Something about this time of year has me wanting to bake (and eat!) cookies all the time. Though I do not have much of a sweet tooth, I love baking and forcing my husband to eat the results – though let’s be honest, not too much force is needed with him. Sugar cookies are the best for cookie cutters and decorating however I get a bit bored of the standard sugar cookie all of the time. That is why was so happy when I came across this recipe in Canadian Living. It was like a sugar cookie met a shortbread cookie and got all spicy on the dance floor. I had my own plans for topping so I ignored the icing section of the recipe. Though I must say, ombre cookies do sound pretty cool! I picked up some adorable Wilton Sprinkles and Snowflake Cutters from Walmart and was pretty excited to put it all together. So here I will share with you the cookie recipe and my finished product. I am averaging about 5 cookies a day so I guess you could say they turned out pretty damn tasty!

Spiced Shortbread Dough:

1 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup icing sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground ginger

pinch nutmeg

Use mixer to beat together butter, icing sugar and vanilla until fluffy. In separate bowl, whisk together flour, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg. Stir the butter mixture in until just combined. Divide dough in half, wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for 45 minutes. Between wax or parchment paper (P.S. this is a genius idea, thank you CL!) roll out dough  to 1/4 inch thick. Use cookie cutter snowflakes to cut out shapes. Arrange on a light coloured baking sheet 2 inches apart. (Two things here: The recipe calls for rimless but mine had rims and it worked out fine. Secondly, lighter coloured baking sheets in my own opinion are way better for cookies and have a lower chance of burning. No idea why just take my word for it.) Refrigerate the cookies on the baking sheet until firm (about 10-20 minutes). Bake, 1 sheet at a time in 325 degree oven (F) for 12-15 minutes. For the smaller snowflakes I would bake for 10-12 minutes, the bigger ones closer to 15 minutes. Baking is all about judgement calls! Let cool completely before icing and decorating.

It is a rather tedious and laborious recipe but I think it was worth the three hours I spent in the kitchen that afternoon. These are some tasty snowflakes!