Are you ready for Christmas? We’re in the last week of baking, cooking, and shopping. Or, perhaps the question is, what does getting ready for Christmas mean to you? Is it movie marathons, or caroling, or Black Friday shopping, or Christmas Eve services with your family, or giving to your favorite causes?

This year, I have followed an Advent devotional (though I am admittedly a few days behind), done a surprising amount of my shopping online, watched a lot of terrible Hallmark movies, baked cookies, attend my church’s Advent services and their festival of tables, made the curious choice to read a selection of holiday themed murder mysteries, and purchased Angel Tree gifts for a young girl. Do I feel ready for Christmas? Not particularly, even though my gifts are all purchased and wrapped.

Whether you are ready for Christmas or not, baking these cookies will make your house smell like Christmas. (Well, it smells like a commercialized North American Christmas anyhow. The first Christmas probably smelled like a petting zoo and nothing like my cookies.) These festive cookies smell fruity, spicy, and warm, and they taste every bit as amazing as they smell.

These combine two of my favorite cookies: the guava filled cookies that my mom makes every year, and  gingerbread cookies, which no one in my family ever bakes because I am the only ginger fanatic in the family. The flavors go together beautifully and the cinnamon sugar dusting adds a pretty holiday sparkle.

I hope you enjoy!

Spiced Thumbprint Cookies with Guava

Guava paste is not the most common grocery item. Unless you have a Latin American grocery near you, it’s easiest to buy it off Amazon.
Ingredients
¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
⅔ cup packed light brown sugar 
½ cup molasses
1 large egg
3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon, divided
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp pure vanilla extract
¼ cup granulated sugar
7 oz guava paste, cut into small cubes
Directions
In a large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for about 4 minutes. 
Add molasses and, on medium speed, beat until combined.  Add egg and vanilla extract and beat until combined, approximately 2 minutes. 
In another bowl sift together flour, spices (minus one tsp of cinnamon), baking soda, and salt. Stir it into the wet ingredients just until combined.
Wrap the dough in a plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. 
Mix together ¼ cup granulated sugar and 1 tsp cinnamon.
Roll the dough into small balls. Smaller is better here, go for approximately the size of a chocolate truffle. Roll them in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place them on a baking tray lined with parchment. Make wells in cookies with a teaspoon measuring spoon or your thumb. Fill them with cubes of guava paste. Bake for 7 to 8 minutes.