It used to be whenever I heard mention of ginger cookies, I thought of the thin, rock-hard, cut-out cookies that show up at Christmastime. They smell nice, but they’re not worth breaking your teeth on.
When we moved into our house and I started itching to bake something, Bob mentioned that soft ginger cookies were his favorite. So I took to Google (Pinterest didn’t hit for another year or so) in search of a recipe for soft ginger cookies. There are quite a few to choose from, as it turns out. Some (like too many recipes out there) are far more complicated than they need to be. Many are quite similar to each other. I picked this one because…I just did. I don’t remember exactly why. It’s been awhile.
Soft Ginger Cookies
Ingredients:
2 & 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened (1.5 sticks)
1 egg
1 Tbsp water
1/4 cup molassesextra sugar for rolling
Directions:
1.) Preheat oven to 350 degrees.2.) In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy.
3.) Add egg, then water and molasses. (Note: Spray measuring cup with cooking spray before measuring molasses. It pours right out and doesn’t leave a sticky mess to clean up.)
4.) Add baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, pumpkin pie spice, and flour. Mix until well combined. (Stand or hand mixers are your friend.)
5.) Refrigerate dough for 30 minutes to an hour before baking to make it easier to handle. Roll into walnut-sized balls and roll in white sugar. Place 2 inches apart on a cookie sheet and flatten slightly. (If dough is too sticky, spray your hands with cooking spray before rolling.)
6.) Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Allow to rest on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes before removing to cooling racks. They are very soft and will fall apart if you move them right away.
Makes approximately 36 cookies.
Source: adapted from here
These don’t last more than a few days around here. They are Bob’s favorite. They’re soft and chewy with the slightest bit of crispy shell from rolling in the sugar. The first…however many times I made them, I didn’t even think to refrigerate the dough first. The last time I made them I put the dough in the fridge because I had dinner in the oven. It was somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour and it was so much easier to handle while rolling. It’s a very soft and sticky dough. Chilling made it so much less mess. Mental note for the future, I suppose.
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Originally posted on [the now defunct] Computer Generated Housewife.
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Human Darren Criss |