We've made it to the COOKIE WEEK part of the 25 Days of Christmas. Get ready for five straight days of cookie recipes!

I love gingerbread cookies for decorating (come back for that recipe on Friday). They are also great at tasting snappy and delicious even after a few days of sitting out on display. But if I'm looking for a ginger Christmas cookie just to eat, I go for something a little bit soft, a little bit chewy, with a robust ginger flavor, and giant. It has to be giant. Today I'm sharing my recipe for just that type of cookie. This cookie packs a wallop of ginger goodness and is rounded out with just a hint of tart lemon. Enough talking about it. I just want you to go off and make it. Here's the recipe...

The Recipe

Ingredients

1/2 vegetable shortening
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup molasses
1 egg
juice of one lemon
1 tsp vanilla
2 tsp baking powder
1 T ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp salt
2 T crystallized ginger, finely chopped
zest of one lemon
2 1/2 cups flour
2 T. hot water
turbinado sugar for sprinkling (if you have it regular granulated works too)

INSTRUCTIONS

Preheat the oven to 400F. Cream the shortening and sugar together in a large bowl with a handheld mixer or by hand. It's important not to overmix, so I don't suggest using a stand mixer. Add in the molasses and mix until creamy. Beat in the egg, lemon juice and vanilla.

Sift the flour, baking powder, ground cloves, allspice, and ginger into the wet ingredients. Add in the crystallized ginger and lemon zest and mix until you have a uniform, but still soft, slightly moist dough. Add a little hot water if it is too dry or crumbly.

Space golfball-size balls of the dough roughly 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Flatten the balls and sprinkle with granulated or turbinado sugar. Bake for 12-13 minutes.

Take they out after no more than 14 minutes, even if you don't think they are quite done. They are done. Don't worry so much. These are just cookies. This recipe makes about 18 cookies, depending on how much of the dough you "test" before it makes it to the oven. ;)

Printable version of the recipe.

I hope you enjoyed the first day of COOKIE WEEK! More cookies on their way the rest of the week, so come back and visit! Questions, comments, thoughts? Use the comments section or contact me through social media. Thanks for stopping by!