Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Awwww (ginger)snap!

Earlier this season I stumbled across the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and I was more than intrigued. Not only would I have a reason to bake an insane amount of cookies but I'd also receive three dozen at my doorstep and donate money to a great cause. It took me about .5 seconds to decide that this was something I needed to do.
When it came to deciding what kind of cookie to bake it took me even less time! Not a week before I learned about the swap K. and I had picked up a bag of gingersnaps from our local Lucky's Market. Gingersnaps are easily in my top 5 cookies (probably battling with snickerdoodles for #1, honestly) and I was so excited to see that they were part of the weekly specials that I just snatched up a bag without double checking the label. I was horrified to discover that the cookies I was oh so excited about contained trans fat! I'm not a perfectly clean eater by any means but I do have lines drawn and trans fat is something that crosses the line. The cookies went directly into the trash and my holiday cheer was knocked down a notch. This cookie swap was the perfect opportunity for me to finally get my holiday gingersnaps.

I perused the internet for a few different recipes and decided to work with this one from Smitten Kitchen (who adapted it from Cook's Illustrated and assorted other sources). I made only minor changes, as a good gingersnap recipe is hard to improve upon.

I would like to note that this recipe is crazy easy and it makes an awesome amount of cookies (over 4 dozen!) at a time. You can also freeze the dough to save for later if you don't need to have 4 dozen delicious cookies in your home at once.

Ingredients:
2 1/4 C. Whole Wheat Flour
2 t. baking soda
1/2 t. salt
3 1/4 t. ground ginger
1 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. allspice
1/4 t. ground white pepper
2 sticks unsalted butter (at room temp)
1/2 C. granulated sugar
1/2 C. dark brown sugar
1 large egg 
3/8 C. molasses
1 t. grated fresh ginger

In a medium bowl combine flour, baking soda, salt and spices. In a separate bowl (or stand mixer, food processor, etc) cream together the butter and sugars until fluffy. Add egg, molasses and fresh ginger and process until well mixed. Sift in the dry ingredients and mix by hand to combine. 


Wrap dough in plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator to chill. An hour or two should be substantial. I left mine in overnight so I actually let it sit at room temperature for just a bit before working with it. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Roll the dough into ~1-inch balls [If you do not plan on baking all the cookies at once, I still recommend forming them into balls before freezing], place the balls on a well-greased cookie sheet at least an inch apart, as the cookies will spread. Bake 12-15 minutes depending on desired "snappiness"- I baked mine for 13 and achieved a flexible cookie with crispy edges.


When (not if) I make these again I plan to add 1/2 t. cardamom and increase the fresh ginger from 1 t. to 2 t., but even without those changes these cookies were a huge success! 


Happy baking!

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