Welcome to the official (according to me) beginning of holiday cookie season. Let’s start out strong, with cookies that are beautiful, warm, spicy and require no rolling or other advanced artistry. If you can make a ball, you can make these cookies.

There is one down-side you should know about: these cookies are much better if you start them the day before you want to eat them. They should sit in the fridge for at least a few hours or overnight. That is the bad news, but the good news is that the dough will patiently wait in your fridge for up to a week, so you can make a few cookies at a time for breakfasts, midnight snacks, etc.

Makes: 4-5 dozen

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup brown sugar (packed)
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 cups AP flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp white sugar (for rolling)

Directions:

1. In a stand mixer, cream together butter (3/4 cup), white sugar (1/2 cup) and brown sugar (1/2 cup)
2. Add molasses (1/4 cup), egg, and vanilla extract (1 tsp)
3. In a separate bowl, stir together flour (2 cups), baking soda (1 tsp), ginger (2 tsp), cinnamon (1 tsp), cloves (1/2 tsp), nutmeg (1/4 tsp) and salt (3/4 tsp)
4. Now the hard part: wrap tightly and put in the fridge for at least 2 hours
5. When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 350 degrees f
6. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper
7. Roll dough into round balls a little smaller than a golf ball
8. Roll each dough in sugar and place on the cookie sheet, leave a little room for them to expand
9. Bake for 8 minutes, when you remove them from the oven they will be puffy and the tops will just start to crack, they will flatten and firm up as they cool