Gerry's Ginger Cookies
Hi BBB; first time poster, long-time addict of drooling at photos. I'm home on summer break and have been baking a variety of things (much to the joy and angst of my parents), but this is something all together special.
My name's Ginger, so the ingredient has both haunted and loved me all my life. I find it a satisfying spice: lovely in baked goods, really awesome in soda, and one that smells good regardless of its location. So I was rather excited when my mom copied this recipe from a book she was reading.
Ingredients (listed in order of use):
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger (I ran mine through the food processor)
1/4 tsp. nutmeg
1/4 cup molasses (used "full flavor" here)
1 egg
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2 1/3 cups flour
4 tsp. grated ginger root **
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. ground ginger
1/2 cup shortening
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dash of salt
extra sugar for rolling
1.) Heat oven to 375° F.
2.) Mix sugar, butter, crystallized ginger, nutmeg, molasses, and egg in a large bowl.
3.) Then mix in the rest of the ingredients, except for the rolling sugar.
4.) Shape dough into small balls, roughly 1 inch in diameter. Roll them in the extra sugar and place on an ungreased baking sheet a couple of inches apart. Flatten them slightly.
5.) Bake 5-8 minutes or until edges are set. You're supposed to let these cool before eating, but they are rather tasty, and go surprisingly well with a Coke Zero.
Makes about 5 dozen cookies.
(** We could not find ginger root ANYWHERE, so it wasn't used in the version I made. I compensated a tad by putting in 3 tsp. of ground ginger rather than 2. I probably could've used more, but I was playing it safe. They're quite tasty without it, though missing a bit of the "kick"...except for when you hit a ginger pocket. So you know, negating the root could actually work to your benefit if you want a more mild flavor.)