Friday, December 7, 2012

12 Days of Christmas Treats: Ginger Cookies

     One of my favorite Christmas flavors is ginger.  Ginger snaps are so crunchy and yummy and just perfect for a dunk in hot chocolate or tea!  I've made this recipe for years.  It originally came from a book called Low-fat Ways to Cook Desserts, but I gave up on the "low fat" thing a while ago when I figured what a funny mass of molecules margarine was.  I subbed butter for the margarine and replaced the vegetable cooking spray with a simple sheet of parchment paper.



Ginger Cookies
Yield: 52 cookie scoop size cookies; 26 if you follow the directions
1/4 C plus 2 tbs stick margarine, softened
2/3 C plus 3 T sugar, divided
1/4 C molasses
1 egg
2 C all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground mace
Vegetable cooking spray

     Beat margarine at medium speed of an electric mixer until creamy; gradually add 2/3 C sugar, beating until light and fluffy.  Add molasses and egg; beat well.  Combine flour and next 4 ingredients; gradually add to creamed mixture, stirring until well blended.  Divide dough in half; wrap each portion in plastic wrap, and freeze 30 minutes.  Shape each portion of dough into 26 (1-inch) balls, and roll in remaining 3 Tbs sugar.  Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets coated with cooking spray.  Bake at 350°  for 12 minutes or until lightly browned.  Remove from cookie sheets; cool on wire racks.  Store in an airtight container. 

Notes:
If you forget like I did and add the three extra Tbs of sugar to the cookies instead of leaving it out to roll them in, fear not!  They still look and taste great!

In the interest of being minutely less processed, I substituted Evaporated Cane Juice for the white sugar in all my treat recipes this year.  For these ginger cookies, the larger crystals really look beautiful and glittery!

13 comments:

  1. I rarely bake with ginger. I don;'t really know why but it can be because how much we associate ginger with savory food in India :)
    I want to try a few classic American treats this month and ginger cookie is one of them :) Will try to make this with flaxseed instead of eggs.

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    1. Isn't that funny? It's the other way around to me! I am so proud of myself if I think to put it in something besides a cookie! Let me know how the flax seed goes, I'm sure Cara will be using something similar, too!

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  2. Oh, these look so good. I love the crinkled tops :)

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    1. Aren't they so pretty?! I'm not sure if my accidentally adding the extra sugar into the batter made them spread out more or not, but I couldn't be happier with the result!

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  3. I adore ginger and molasses, and these are my favorite cookies! Yours look so pretty and scrumptious!

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    1. I think this is my favorite looking cookie of all of them. They're just so sparkly!!

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  4. Is the baking soda supposed to be 2 Tablespoons like the recipe indicated or is there an error? I just made a batch of these and they have a really strong and unbearable baking sode taste to them :\

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    1. CHRISTINE!! I'm so sorry these didn't turn out! You're right it's 2 tsp. I am changing it right now! GAH!

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    2. Ahh that makes sense! I should have known when I was measuring it out and thinking, wow I've never needed this much baking soda before! Don't know why it didn't click with me.. Will give this recipe another try!

      Regardless, the first batch looked beautiful :) http://instagram.com/p/TRzQ8cRZck/

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    3. Oh my! They certainly did! Again, sooo sorry about that!! I hope you like them much better this time!

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  5. Just wanted to confirm that this recipe is for crunchy ginger snaps, not chewy ginger snaps. I'm finding many recipes for chewy ginger cookies, but I'm looking for a good crunchy cookie. Thanks!

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  6. Yes! These are very crunchy and not chewy once they have cooled down!

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  7. Great, thanks for the confirmation and thanks for the recipe! Looking forward to trying these out soon. :-)

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