Galway Girl: Ginger cookies to the rescue.

Something rather strange happened over the past two weeks...I didn't bake a single thing. Yes, you read that correctly, NO BAKING. Second semester came out of nowhere and seemed to knock me off the face of the earth for a while. Many exciting things have occurred, one of them being the start of my first practicum in school psychology! Two days a week, I drive to Westby and work under the district's school psychologist. I have only been there three days, but I can already tell how much I love the school and the staff. I have soooooo very much to learn in the next few years but cannot wait to begin working in my very own school. I had never been to Westby prior to last week and really had no idea what to expect from a town of 2000 that is nestled back in the bluffs. Although the town is extremely small and I cannot see myself every moving to a place such as this, it has many things I am dying to check out. The town has strong Norwegian ties which became evident when I drove down Main Street (pretty much the only busy street in the town) and saw the Uff-Dah Mart, Borgens Cafe and Ole & Lena's Kaffe Haus. Hello Norway! I hope to take my Mother there when she visits me in a few weeks so we can spend an afternoon uncovering some of the Norwegian treasures in this small town. I will be sure to fill you in on what we discover...
Okay, back to baking. Due to my schedule, I did not have any time to bake which, more importantly, means I didn't have any baked goods to eat. If you know anything about me, you know that this is the equivalent of a small crisis. T came to visit this weekend and noticed the lack of baked goods in my kitchen...and decided we need to fix this problem at once. We paged through Heidi's cookbook and could not resist making her Ginger cookies. These cookies are somewhere along the lines of a molasses cookie, but with the lovely addition of fresh ginger, bright apricot pieces and freshly shaved chocolate. Rolled in large grain raw sugar, they twinkle in the sunlight and pair perfectly with a warm cup of tea.

While the dough was chilling, we played cribbage and decided to start an official score card to track our wins. Ever since he returned from the trail, T has been smokin me in cribbage....so I find it necessary to inform you that I finally won a game. The official score is 1-0.

Ginger Cookies (Heidi Swanson, Super Natural Everyday)

1/2 cup large-grain raw sugar
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 cups spelt or whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fine-grain sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1/4 cup unsulphured blackstrap molasses
2/3 cup fine-grain natural cane sugar
2 tablespoons peeled and grated fresh ginger
1 large egg, well beaten
1 cup plump dried apricots, finely chopped

Directions: Put the large-grain sugar in a small bowl. Chop the chocolate into small pieces, more like shavings. In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger and salt. Heat the butter in a saucepan until it is just barely melted. Stir in the molasses, fine-grain sugar, and fresh ginger. The mixture should be warm, but not hot at this point. If it is hot to the touch let it cool a bit, then whisk in the egg. Pour this mixture over the flour mixture and add the apricots. Stir until barely combined. Stir in the chocolate. Chill for about 30 minutes (or long enough to play a game of cribbage!) long enough to let the dough firm up a bit.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees with rack sin the top and bottom third of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Scoop out the dough in exact, level tablespoons. The tear those pieces of dough in two and roll each piece into a ball. Grab a small handful of the large-grained sugar and roll each ball between your palms to heavily coat the outside with sugar. Place the cookies a few inches apart on the prepared baking sheet. Bake the cookies, two sheets at a time, for 7 to 10 mints, until cookies puff up, darken a bit, are fragrant and crack.