Chewy Ginger Snaps

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( Baking, Cookies, Dessert Serves: 40 Prep Time: 120 minutes)

Soften (but do not melt) the butter on 50% power in the microwave, 30-60 seconds.

Combine softened butter, sugar, molasses and egg; beat well. Sift dry ingredients together, and add to wet mixture; mix well. Stir in ginger chips. Chill for 1 hour, or overnight.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a cookie sheet, preferably an Air-Bake. Make 1-inch balls from the dough -- not too large, just a well-rounded teaspoon. Roll in ginger sugar if using that, or normal sugar, to coat reasonably well. Place on cookie sheet, 2 inches apart.

Bake 8-10 minutes -- on the low end for a conventional sheet, high end for an Air-Bake. Assuming the balls weren't too large, that should be enough: trust that they will be done. Cool on sheet for a couple of minutes to let them set (they will be too soft to handle when they come out), then finish cooling on a wire rack.

I've found that I get a soft, chewy cookie on the Air-Bake; they tend to crisp more on the bottom with a conventional sheet. The original source says that this makes three dozen, but I usually get 50 or so cookies; odds are that I'm making them a shade small, I suppose. I find that it takes about three sheets for a batch.

The Auntie Arwen's Ginger Sugar is strictly gilding the lily here, and the cookies are excellent rolled in conventional sugar, but the ginger sugar does provide just a little more gingeriness if you like excess.

This recipe is almost verbatim from the can for the ginger chips (ca. 2005 -- I don't know if it's still there), with only modest tweaks. I don't normally copy commercial recipes like this, but a number of friends wanted the recipe, so I figure the Ginger People won't mind so long as I advertise their product. The ginger chips are basically crystallized ginger, sized to be appropriate for recipes like this. A bit more expensive than conventional crystallized ginger, but high quality and very convenient: cutting up your own crystallized ginger is a pain. Note that King Arthur Flour sells their own version of these chips -- they are diced smaller, so they're a bit subtler in the cookie, but they work decently. Penseys also sells a lovely version of the chips.

Uses: Oven

Justin du Coeur (jducoeur) -- Chewy Ginger Snaps:Review

-- I've been making these since around 2005, and they are a consistent hit. With three sources of ginger (powdered ginger in the mix, ginger chips, and ginger sugar on the outside) these aren't conventional molasses-forward "gingersnaps", but are really all about the ginger. Despite that, though, they don't carry much heat, just a lot of ginger flavor.

Also, they're pretty easy to make -- the chill time aside, the mix is quick, and they're pretty foolproof in the oven if you have Air-Bakes.