Gingersnap Cookies

I was flipping through Tom Douglas' Seattle Kitchen cookbook yesterday...it's a wonderful book, full of really unique recipes.  Tom is the owner of quite a few restaurants in Seattle, including Dahlia Lounge, where I had one of the best meals of my life!

A recipe for gingersnaps caught my eye, and sounded so good!  After testing out the recipe, I altered it to use ground ginger instead of fresh, and took out a step where you roll the cookies in sugar.  If you'd like to see the original recipe, you can find it here.  You won't believe how soft and delicious these cookies are - if you like a firmer gingersnap, you can just add two minutes to the baking time.

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Ingredients:

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground ginger
1 and a half sticks butter (3/4 cup)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses

Note:  If you don't have or can't get molasses, you can use 1/4 cup brown sugar.

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger.  Set aside.

In a mixer, cream the butter and sugar together for two minutes.

Add the egg and molasses, and beat until incorporated.

Add the flour mixture all at once and mix on slow until combined.

Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour.  (This is a necessary step to stop the cookies from spreading too much.)

Remove the dough from the refrigerator and form into one inch balls, placing them on the cookie sheet so they are 2 to 3 inches apart.

Bake for 7 to 8 minutes, or until the cookies are a light golden brown. (The cookies will firm up a little more as they cool.)

Cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes, then remove to a cooking rack until fully cool.

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I love ginger snaps in the fall, because ginger and cinnamon are such warm spices.  You could add a simple glaze made with confectioners sugar, milk and vanilla, or you could frost them with vanilla frosting.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe, and if you're ever in Seattle, check out Dahlia Lounge or any of the other Tom Douglas restaurants!
- Sugar Baby