway Cookies

Caraway seeds are suppose to be good anti-nausea remedies. These cookies may help with that, but they are also a good not-too-sweet cookie. The seed makes them tasty like delicious whole grain bread almost. They were a very pleasant surprise.

1/2 cup butter

1 cup white sugar

1 egg, well beaten

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup milk

1.5 tbsp caraway seeds

1. In a large bowl, let butter hit room temperature and mix it well with the sugar.

2. Add egg to large bowl

3. In a medium bowl, mix flour, baking powder and salt. (original recipe calls for sifting, but we didn't and they cookies were still pretty fluffy)

4. Add dry ingredients to large bowl of butter mixture with milk.

5. Then mix caraway seeds in.

6. If the batter is particularly liquidy, place it in the fridge for a few minutes (5-10) to solidify.

7. Preheat oven to 380-390 degrees. Grease 2 baking sheets with butter

8. Drop spoonfuls (1 tbsp) of batter onto baking sheets.

9. Bake 12-15 minutes until the edges are a little brown and top is golden.

The original recipe has no author, but these unique cookies were outstanding.

Triple Ginger Cookies

Made these as part of a care package for someone who isn't feeling well. They tasted freaking incredible - the fresh ingredients really packed a punch. I strongly recommend these.

2 cups of white flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground anise

4 1/2 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp Himalayan sea salt

1 stick unsalted stick butter

1/4 cup mild molasses (unsulphured)

2/3 cup white sugar

2 tbsp fresh grated ginger (or even more!)

1 cup finely minced ginger

2 lemons, zest only

1 large egg, well beaten

1/2 cup of sugar (for coating outside of cookie - could be fancier sugar if you want)

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 3 baking sheets with wax paper.

2. In large bowl, mix flour, baking soda, anise, ground ginger, and salt.

3. In medium bowl, put molasses, sugar, and fresh ginger

4. In a small bowl put crystallized ginger (finely chopped) and lemon zest

5. In a cup, beat one large egg.

6. Over low heat, in a skillet melt one stick of butter. Make sure the mixture stays barely warm. Then add medium bowl of molasses, sugar, and fresh ginger. Stir.

7. Add beaten egg. mix well

8. Pour skillet mixture into large bowl with flour. Pour small bowl of ginger and lemon zest over - stir.

9. Now, the assembly process. Set up your three cookie sheets with wax paper, the batter, a 1/2 tbsp spoon, the bowl of reserved sugar, and a little flour. Lightly flour the spoon and your finger tips. Then roll 1/2 tbsp of batter into a ball, coat in sugar well, and then place on wax paper. The cookies don't spread very much, so leave only about 3/4 inch around them.

10. Bake for 7-10 minutes until the cookies crack a little. I baked for 4 minutes and then switch the very bottom and top cookie sheets, then cooked for 5 more minutes for even cooking. They'll be a little squishy when they first come out, but they'll harden up as they cool.

The original recipe says it makes 4 dozen, but really it just makes a ton. Enjoy!

Stain Glass Christmas Trees

I take no claim for the original idea and recipe, so I'll just link to it.

I was into the look of the cookies, though, so here it is.

1. 2 bags of life savers
2. Green granulated sugars
3. Food mist - Green
4. White cookie frosting.

1. Crush a bunch of life savers in separate bags. Its important to keep the colors in separate bowls. A word to the wise - don't do this in advance. I crushed my candy the day before and it got stuck back together in a weird way. It was a serious pain to split apart. I ended up using two full bags of life savers for the 100 cookie production, so estimate appropriately.
2. Ln a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
3. Make your sugar cookies and roll out the dough about 1/4 inch thick. Cut out the christmas tree and place it on the cookie sheet. Too thick and the stain glass effect won't work as well.
4. Once you have your cookie sheet filled, *then* cut out the circles for stain glass. I used a shot glass to accomplish the task.
5. Fill the wholes the crushed candy. Fill, but do not overfill the whole! If you do, it'll spill over the cookie and look not very nice.
6. Pour some green sugar over the cookie. It may seem like a lot, but it looks much better this way. If at all possible, try to keep the green sugar from falling in the whole or over the hard candy. It'll blur the stain glass part.
7. Bake as decorate. Let cool quite a bit.
8. Use the food mist to spray the trees green. Let dry.
9. Use the Cookie frostng to make the garland. The bottle says let sit 45 minutes, but trust me, it's more like an hour at least.

Wait for the praise :)