Spice Cookies

Having read how people distribute swag at the annual BlogHer conferences, I wanted to be prepared for the D.C. Outreach conference. Since A Spiced Life is kind of a cooking blog (when I remember to take pics of what I cook and measure the amounts of ingredients I'm adding to a dish), I thought I'd go with a theme and pass out spice cookies along with my blog card to all the wonderful bloggers I knew I'd be meeting.

While I ended up being the only blogger (that I saw) handing out swag, I did have people constantly telling me what a great idea it was. They also really liked the cookies! Here is the recipe I used, which was loosely based on Gourmet Magazine's Spice Sugar Cookie recipe from Epicurious.

Note: The basic sugar cookie dough is highly customizable. Use shortening or lard for a crisp cookie and butter for a softer one. I used a blend to get a soft crumb with a slightly crunchy outer crust.


A Spiced Life's Spice Cookies
1/2 cup butter (1 stick) softened
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/8 cup unsulfured molasses
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt

extra sugar for coating the balls of dough

Cream the butter, shortening, and sugar together until light and fluffy. Mix in the egg and molasses.

In a separate bowl, sift together all of the dry ingredients, and slowly incorporate into butter/sugar mixture. Place the dough in the refrigerator, covered, for at least an hour.

Once chilled, roll the dough into small balls and dip into the extra sugar. I used my smallest disher, and the dough balls were slightly smaller than 1" across. I added several dough balls to the bowl of sugar and tossed together.

Bake on a greased cookie sheet or one lined with a silpat or parchment paper at 375 degrees. For my little cookies, I baked for 9 minutes to get them chewy. For larger cookies or a more crisp texture, bake 10-12 minutes.