Ginger Snaps
I like ginger snaps. I love the ginger snaps from Marks & Spencer. They’re real good – ahh spicy with plenty of ginger taste! It was then that I decide to bake my own ginger snaps cookies. You can read all about my first ginger snaps baking attempt in my personal blog. I referred to Alice Waters’ ginger snaps recipe in David Lebovitz’s blog.
There are many ginger snaps version but I think they almost always end up with the same taste and texture. This (the similarity) is what I found out when I tried Joy of Baking’s ginger snaps recipe in this post. Though both recipes differ from M&S’ ginger snaps, they’re still very good.
First gather all the dry ingredients in a bowl. I like to prepare the dry first and put it aside because they won’t react chemically unlike the wet.
A mountain of all purpose flour, baking soda, salt, ground cinnamon and ground ginger. Didn’t add ground cloves for I have none. For extra kick, you can add 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper.
Simply mix all the dry until they’re combined.
Cream butter and sugar (white and dark sugar) until creamy.
Next add molasses, egg and vanilla extract and beat until nicely combined.
Molasses (unsulphured) that I bought from organic shop. Quite pricey.
If you find that molasses sticking to measuring cup is a nuisance like me (difficult to wash off), then apply a thin layer of butter on the surface of the measuring cup.
Add the dry ingredients to the wet and mix with a baking spatula till combined.
Cover the mixture with plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes or more. If you like working with a slightly hardened dough you can freeze it for few minutes.
There are 2 methods (as far as I know) to mold ginger snap cookies. One being shaping the dough into a log -> chill/freeze it -> slice log into thin slices. Another method is to simply do nothing with the dough. Let it remain in the baking bowl -> chill/freeze it -> roll into 1 inch diameter balls -> flatten cookies with bottom of a glass.
I’ve tried both methods and I like the latter best as rolling the dough into a ball and then flatten it will yield a perfect round shape. As for the log, it will not promise a perfect round. So if you’re into rustic & grunge look for the cookie then the log method is perfect. Haha
Coat the balls with sugar and flatten before lining them on baking paper.
Bake for 12-15 minutes. I like my cookies crispy so I baked for about 13-14 minutes.
Crunch!
I prefer using Alice Waters’ ginger snaps recipe compared to Joy Of Baking as the first is one less sweet and baking time of 10 minutes will yield a perfect crunch ginger snaps. Whereas the ginger snap cookie recipe from Joy Of Baking that I used here is very sweet and I had to experiment with the baking time (spell: Lazy).
Yield 5 dozens.
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