Playing Hooky with Gingerbread Cookies and Jord Watches

“But Mommy! I don’t want to go to school today. I want to stay home and bake cookies with you!”

This was my favorite thing to say to my mom when I was young. It’s a Daffy Duck line from Space Jam (Everybody get up it’s time to jam now – ah, so good). Anyways, it always seemed the perfect thing to say on a cold, blustery day, when all I wanted to do was cuddle up with mom – a Christmas movie in the background, hot cocoa on the stove, and me on a step stool with electric mixer in hand, beating up the batter for a batch of Mom’s extra fudgy brownies.

Well, it may have taken 25 years, but last week, Mom and I did it. Actually played hooky. We shut the door on the bitterly cold weather, set work aside, put the fire on full blast, and baked cookies.

She brought soup. I bought molasses and maple syrup. We played “All I Want for Christmas” and talked tea parties and teddy bear’s picnics. And, together, we whipped up one slightly soft, slightly crispy, extra gingery batch of gingerbread cookies. Paleo, yes. But you would never know the difference.

It was lovely. And rare. At a time of the year when everything moves at break neck speed, time slowed. I know because I could see it right on my wrist.

There's something really luxurious about wearing an old-fashioned, wind-up, tick-tocking watch. This beauty was made by an artist-run, sustainably-driven company called Jord. Even my mom agreed that she'd never seen such a unique watch. Might have something to do with the fact that they're all made from natural woods like Koa, Bamboo, Maple, Walnut, and Sandalwood.

Point is, for whatever reason, this super cool watch company decided that my wrist was fit for one of their best-sellers, the Frankie.

When it arrived in the mail, I was totally in awe. Zebrawood band and a champagne face. Oooohh. Ahhhhh.

Luxury. The whole afternoon was full of it. Not in the champagne and high heels kind of way. But in the slow-moving, tea-sipping, eyes-closing as we bit into another gingerbread cookie kind of way.

Oh. And these cookies. I could write a love poem about them. I'll be the first to admit that Paleo cookies do not typically hold up to their all-purpose-flour counterparts. But these cookies are different. I swear. Soft, with just enough bite. Sweet, but not too sweet. And a little nutty.

The key is, I let somebody else do all of the recipe-testing. Time is luxury, right?

My recipe creator and tester was Megan from the blog Detoxinista. So no, I cannot take credit for these gems. But I have no problem giving it all to her and sending you her way if you want to make a paleo cookie taste good. 

It's important that you don't skip the frosting. Delicious, yes, but also very important because it is FUN. Apparently, running coconut sugar through your Vitamix causes it to go up in smoke in one big sugar cloud. Is it weird that I wanted to stick my tongue out so I could catch a puff of it?

So please. I beg of you. Consider not just making them, but really taking an afternoon, a morning, whatever you can get so that you can enjoy the process and make your own sugar clouds. The cookies, the hookie, the time with your fam, the whole she-bang. It’s incredibly therapeutic at this time of the year.

Okay, okay. I can see the eye rolls from here coming from the busy moms who know I have no idea what stress is like until I have a house full of screaming kids to take care of while "luxuriously" lounging with my mom by the fire.

Hi guys. I give you full permission to put a KICK ME sign on my back next time you see me. But I do have something that might make you hate me less. I have a little gift for you all. Follow the link below and you’ll get $25 towards a Jord watch for your mom, dad, girlfriend, or little old you. Because we all deserve a little luxury, don’t you think?

GET $25 TOWARDS A JORD WATCH

Thank you to Jord Wood Watches for sponsoring this post. You are lovely.

PALEO GINGERBREAD COOKIE RECIPE

Cookie Ingredients:

• 1 1/2 cups almond meal
• 1/4 cup arrowroot or tapioca starch
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/8 teaspoon fine sea salt
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 2 Tablespoons melted coconut oil
• 1/4 cup pure maple syrup
• 1 tablespoon blackstrap molasses
• Extra arrowroot or tapioca starch, for rolling & cutting
• 1 batch of Coconut Sugar Icing, for decorating

Coconut Sugar Frosting Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon Nutiva red palm oil shortening
• 1 tablespoon coconut oil (not liquified)
• 1/4 cup “powdered” coconut sugar
• 2 tablespoons arrowroot or tapioca starch
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla or almond extract

Cookie Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
3. Pour almond meal, tapioca starch, ginger, cinnamon, salt and baking soda in a bowl and stir to combine.
4. In a seperate bowl, combine coconut oil, maple syrup, and molasses.
5. Pour sticky mixture into the dry ingredient bowl and mix together until a dough is formed. It should be a bit sticky – make sure there is no powder left in the mixture.
6. Place the dough in the freezer for at least 30 minutes to help it get more firm.
7. If you want to keep it simple and just roll them into balls or stick them into a cutout cookie sheet (no shame in the lazy way if you ask me), then skipi to step 12.
8. Put down a large piece of parchment paper and sprinkle it with tapioca starch.
9. Split the dough into thirds to work in small batches (I always start with one batch before I put them all in because I may want to change their thickness/timing if the first batch didn't work out like I wanted)
10. Use a rolling pin (or if you're like me and you don't have a rolling pin, use a large bottle of Extra Virgin Olive Oil, ha)
11. Dip your cookie cutters in a little starch, then press them into your dough.
12. If you don't have a cookie cutter or choose not to use one, roll your dough into 1-inch balls and flatten them on the parchment-covered cookie sheet. Sprinkle them with a bit of coconut sugar for good measure.
13. Stick in the oven for 8-10 minutes. Any longer than that for my oven made them a little too crispy for my tastes. They weren't exactly burnt, but they were just crossing the line.

Frosting Directions:

1. Toss coconut sugar in your high speed blender until it's finely ground. It will literally puff up in a cloud and have a texture similar to powdered sugar.
2. Then, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl and use a rubber spatula to mix it and press it all together. Add a bit of water to smooth it out (just a little at a time).
3. To decorate, scoop the frosting mixture into a platic bag and then cut the tip of the bottom of one side of the bag. If you're smart and prepared, you'll have a decorating tip. I, am neither of those things so I had to settle with a very unsteady stream of frosting pouring out onto my cookies. Thus, the very messy final product. But, hey, they still tasted amazing so I'm not mad about it.

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