Your kitchen will smell heavenly as these ginger spice cookies are baking. They are a nice addition to a holiday table and are Santa’s favorite cookie according to a recent poll. These are good keepers too and freeze well.

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Ginger Spice Cookies

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

¼ teaspoon salt

1 1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon ground ginger

½ teaspoon ground allspice

1 cup granulated sugar

12 tablespoons butter at room temperature

1 large egg

¼ cup molasses

Grated zest 1 orange

Coarse white sugar for coating the dough balls

DIRECTIONS

In a large bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, allspice. Set aside. In a separate large bowl beat together the butter and sugar until smooth and creamy. Beat in the egg, molasses and orange zest. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine until a dough forms.

Use a 1-1/4-inch cookie scoop to make balls of dough and roll each one in coarse sugar to coat them.

Space them ½ inch apart on parchment lined baking sheets and bake them in a 350F preheated oven for 10 to 12 minutes or until they are golden brown. Cool on the bake sheets for a few minutes then transfer them to a cooling rack. As they cool they will become crunchy. Makes about 4 dozen.

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