This is no ordinary ginger cookie. It delivers an extraordinary burst of ginger flavour and then offers more. It has the crisp ginger snap that goes beautifully with cold milk. There’s a hit of molasses that reminds you of gingerbread eaten fresh out of the oven on a winter day. Notes of cinnamon and cloves deepen the flavour. And then back notes whisper of black pepper. This ginger cookie has caught the memories of spicy pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, and a whisper of Christmas mulled wine.
A lovely part of this outstanding ginger cookie is the ease of preparing it. Start with a mixing bowl, a whisk and a wooden spoon (no mixer required). Melted butter, sugar molasses and eggs are whisked together. Then the dry ingredients are stirred until blended. The smallest of ice cream scoops shapes the dough that you roll in sugar and gently place on the baking tray.
Freshly baked cookies are always a delight, but this is one ginger cookie that tastes even better the next day. The spicy flavour mellows and becomes even richer. They keep beautifully for a week or you can freeze them for up to three months
| THE MOST GLORIOUS OF GINGER COOKIES | Print |
- 175 g (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
- 250 g (1¼ cups) packed demerara or dark brown sugar
- 65 g (1/4 cup) fancy molasses
- 1 large egg and one egg yolk beaten at room temperature
- 335 g (2¼ cups) all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- 18 g (2 tbs) ground ginger
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp freshly ground black pepper
- ½ tsp fine sea salt
- sugar, for rolling the cookies
- If possible use digital scales for your measurements of the ingredients. This insures your accuracy in measuring and makes clean-up easier.
- For the very best results use the ingredients listed. Avoid substitutions if possible.
- Have your cookie sheets ready and as soon as you have the dough mixed fill the first sheet and pop it in the oven. Fill the second sheet and have it ready to put in the oven when you take the first sheet out. This dough does not take kindly to sitting too long before baking..
- Preheat the oven to 325F (160C) and line two baking trays with parchment paper.
- Whisk together the melted butter, demerara (or brown) sugar, molasses, egg and egg yolk in a large mixing bowl.
- In a separate bowl stir the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and pepper together.
- Add the flour mixture all at once to the butter mixture with a wooden spoon and stir until blended. The dough will seem very slack at first but it sets up very quickly.
- This is a soft dough and a small ice cream scoop is a superior way to shape your dough into balls. If you are an avid cookie maker an ice cream scoop is a good investment. Lacking this handy device you can use 2 teaspoons to shape the dough. Roll each cookie gently in granulated sugar to coat and place on the prepared baking trays. Set the balls 1½ inches apart.. DO NOT PRESS THE COOKIES DOWN. This recipe makes 32 cookies. When baked the cookies measure about 3 inches across.
- Bake for 20 minutes minutes for soft, chewy cookies, 25 minutes for crisper cookies. The edge should brown around the edges. The cookies will puff up while baking and then collapse as they cool, developing a lovely crackled surface.
- LET THE COOKIES COOL ON THE TRAY sitting on a wire rack.
These ginger cookies are made glorious with their deep, intense ginger flavour. The recipe calls for two tablespoons of ginger. You can use less but I suggest you put your “brave” on follow this recipe. All of it. The ginger flavour is accompanied with cinnamon, cloves and freshly ground black pepper. For a tender, chewy cookie bake for twenty minutes. A crisper, crunchy cookies takes five minutes more.
