Inspiration: Once again, wandering down the aisles of one of my favorite independent grocery stores, I spied an endcap displaying this book, along with the ingredients for gingerbread. Encouraged by my husband, as I loved the gingerbread pub on the cover and love cookbooks that list the weight of the ingredients in grams, I set it in our cart.

Only when I got home and really started reading it did I figure out the book was penned by one of my all-time favorite bakers on Great British Bake Off — Helena Garcia!

BTW: If you love spice forward bakes like gingerbread, I would highly picking up this cook book! Not only are the recipes excellent, Helena Garcia’s does a great job incorporating a Halloween vibe into winter holiday bakes!

Happy, I started whipping up her Basic Gingerbread Dough. (Though because I was making these cookies for people who do not appreciate Halloween with the same intensity that either Helena Garcia or I do, I stuck with basic holiday shapes.)

And they turned out great! Paired with the caramels and brigadeiros (which I will talk about next week), we got a nice set of sweet treats to hand out to neighbors and coworkers during the holidays!

Christie: Obviously, I can see any of Christie’s intrepid investigators enjoying a bit of gingerbread over the winter holidays!