Spicy Christmas Shortbread

Dave and our son were off at work yesterday but I wasn’t alone in the kitchen. Wednesday evening when Lexie, Lanie and Rexie heard that I would be baking cookies, they begged to be taken down off the shelf in my sewing room/office where they live and be allowed to come help.

Well, of course, that meant they had to be properly attired for the occasion, so I was up until late Wednesday night making them each their own Santa hat.

The bobbin is to give you an idea of just how tiny the Santa hats are.

The turtles were so excited when they got to try them on Thursday morning!

Then we all headed down to the kitchen.

The turtles were fascinated by the tool I use to grate orange peel. The business end does look a little like a flipper.

I explained to them that we always use organic oranges whenever a recipe calls for freshly grated orange peel because oranges are one of the most sprayed crops.

When I started creaming the butter, sugar and orange peel together, they asked to be put up higher so they could see.

This old cake taker turned upside down did the trick.

We did have one or two minor mishaps with hats falling off.

It’s a good thing it was the flour it fell into and not the butter mixture.

Once the dough was completely mixed together, I weighed on our Cuisinart food scale to make sure the dough would be divided evenly between the 2 pans.Of course, Lexie, Lanie and Rexie wanted to know how much they weighed too.

We had to check what they weighed in ounces and in grams!

They tried to help pat the dough into the pans but their little flippers just wouldn’t reach.

And then Lanie’s hat fell off when I was sprinkling sugar on the dough.

I think I’m going to have to add tiny little elastic chin straps so their hats stay on. 🙂

It was hard waiting for the cookies to bake.

And then there was the five minute wait before I could cut the cookies into wedges with my handy dandy cookie slicer.

It was even harder to wait for the cookies to cool completely in the pan.

Fortunately, turtles are very patient creatures.

Hey there’s one missing!

Oh… those little turtles have been taking lessons from Dave!

Well they were very good and very patient!

They were so good in fact, that today they’re going to help me decorate gingerbread cookies.

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Spicy Christmas Shortbread

• 1 c butter (at room temperature)
• 1 c packed brown sugar
• 2 tbsp ginger
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 3/4 tsp cloves
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 c all purpose flour
• 1 tbsp freshly grated organic orange peel

Cream together butter, brown sugar and orange peel.

In a separate bowl combine flour, spices and baking soda. Stir to mix thoroughly.

Add the flour to the butter mixture stirring until just blended.

Divide the dough in half and press evenly into two ungreased 9 inch cake pans. Sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake at 325 ºF for 25 to 30 minutes or until just starting to lightly brown around the edges.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes. Cut into 16 wedges. Cool completely in the pan before removing.

Store in an airtight container for up to 2 weeks or freeze.

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