Bourbon Balls and Gingersnaps

Both of these recipes come by way of "Baked Occassions," the Baked Brooklyn boys' newest cookbook. I love all their cookbooks and I hadn't had a chance to use this one yet. It's up to their usual high standard. (But it's more fun--it's organized by holiday. For example they, apparently, celebrate the Ides of March with Blood Orange Tiramisu. See? Fun!)

I digress.
The Bourbon Balls--or, to be precise, "Buttery Brown Sugar Bourbon Walnut Balls" for the Kentucky Derby--were amazing. Hands down the best bourbon balls I've ever had. The slightly bitter walnuts helped cut the sweetness of the brown sugar. The boozy bourbon sugar then cut the bitterness of the walnuts. They were crumbly like a shortbread cookie but with a little bit of a crunch from the bourbon sugar they were rolled in. Oh gosh they were lovely (and quite boozy, so I'd keep them away from kids or at least cut back on the bourbon in the sugar.)

The gingersnaps were very nearly like the ones I usually make, but slightly less chewy, which was from the recipe not over baking them--I baked many batches, so I'm sure of that. The best part, though, was the sugary coating. Usually I do roll them in sugar before baking but this recipe called for using LEMON sugar. It was such a small change but it produced a magnificent result. Ginger and lemon pair well together and this was no exception. I don't really like ginger so these cookies weren't my cup of tea, precisely, but I appreciated them theoretically and my mom and pops appreciated plenty of them in practice! (Oh and I'm sorry, I don't have a picture of the gingersnaps without the rest of the cookies, so you'll just have to go here to see them.)