The Best Recipe is rapidly earning a reputation as one of my favorite cookbooks. Tonight I made Molasses Ginger Cookies, using fresh ginger. This is a great recipe for the little helpers because they can roll the dough into balls and coat them with sugar.
The trick with these is to suppress the urge to continue cooking them until they "look done." If you do, they'll be crisp... not that there's anything wrong with that, but I prefer chewy cookies.
I prefer to use parchment paper on top of my cookie sheets. It's easy to pull the paper and cookies off to cool, then load up the pan for the next batch. When I cash in my vast BlogShares stocks, I will investigate the newfangled silicone mats. The silicone spatulas rule, so I'm optimistic mats may be a boon to cooking.
Molasses Ginger Cookies-- makes about 15 large cookies 2 1/2 C whole wheat flour 2 t baking soda 1 t ground ginger 1 1/2 t cinnamon 1 t ground cloves 12 T unsalted butter, at room temperature 1/2 C brown sugar, packed 1/2 C white sugar 1 egg 1 t vanilla extract 1/3 C unsulphured molasses 1/3 C white sugar (reserve for rolling cookies)
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. (I used fresh ginger. I peeled the skin off, then tossed it in the freezer for about half an hour. It grates much more evenly that way.)
- There is no number three.
- Cream the butter, sugars for 3 minutes, until it's fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Add the vanilla, egg, molasses. Stir another 30 seconds. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
- Stir in the dry ingredients and mix until just combined, about 30 seconds.
- Fill a small bowl with the 1/3 C sugar.
- Roll 2 T of dough into a ball (it'll be just under 2" thick). Roll the balls in the sugar, place on parchment paper-lined cookie sheets, about 1 1/2 to 2" apart.
- Bake for 11-13 minutes, when the outer edges begin setting and the centers are puffy. Rotate the cookie sheet halfway through the time. The cookies should look underbaked.
- Cool for 3 minutes, then transfer to a cooling rack.
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