Gingersnaps
Posted on May 1, 2007 in Food
Gingersnaps
adapted from JoyofBaking and Baking: From my home to yours by Dorie Greenspan
3/4 cup butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
Directions:
1. Whisk the flour, salt, baking soda, and the spices together.
2. In another bowl with a hand mixer or a stand mixer, beat the butter until smooth and creamy. Add the sugars and the molasses and beat for 2 minutes or so; scraping down the sides of bowl as needed. Add the egg and vanilla and beat for 1 minute more.
3. Add the dry ingredients using the lowest speed on mixer (or just do it by hand). If you use a mixer, avoid over beating the dough. It should be smooth and very soft at end.
4. Freeze the dough for 30 minutes or refrigerate for at least 1 hour (it can kept refrigerated for up to 4 days).
5. Line baking sheets, preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
6. Put about 1/2 cup (or more) of white sugar in bowl. Roll the chilled dough into 1 inch balls, and coat them thoroughly in the sugar. Place on baking sheet spacing them about 2 inches apart. Bake in oven for 12-15 minutes each batch; watch carefully. Cool on wire rack.
Makes 4 dozen cookies. I ended up with 42, so close enough.
Notes: These are crispy. I liked the rolling and the glass pressing at the end. Basically, I took the ingredients from the JoyofBaking and used the directions from the molasses spice cookies Baking: From my home to yours. Since I still have molasses left, I am going to make that recipe in the near future and get some allspice for it. I forgot to cut the sugar so they were too sweet for my non-sweet tooth family. The bottoms burnt easily which isn’t surprising since there is a lot of sugar. So watch the oven carefully. I used margarine because i need the butter for my next baking venture, and ground cloves is expensive so I was too frugal for that. Otherwise, they turned out nicely albeit browner and sweeter than I liked.
Ooh, I love gingersnaps. Strangely enough, I don’t like ginger.