Recipe: Gingersnaps

One of our sweet dietitians brought molasses sugar cookies into clinic the other week, which everyone adored. Molasses cookies, ginger cookies, gingersnaps, or whatever you'd like to call them, are one of my favourite cookies. They've got an old-fashioned grandma's house kind of comfort to them and cosy spices that seem to belong in the pumpkin pie and egg nog season.

The recipe I like is Marie Ayers' one from AllRecipes.com, which yields cookies that are more chewy than crispy; how I personally prefer them. If you're looking for traditional crunchy gingersnaps, this is not the recipe for you, but if not, I recommend you give it a try! Here goes:

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup molasses (I used fancy molasses)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp salt
• cinnamon sugar (for rolling)

Mix the butter, white sugar, beaten egg, and molasses together. In a separate bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and salt. Add 1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, stir well, then add the remainder of the dry ingredients, and stir some more.

Roll 1-inch diameter balls of dough between your hands and roll the top of each ball in cinnamon sugar. Place approximately 2 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.

rolling in cinnamon + sugar

I flattened these guys a bit, but it's not necessary if you're going for a thicker cookie

Bake at 350 degrees F for 10 minutes, until the tops are rounded and slightly cracked. Remove from the oven, and let cool for a bit on the baking sheets, before transferring to a wire rack. Store in an air-tight container.

I got 30 cookies out of this, which froze just fine. Overall a simple but rewarding recipe. Enjoy!