Well, it’s beginning to look like Christmas out here in Oregon. The mountains in the distance are covered in snow, Bing Crosby is crooning in all the stores, and everyone has a wreath on their door. In the baking world, nothing says Christmas quite like baking cookies – especially ones with ginger in them! Today’s recipe is an old-fashioned ginger snap, which we always had at Grandma’s house when I was a kid.
If you’re a ginger snap lover like I am, keep reading to find out how to make the wonderfully crisp and tasty that goes perfect with a nice glass of milk (or eggnog).
Before we get to the picture tutorial, here’s the recipe as taken from the King Arthur Baker’s Companion:
Ingredients:
- 2 and 1/3 cups (9 and 3/4 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 3/4 cup (4 and 7/8 ounces) shortening
- 1 cup (7 ounces) sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 cup (4 ounces) molasses
- 1/3 cup (3 and 1/2 ounces) cinnamon-sugar (2 teaspoons cinnamon mixed into 1/2 cup granulated sugar)
Directions:
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.
Sift together the flour, spices, salt, and baking soda in a small bowl. In a large mixing bowl, beat the shortening, sugar, and egg together until light and fluffy. Beat in the molasses. Stir in the dry ingredients to make a soft, smooth dough.
Measure out slightly rounded teaspoonfuls of dough, shape into balls, and roll each in cinnamon-sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart on lightly greased or parchment-lined cookie sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, until they’re golden brown. These are snaps; they’re supposed to be crisp. Cool on wire racks and store in a tightly closed container.
Sounds easy enough, right? Here are the steps I took to make these delicious treats:
Once I measured out all my ingredients, I preheated my oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. I then took out a medium-sized bowl and placed my sifter inside it. I then poured the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and baking soda into the sifter.
I then sifted these ingredients into the bowl.
Next, I took the egg, sugar, and shortening and dumped them into my Kitchen-Aid’s mixing bowl.
I mixed these for about a minute on medium speed until I got a nice, fluffy concoction:
Then, I poured in the molasses while the mixer was going:
I beat the mixture for another minute on medium, until it looked like this:
The next step was to add in the sifted dry ingredients from earlier. I started the mixer out on low so as not to shoot flour in my face and once it was combined in, I sped it up to medium for 30 seconds until I had a cookie dough that looked like this:
I then lined a cookie sheet with a silicon baking mat (it really makes cleanup so much easier), but you could always just spray the sheet with baking spray or line it with parchment paper.
Next, I took a teaspoon and portioned out some dough roughly the size of two marbles. I then rolled it into a ball and dropped the dough ball into a bowl of cinnamon-sugar.
I rolled the ball around, coating the whole thing in the cinnamon-sugar, and placed it on a baking sheet. I repeated the process until I had filled the cookie sheet, leaving the dough balls about two inches apart from each other per the directions.
I then popped the pan into the preheated oven and baked for 10 minutes. After the 10 minutes was up, I pulled the pan out of the oven and moved the cookies to a wire baking rack to cool. The ginger snaps tasted fantastic, especially with a nice glass of milk. Since they complemented the milk so well, I decided that’s what we’ll be leaving out for Santa this year!
If you tried this recipe out, let me know how it turned out for you! Happy Holidays and happy baking, everyone!
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