Father's Day Ginger Cookies (and Mother's Day and Valentine's Day Decorated Sugar Cookies)

For a bit I was buying my parents actual presents for various gift-giving occasions. But for Mother's and Father's Day this year, I was out of ideas.

So for my mother's day I baked sugar cookies. Unfortunately I don't have any pictures but they were identical to one's I had made Oppa for Valentine's Day. I ended up cutting the sugar by 1/3 and they were still plenty sweet, especially with the white chocolate piping, but not overly so. They got my parents' and sister's stamp of approval as being delicious without been insanely sweet. They are also very easy to work with and hold up in the mail, both in terms of taste and integrity, since I mailed these across the country to my parents. And I prefer using white chocolate to decorate versus normal icing (too sweet, too runny) or royal icing (too sweet, funny taste). White chocolate has a richer taste and dries quickly.





So for Father's Day, I made my dad some cookies. I went with these ginger cookies since neither of my parents are a fan of sweets so I felt I could go with ginger cookies, cut down on the sugar without sacrificing much flavor since there's such an abundance of spices in this one. These do spread but not significantly. Next time, I might make them even flatter before baking to get a crispier cookie which I prefer over the cakier texture that a thicker cookie produces. I might also increase the amount of spices even more but that's more personal preference since I love the ginger/cinnamon combination. The white chocolate drizzle makes them prettier-looking and is also a nice compliment to the spices. I highly recommend it.



And I even handmade a card! Buying cards is so difficult because so few are just blank on the inside which I definitely prefer over the length cheesy poems written in so many of them. Maybe my handmade cards aren't nearly as pretty-looking as store-bought cards but they seem so much more homey. :)



Decorated Sugar Cookies

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
10 tablespoon) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

white chocolate chips
gel food coloring

1.Whisk the flour, salt and baking powder together.
2. Beat the butter for a minute or so, until smooth. Beat in the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture is light and pale. Add the egg and yolk and beat for another minute or two; beat in the vanilla.
3. Add the flour mixture, mixing only until it has been incorporated. The dough will now be soft and malleable.
4. Turn the dough out onto a counter and divide it in half. To make roll-out cookies, shape each half into a disk and wrap it in plastic. Chill for at least 2 hours. This can also be frozen for up to 2 months.
5. Preheat the oven to 350⁰F. Working with one packet of dough at a time, roll out the dough between sheets of plastic wrap or wax paper to about 1/4'' thick. Cut the cookies into whatever shapes you like. Transfer to baking sheet, placing them about 2'' apart.
6. Bake the cookies for 9 to 11 minutes, rotating once in the middle. The cookies should feel firm, but they should not color much. Let them cool slightly on baking sheet then transfer off to cool complete.
7. Melt white chocolate chips in microwave in 30 second increments to ensure the chocolate doesn't burn. Add gel food coloring (not the liquid kind!). Transfer to pipet bag and decorate as desired.
8. At room temp, cookies will keep for 1 week in a sealed container.

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Ginger Cookies

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1 cup sugar (I reduced to 1/2)
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses (I reduced to a tad less)

1/3 C cinnamon sugar (I skipped this)
white chocolate to drizzle

1. Whisk together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt.
2. Beat butter until creamy. Gradually beat in the white sugar. Beat in the egg and dark molasses.
3. Mix the flour mixture into the butter mixture thoroughly blend until a soft dough forms.
4. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
5. Preheat oven to 350⁰F. Pinch off small amounts of dough and roll into balls and place 2" apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
6. Bake uuntil the tops are rounded , about 10 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
7. Drizzle with melted white chocolate.


Enjoy!