Gingersnaps are among the good holiday smells that propel me back through time to my mother’s kitchen. When I wore a ruffled little apron over my Fair Isle sweater and jeans and stood on the red wood stepping stool, so I could get right into the thick of the baking. I am sure I was very helpful.
Gingersnaps are among the most versatile of cookies. They taste delish warm from the oven, cold in a lunch bag, and not too bad even when they are stale. Even the gingersnaps that can be bought in a sack at the grocery store are pretty good, in a pinch. But these are so easy, and so kid-friendly, that you should just bake some yourself. You don’t need to go all-Martha and get out the Royal Icing or the silver designer dragees. These are simple, round and wholesome. Well, except for the white sugar, but not everything can be perfect in every way.
Before you start whipping out the mixing bowls, revving up the mixer and cutting your parchment paper, I would advise you to rummage through your kitchen cabinet and look at the expiration dates on your spices. We were shocked, shocked to find that our trusty Old Bay Seasoning had been in the cabinet for more than 10 years! Obviously there is a serious situation here regarding the frequency with which we make both crab cakes and Bloody Marys. You want to have ginger from this decade, please.
Gingersnaps:
3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temp
1/2 cup dark brown sugar (pack it into the measuring cup)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup molasses (oil the measuring cup first, or spray a little Pam – otherwise you will be washing that cup forever, when you could be conducting cookie taste tests)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
Extra delight:
1 cup granulated white sugar
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.
Beat the butter and sugars until light and fluffy, I use an electric mixer. Add the molasses, egg, and vanilla extract and beat until well mixed. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. (My mother once had a Legendary Baking Disaster because she did not follow this step correctly. Pay attention!) Add to the butter mixture and mix well. Cover the bowl with Saran Wrap and chill it in the fridge for about half an hour, until it is firm.
Fill a little Pyrex dish with the granulated sugar. When the dough is nice and chilly, roll it into 1-inch balls. Then drop and roll the balls of dough in the sugar: this is the best point for kid interaction and assistance. Put the dough balls on the baking sheets, and use a small flat-bottomed juice glass to flatten the cookies. Sometimes you will need to dip the glass into the sugar to get the right amount of crunchy, sugary goodness. Do not squash the dough too thin, or the cookies will get too dark and brittle. Bake for about 12 – 15 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Age has permitted me to employ a small ice cream scoop, which is handy if one is concerned about uniformity. I just don’t want to have to scrape the built-up cookie dough from my palms. As a kid you can nibble it off, but now it is just sticky.
If you like, when the cookies are still warm, take a drinking straw and cut a small paper-punch-like hole in a couple of the cookies. Then you can string a ribbon through the hole when the cookies have cooled, and there are a couple of new decorations for the tree.
We always leave out a plate of these for Santa. He keeps coming back for more.
These gingersnaps from Smitten Kitchen are a little spicier because she adds pepper. Go for it. But all I want to do is remember the warm kitchen, the silly apron and to spend a couple of hours with Mom.
https://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2011/11/gingersnaps/
And here is a recipe for gluten-free gingersnaps. Scroll way down to the bottom of this NPR link: https://www.npr.org/2012/11/28/166049020/baking-without-flour-for-the-holidays
“To each other, we were as normal and nice as the smell of bread. We were just a family. In a family even exaggerations make perfect sense. “
-John Irving
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