December 10, 2012 |  Bill Schammert for KLKN-TV (Lincoln)

Click to view TV coverage

The Pinnacle Bank Arena is completely changing the downtown landscape. Hotels are already sprouting up, hoping to entice event, concert and convention goers, while others are hoping a makeover keeps reservations heading their way.

“The demand is here,” John Kalogeras, general manager of the Courtyard by Marriot, said. “It’s definitely needed.”

For now, the new Courtyard by Marriot is a little off the beaten path on the corner of 8th and R streets, but already it’s averaging about a 42-percent occupancy rate. It may be lower than the local average, but it’s a strong start, according to its general manager.

“Lincoln is a very vibrant city,” Kalogeras said. “It’s a city that continues to grow by leaps and bounds.”

On the other side of downtown, it was a rebranding of sorts on Wednesday. The Cornhusker Hotel earned back its affiliation with Marriot after being stripped of the title in February.

“We’ve been a cornerstone of Lincoln and Nebraska for many years,” Cornhusker Hotel general manager, Chuck Harper, said. “We feel it’s important to be a part of Lincoln, downtown Lincoln and the growth as we move forward.”

A Hilton Garden in is also slated to open sometime next summer, just across the street from the new Courtyard by Marriot. Kalogeras says one more hotel property is also expected to go up soon in the Haymarket.

“With the development of Canopy Street, with other properties, offices, retail and more restaurants, I just think this will be the place to be in Lincoln,” Kalogeras said.

The Pinnacle Bank Arena comes with high expectations, but for these general managers, there’s little doubt the hotel business will be a success.

“It’s going to be a fun area to be in,” Kalogeras said. “Comparable to other cities that have done similar revitalizations.”

And there’s good reason to be confident. The $179 arena is expected to pull in about 120 different events every year.

December 10, 2012 | Richard Piersol for Lincoln Journal Star

The Cornhusker hotel has regained the Marriott brand and will relight its sign at a ceremony Wednesday. The Cornhusker is back on Marriott’s website, too.

Marcus Hotels & Resorts, the new majority owner of the 297-room downtown hotel, said the relighting would signal the kickoff to extensive renovations.

Marcus, which owns or manages 20 hotels, mostly in the Midwest, acquired majority control of the hotel in October and said then it planned to spend several million dollars on renovations and bring back the Marriott brand.

The hotel lost its Marriott affiliation, one of the most prestigious in lodging, early this year because of the financial problems of its former owner, Atul Bisaria.

Marcus had been managing the hotel since September under an agreement with LEM Capital, which repossessed the hotel early this year to settle a debt owed by Bisaria. Marcus owns 75 percent of the property, LEM the rest.

A Marriott affiliation takes advantage of the lodging giant’s vast loyalty programs and marketing capacity.

“We’ve had Marriott people in for the last two weeks, getting everybody trained and up to speed,” General Manager Chuck Harper said.

“The good news is 90 percent of our employees were here when it was a Marriott,” Harper said. “We want the best brand out there for our investment. Fifty percent of our occupancy will be people loyal to Marriott.”

To get and keep a Marriott affiliation is to meet Marriott standards customers appreciate in service and products, Harper said. “Marriott spends a lot of money getting to know their customers,” he said.

The hotel has hired about 25 new employees in the past two weeks and will continue to expand hiring — but only as business dictates, Harper said. “We don’t over hire,” Harper said. “We want to make sure they’re great employees and get all the hours we can give them.”

The company already is working on the heating, ventilation and air conditioning system and elevators, he said, and will start on the associates’ cafeteria in January, then guest rooms and the rest of the projects. Construction will be in various stages through next year.

Harper wouldn’t say how much money The Cornhusker is spending, but it’s in the millions.

“You know what’s great?” Harper said. “This hotel’s been through a lot. To give it some stability, every one of our associates, they’re just excited. We just bought all new china, glass and silverware. We’re buying linens. It’s just the beginning of a great relationship.”

In addition to updating guest rooms and meeting spaces, and a reconfiguration of the lobby, the renovation will include a new restaurant for the hotel, the Miller Time Pub & Grill.

Ownership by Marcus, whose theater division has owned all of Lincoln’s first-run movie theaters since 2008, was expected to put The Cornhusker on more solid footing after several years of instability caused by Bisaria’s shaky financial circumstances.

He acquired The Cornhusker in 2004 from Castle & Cooke, financier David Murdock’s company, which built the hotel in 1983 on the site of the original Cornhusker, which was built in 1926.

Bisaria was indicted in October by a federal grand jury in Illinois on 10 counts of fraud and making false statements to lenders.

Bisaria, 53, of Boca Raton, Fla., and Steve Lewis, 60, of Highland Beach, Fla., were accused of using about $9 million in bank loans to refinance and remodel hotels that Bisaria’s Shubh Hotels owned in Cincinnati and Boca Raton for purposes other than those the bank intended: to prop up Bisaria’s failing lodging properties elsewhere. Lewis owns Contract Purchasing and Design, an interior design and remodeling company in Boca Raton.

Bisaria also owned hotels in Detroit and Pittsburgh, both of which he lost during the financial crisis after 2008. He was overdue with plans for renovations at The Cornhusker when Marriott International withdrew the brand’s “flag” early this year.

Sweetly sentimental paintings are not for me, but here I stand on the north side of the second floor mezzanine in the Pfister Hotel. Concierge Roc Whitesell is at my side, explaining why the oil painting The Kittens(signed J. LeRoy) is one of his favorites in the hotel’s vast art collection, though this chap of impeccable taste also recognizes it as “sentimental.” On nights when the hotel is quiet, he swears he hears the fluffy quartet mewing inside their wicker basket lined with red roses. I’m fairly certain this is going to lead to a tale about the Pfister being “haunted,” so I move on. 

Around the corner, I spot The Dog by Alexander Pope. This canine has attitude, not unlike the attitude in the Portrait Bust of Guido Pfister, a marble wonder sitting near the grand piano in the lobby lounge. Sculpted by Gaetano Trentanove, whose heroic works are at the Milwaukee Art Museum and at Kosciuszko Park, it’s a swell fit with a collection that began over 118 years ago.

Several new hotels are open, or about to open, in the downtown area, but don’t think of the Pfister as a relic. Think of it as an icon, and a forward-looking one at that. The hotel’s 2012 artist-in-residence, Timothy Westbrook, uses a foot-treadle sewing machine to create fashions from recycled materials. It’s easy to imagine that on any given night, they’ll waltz the halls.

MILWAUKEE — The winner of the Marcus cookie contest is Mary Lamb of Waukesha and her Dark Chocolate-Caramel Sea Salt Dreams.

Pfister Executive Chef Brian Frakes demonstrated Wednesday morning on the CBS 58 Morning News. Here is the recipe:

Dark Chocolate-Caramel Sea Salt Dreams
Ingredients:
• 1 cup unsalted butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
• 2 eggs 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2/3 cup unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 cup cut up soft caramels
• 1 cup dark chocolate chips
Coarse or flaked sea salt

Directions:
1. Line baking sheets with parchment.
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Beat the butter until light and fluffy.
4. Add white and brown sugars and beat until light and fluffy.
5. Add eggs, one at a time, beating between each addition.
6. Beat in vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt.
7. Mix well.
8. Stir unto butter mixture until well blended.
9. Stir in the caramels and dark chocolate chips.
10. Drop rounded tablespoons of dough onto parchment.
11. Slightly flatten each cookie, then sprinkle with a pinch of sea salt.
12. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, or until just set.
13. Slightly cook on baking sheet before moving to wire rack to cool completely.

Original Article for Milwaukee Community Journal

Calling all bakers! Do your friends and family beg you each year to bake up a batch of your signature holiday cookies? Well, Marcus Restaurants wants to sample them, too!

Marcus Hotels & Resorts is asking the public to share their best cookie recipes during its 4th Annual Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie Contest. Now through Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, at 11:59 p.m., the public is invited to submit their favorite cookie recipe by going online to the Marcus Restaurants Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/marcusrestaurants, clicking on the tab labeled “Cookie Contest” and entering to win. Marcus Restaurants’ culinary experts will sift through the entries, considering overall impression, uniqueness, creativity, and consumer appeal, and crown one recipe as Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie 2012.

The winning baker will receive a special one-on-one baking lesson with Pfister Pastry Chef Jennifer Carlson, an overnight hotel stay and dinner for two at The Pfister Hotel, InterContinental Milwaukee or Hilton Milwaukee City Center, and a $150 Pick ’n Save gift card courtesy of Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc. (Roundy’s).

The Marcus culinary team will then bake the winning cookie recipe and donate 500 of the tasty treats to Hope House (www.hopehousemke.org), a local emergency and transitional living facility. This is the second year Hope House has received the cookie donation.

“We are delighted to receive this wonderful donation again,” said Ken Schmidt, Executive Director. “Our guests just loved the cookies last year. Even a gift so seemingly simple as cookies can make a big impact around the holidays.”

Marcus Restaurants’ partner, Roundy’s, will be supplying all of the containers the cookies will be packed in for delivery. The winning cookie also will be featured during the month of January 2013 in Marcus’ Milwaukee restaurants, Mason Street Grill, Kil@wat and Milwaukee ChopHouse.

We want to know what has become a cherished cookie tradition in your family. Don’t let your chance to win Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie contest crumble away—get your entries in!

Original Article By Lori Fredrich for OnMilwaukee.com

Who doesn’t get just a little bit excited at the thought of baking up a batch of grandma’s molasses cookies around the holidays? And whose inner child doesn’t revel at the thought of decorating a few batches of gingerbread people, even if they turn out a little bit crooked?

But then again, very few of us expect our cookies to receive city-wide accolades.

That’s why when Milwaukeean Anna Baird-Luedke created her recipe for chewy white chocolate chip gingerbread cookies, she had no idea they would end up being served at area restaurants, including Mason Street Grill, Kil@wat and Milwaukee Chophouse.

“It was inspired by a recipe for gingerbread waffles I had made,” Baird-Luedke recalls. “They had an amazing flavor that was better than I ever had in a gingerbread cookie, so I set out to make a cookie based on them.”

Baird-Luedke’s cookies were a hit with her family and friends. But it wasn’t until she received an email from Marcus announcing the Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie Contest that she decided to share her recipe with the world.

This year, Marcus Hotels & Resorts has again put out the request to Milwaukeeans to submit their very best cookie recipes for the fourth annual Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie Contest.

Baird-Luedke’s decision was a game-changer. In addition to having her cookie declared “Best Cookie in Milwaukee, ” Baird-Luedke also received a special overnight stay and dinner for two at The Pfister. A large batch of her cookies was also baked up and delivered to appreciative families at Hope House, an emergency and transitional living facility for families in need.

“It was an honor to know my cookies would be shared as holiday treats for the individuals using the organization’s services,” Baird-Luedke says. “The cookies were also served at some of the Marcus restaurants in the month of January, which was also exciting.”

In 2012, the winning baker will receive a special one-on-one baking lesson with Pfister Pastry Chef Jennifer Carlson, an overnight hotel stay and dinner for two at The Pfister Hotel, InterContinental Milwaukee or Hilton Milwaukee City Center and a $150 Pick ‘n Save gift card courtesy of Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc.

The winning cookie will be featured during the month of January 2013 in Marcus’ Milwaukee restaurants – Mason Street Grill, Kil@wat and Milwaukee ChopHouse. Marcus will also bake and donate 500 of the winning cookies to Hope House for a second year in a row.

“We are delighted to receive this wonderful donation again,” said Ken Schmidt, executive director of Hope House. “Our guests just loved the cookies last year. Even a gift so seemingly simple as cookies can make a big impact around the holidays.”

Chef Robert Fedorko, executive chef for Marcus’ Milwaukee market and one of the judges for the 2012 cookie competition, says he always looks forward to the holiday baking season.

“The holiday season presents so many treats that we don’t have the opportunity to enjoy any other time of the year,” he says. “It gives us all a good excuse to over indulge – and make up for it with a new year’s resolution.”

And Fedorko is right. The holidays are the perfect time for baking – and for sharing. So, we asked him if he had a favorite cookie recipe he might want to share.

“Do I have to pick just one?” he asked.

Turns out that one of his favorites are the sort of cookie we all grew up eating. Tea cookies, also known as snowball cookies, are deliciously nutty morsels, baked until crisp and bathed in powdered sugar.

“I also like pizzelle cookies,” Fedorko admits. “It’s a traditional cookie that has always been present during the holidays. I also like just about any cookie that Sciortino’s makes for the holidays. Italian Christmas cookies are my favorite.”

But, your cookie recipe won’t have to be Italian to win Fedorko’s affections. In fact, he says that the criteria for judging cookie submissions will be based on numerous factors, including overall impression, uniqueness, creativity, and consumer appeal.

“We will be looking for something unique and with great holiday spirit,” Fedorko says.

So visit the Marcus Restaurants Facebook page and enter your best cookie recipe. You have until Monday, Dec. 10 at 11:59 p.m. to submit your entry.

In the meantime, maybe bake up a batch of these babies for inspiration.

Snowball cookies
from Chef Robert Fedorko

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans
¼ cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
powdered sugar for dusting

Heat oven to 325°F.

Combine all ingredients except powdered sugar in large mixer bowl.

Beat at low speed with a hand beater or in the bowl of a mixer, scraping bowl occasionally, for 2-3 minutes until well mixed.

Using a teaspoon, scoop a generous spoonful of dough and shape into rounded ball of dough approximately 1 inch in diameter each.

Place dough balls 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until very lightly browned.

Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm. For added flavor, roll cookies once more in sugar when cool.

Calling all bakers! Do your friends and family beg you each year to bake up a batch of your signature holiday cookies? Well, Marcus Restaurants wants to sample them, too!

Marcus Hotels & Resorts is asking the public to share their best cookie recipes during its 4th Annual Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie Contest. Now through Monday, Dec. 10, 2012, at 11:59 p.m., the public is invited to submit their favorite cookie recipe by going online to the Marcus Restaurants Facebook page, www.Facebook.com/marcusrestaurants, clicking on the tab labeled “Cookie Contest” and entering to win. Marcus Restaurants’ culinary experts will sift through the entries, considering overall impression, uniqueness, creativity, and consumer appeal, and crown one recipe as Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie 2012.

The winning baker will receive a special one-on-one baking lesson with Pfister Pastry Chef Jennifer Carlson, an overnight hotel stay and dinner for two at The Pfister Hotel, InterContinental Milwaukee or Hilton Milwaukee City Center, and a $150 Pick ’n Save gift card courtesy of Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc. (Roundy’s).

The Marcus culinary team will then bake the winning cookie recipe and donate 500 of the tasty treats to Hope House (www.hopehousemke.org), a local emergency and transitional living facility. This is the second year Hope House has received the cookie donation.

“We are delighted to receive this wonderful donation again,” said Ken Schmidt, Executive Director. “Our guests just loved the cookies last year. Even a gift so seemingly simple as cookies can make a big impact around the holidays.”

Marcus Restaurants’ partner, Roundy’s, will be supplying all of the containers the cookies will be packed in for delivery. The winning cookie also will be featured during the month of January 2013 in Marcus’ Milwaukee restaurants, Mason Street Grill, Kil@wat and Milwaukee ChopHouse.

We want to know what has become a cherished cookie tradition in your family. Don’t let your chance to win Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie contest crumble away—get your entries in!

Who doesn’t get just a little bit excited at the thought of baking up a batch of grandma’s molasses cookies around the holidays? And whose inner child doesn’t revel at the thought of decorating a few batches of gingerbread people, even if they turn out a little bit crooked?

But then again, very few of us expect our cookies to receive city-wide accolades.

That’s why when Milwaukeean Anna Baird-Luedke created her recipe for chewy white chocolate chip gingerbread cookies, she had no idea they would end up being served at area restaurants, including Mason Street Grill, Kil@wat and Milwaukee Chophouse.

“It was inspired by a recipe for gingerbread waffles I had made,” Baird-Luedke recalls. “They had an amazing flavor that was better than I ever had in a gingerbread cookie, so I set out to make a cookie based on them.”

Baird-Luedke’s cookies were a hit with her family and friends. But it wasn’t until she received an email from Marcus announcing the Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie Contest that she decided to share her recipe with the world.

This year, Marcus Hotels & Resorts has again put out the request to Milwaukeeans to submit their very best cookie recipes for the fourth annual Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie Contest.

Baird-Luedke’s decision was a game-changer. In addition to having her cookie declared “Best Cookie in Milwaukee,” Baird-Luedke also received a special overnight stay and dinner for two at The Pfister. A large batch of her cookies was also baked up and delivered to appreciative families at Hope House, an emergency and transitional living facility for families in need.

“It was an honor to know my cookies would be shared as holiday treats for the individuals using the organization’s services,” Baird-Luedke says. “The cookies were also served at some of the Marcus restaurants in the month of January, which was also exciting.”

In 2012, the winning baker will receive a special one-on-one baking lesson with Pfister Pastry Chef Jennifer Carlson, an overnight hotel stay and dinner for two at The Pfister Hotel, InterContinental Milwaukee or Hilton Milwaukee City Center and a $150 Pick ‘n Save gift card courtesy of Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc.

The winning cookie will be featured during the month of January 2013 in Marcus’ Milwaukee restaurants – Mason Street Grill, Kil@wat and Milwaukee ChopHouse. Marcus will also bake and donate 500 of the winning cookies to Hope House for a second year in a row.

“We are delighted to receive this wonderful donation again,” said Ken Schmidt, executive director of Hope House. “Our guests just loved the cookies last year. Even a gift so seemingly simple as cookies can make a big impact around the holidays.”

Chef Robert Fedorko, executive chef for Marcus’ Milwaukee market and one of the judges for the 2012 cookie competition, says he always looks forward to the holiday baking season.

“The holiday season presents so many treats that we don’t have the opportunity to enjoy any other time of the year,” he says. “It gives us all a good excuse to over indulge – and make up for it with a new year’s resolution.”

And Fedorko is right. The holidays are the perfect time for baking – and for sharing. So, we asked him if he had a favorite cookie recipe he might want to share.

“Do I have to pick just one?” he asked.

Turns out that one of his favorites are the sort of cookie we all grew up eating. Tea cookies, also known as snowball cookies, are deliciously nutty morsels, baked until crisp and bathed in powdered sugar.

“I also like pizzelle cookies,” Fedorko admits. “It’s a traditional cookie that has always been present during the holidays. I also like just about any cookie that Sciortino’s makes for the holidays. Italian Christmas cookies are my favorite.”

But, your cookie recipe won’t have to be Italian to win Fedorko’s affections. In fact, he says that the criteria for judging cookie submissions will be based on numerous factors, including overall impression, uniqueness, creativity, and consumer appeal.

“We will be looking for something unique and with great holiday spirit,” Fedorko says.

So visit the Marcus Restaurants Facebook page and enter your best cookie recipe. You have until Monday, Dec. 10 at 11:59 p.m. to submit your entry.

In the meantime, maybe bake up a batch of these babies for inspiration.

Snowball cookies

from Chef Robert Fedorko

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups finely chopped pecans

¼ cup sugar

1 cup butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

powdered sugar for dusting

Heat oven to 325°F.

Combine all ingredients except powdered sugar in large mixer bowl.

Beat at low speed with a hand beater or in the bowl of a mixer, scraping bowl occasionally, for 2-3 minutes until well mixed.

Using a teaspoon, scoop a generous spoonful of dough and shape into rounded ball of dough approximately 1 inch in diameter each.

Place dough balls 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until very lightly browned.

Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm. For added flavor, roll cookies once more in sugar when cool.

November 29, 2012 | Lori Fredrich for OnMilwaukee.com

Who doesn’t get just a little bit excited at the thought of baking up a batch of grandma’s molasses cookies around the holidays? And whose inner child doesn’t revel at the thought of decorating a few batches of gingerbread people, even if they turn out a little bit crooked?

But then again, very few of us expect our cookies to receive city-wide accolades.

That’s why when Milwaukeean Anna Baird-Luedke created her recipe for chewy white chocolate chip gingerbread cookies, she had no idea they would end up being served at area restaurants, including Mason Street Grill, Kil@wat and Milwaukee Chophouse.

“It was inspired by a recipe for gingerbread waffles I had made,” Baird-Luedke recalls. “They had an amazing flavor that was better than I ever had in a gingerbread cookie, so I set out to make a cookie based on them.”

Baird-Luedke’s cookies were a hit with her family and friends. But it wasn’t until she received an email from Marcus announcing the Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie Contest that she decided to share her recipe with the world.

This year, Marcus Hotels & Resorts has again put out the request to Milwaukeeans to submit their very best cookie recipes for the fourth annual Milwaukee’s Favorite Cookie Contest.

Baird-Luedke’s decision was a game-changer. In addition to having her cookie declared “Best Cookie in Milwaukee,” Baird-Luedke also received a special overnight stay and dinner for two at The Pfister. A large batch of her cookies was also baked up and delivered to appreciative families at Hope House, an emergency and transitional living facility for families in need.

“It was an honor to know my cookies would be shared as holiday treats for the individuals using the organization’s services,” Baird-Luedke says. “The cookies were also served at some of the Marcus restaurants in the month of January, which was also exciting.”

In 2012, the winning baker will receive a special one-on-one baking lesson with Pfister Pastry Chef Jennifer Carlson, an overnight hotel stay and dinner for two at The Pfister Hotel, InterContinental Milwaukee or Hilton Milwaukee City Center and a $150 Pick ‘n Save gift card courtesy of Roundy’s Supermarkets, Inc.

The winning cookie will be featured during the month of January 2013 in Marcus’ Milwaukee restaurants – Mason Street Grill, Kil@wat and Milwaukee ChopHouse. Marcus will also bake and donate 500 of the winning cookies to Hope House for a second year in a row.

“We are delighted to receive this wonderful donation again,” said Ken Schmidt, executive director of Hope House. “Our guests just loved the cookies last year. Even a gift so seemingly simple as cookies can make a big impact around the holidays.”

Chef Robert Fedorko, executive chef for Marcus’ Milwaukee market and one of the judges for the 2012 cookie competition, says he always looks forward to the holiday baking season.

“The holiday season presents so many treats that we don’t have the opportunity to enjoy any other time of the year,” he says. “It gives us all a good excuse to over indulge – and make up for it with a new year’s resolution.”

And Fedorko is right. The holidays are the perfect time for baking – and for sharing. So, we asked him if he had a favorite cookie recipe he might want to share.

“Do I have to pick just one?” he asked.

Turns out that one of his favorites are the sort of cookie we all grew up eating. Tea cookies, also known as snowball cookies, are deliciously nutty morsels, baked until crisp and bathed in powdered sugar.

“I also like pizzelle cookies,” Fedorko admits. “It’s a traditional cookie that has always been present during the holidays. I also like just about any cookie that Sciortino’s makes for the holidays. Italian Christmas cookies are my favorite.”

But, your cookie recipe won’t have to be Italian to win Fedorko’s affections. In fact, he says that the criteria for judging cookie submissions will be based on numerous factors, including overall impression, uniqueness, creativity, and consumer appeal.

“We will be looking for something unique and with great holiday spirit,” Fedorko says.

So visit the Marcus Restaurants Facebook page and enter your best cookie recipe. You have until Monday, Dec. 10 at 11:59 p.m. to submit your entry.

In the meantime, maybe bake up a batch of these babies for inspiration.

Snowball cookies
from Chef Robert Fedorko

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 cups finely chopped pecans
¼ cup sugar
1 cup butter, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
powdered sugar for dusting

Heat oven to 325°F.

Combine all ingredients except powdered sugar in large mixer bowl.

Beat at low speed with a hand beater or in the bowl of a mixer, scraping bowl occasionally, for 2-3 minutes until well mixed.

Using a teaspoon, scoop a generous spoonful of dough and shape into rounded ball of dough approximately 1 inch in diameter each.

Place dough balls 1 inch apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes or until very lightly browned.

Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm. For added flavor, roll cookies once more in sugar when cool.

Click here for Anna Baird-Luedke’s white chocolate chip chewy gingerbread cookies.