These cookies were a Christmas staple for my Mom when she was a young girl. It's been years since my Mom made them for our family. So long in fact, that I didn't even recognize the recipe when my Mom suggested I make them for this special swap. It was so much fun digging into our family's past traditions and testing out this beloved recipe. Cheers!

Cookie ingredients

• 1 cup shortening

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 cup molasses

• 1/4 cup warm water

• 1 tsp ginger

• 5-1/2 cups flour

• 1 tsp. baking soda

• 1/4 tsp salt

White Icing ingredients

• 1 heaping tablespoonful of butter

• 3/4 cup icing sugar

• milk or cream (add until desired thickness and consistency)

Directions
1 Cream shortening and sugar; add egg and molasses. Dissolve ginger in warm water; add to batter.

2 Combine flour with soda and salt; add to batter. Best to chill dough before rolling (about 1 hour). Roll out to 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.

3 Bake at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 5 minutes. Cool. Put two cookies together with white icing [prepared using ingredients noted above] to make sandwich cookies.