Tasty Ginger Sugar Cookies

One of my favorite holiday traditions is making sugar cookies and decorating them with my family. Now, I warn you: these cookies are not low calorie. But the fats that are in them are (mostly) healthy fats. Just remember, cookies are for nibbling and for bribing Santa - not for eating by the bucketful. Enjoy these tasty, homemade holiday treats, decorate them with your friends and family, and take a walk on Boxing day to feel guilt-free. Go on! Have a peace!

Tasty Ginger Sugar Cookies

3 cups all purpose flour (if you use whole wheat, add more liquid until the consistency is appropriate)
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp sea salt
about 1 tablespoon powdered ginger
about 1/2 tbsp vanilla extract (make sure you get the kind without added sugar or corn syrup)
2.5 cups coconut oil, melted to liquid
1 cup sugar (or brown sugar)
1 egg, beaten
1 tbsp coconut milk
Powdered sugar, for rolling out dough

Icing:
1 tbsp vanilla extract
2 cups powdered sugar
Orange zest

Sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a large bowl and set aside. Put the butter and sugar into the bowl of an electric mixer and beat until the color is consistent. Add the egg (I beat mine with a fork) and the coconut milk and continue beating the mixture on a low speed. While it's running, slowly add the flour mixture until the whole concoction is well combined. The dough should peel easily away from the wall of the bowl. Divide the dough into two parts and wrap each part in wax paper. Stick them in the refrigerator for about 2 hours (or longer).

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand at room temperature, unwrapped from the wax paper, for about an hour and a half. Depending on the temperature in your home, it make take more or less time. Break each roll of dough into quarters and soften it by rolling it between your (very clean because you washed them, right?) hands.

Preheat your oven to 350 F.

Spread out a sheet of wax paper and smooth out a generous handful of powdered sugar on it. Spray your rolling pin with PAM or some other anti-stick invention. You're going to want to roll out this dough carefully. Keep it warm between your hands then immediately roll it out to about 1/4 inch thickness. Powder it with extra powdered sugar if it starts to stick and if it gets too sticky, put a cold cookie sheet in top of it to chill it out. Use your favorite cookie cutters to create little shapes and place the cut cookies on a cookie sheet prepared with parchment paper. Bake each tray for 7-13 minutes. My family likes ours a little crispy and just on the edge of burned so we stray towards the longer end.

Let the cookies sit on the cookie sheet for a couple minutes agpfter removing them from the oven to retain their shape, then move them to a cooling rack and load up another cookie sheet of delightful goodness. Makes about 4 cookies sheets worth of cookies.

To make the icing, sift about 2 cups powdered sugar into a mixing bowl. Add the vanilla and orange zest. Slowly add lukewarm/room temperature water until the icing is the consistency you want. If you feel like its too dry, add more water a little at a time until its good. You don't need much; this icing is very flavorful, soa very thin layer in the cookies goes a long way.

Go in! Have a peace! Enjoy!