Just after I finished making a big batch of this dough, my heart sank. My family won’t like cookies with ginger and ohmygosh cloves.
But the dough was ready, and I wasn’t going to throw it out. So I sat and shaped the cookies, all the while thinking about how nobody would eat them.
It’s a good thing I’m not a betting sort of woman, because I’d have lost big time. My little brother (notoriously unadventurous in the palate department) took one look at the cookies and said “Oh, yay! Snickerdoodles.” His mistake is understandable. They look a bit like snickerdoodles, with the crackly top and the sugar topping. But my tasters bit into the cookies, and far from the looks of horror I had expected, they were fighting over them-down to the last crumb!
Ingredients:
1 cup (2 sticks) butter or margerine
1 cup of sugar, plus more for rolling
1/2 cup of molasses
2 1/4 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger
2 eggs
3 1/2 cups all purpose flour
Directions:
In the bowl of your mixer, cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add the eggs, molasses, baking soda, salt and spices, scraping down the sides to incorporate everything evenly. Stir in the flour. Cover and refrigerate for an hour, to make the handling easier.
Preheat oven to 350. Grease two cookie sheets. Shape the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls (approximately a tablespoon.) Roll the ball in sugar to coat, then place carefully on baking sheet. Leave 2 inches between cookies to allow for spreading.
Bake the cookies for 10 minutes. The cookies may not look completely done, but take them out anyway, they set as they cool. Allow to cool four 10 minutes on cookie sheet before transferring to a rack to cool completely.
Adapted from the King Arthur Flour Cookie Companion
Russell at Chasing Delicious says
August 12, 2011 at 2:07 pmYum. This recipe sounds scrumptious. I haven’t made ginger cookies in such a long time. I am going to have to change that asap and try this recipe. Thanks for sharing!
overtimecook says
August 12, 2011 at 6:31 pmHi Russell,
Thanks for stopping by! Please let me know how you like them.
-Miriam
Leah says
August 14, 2011 at 2:59 amI love ginger snaps! Can you use ground ginger?
overtimecook says
August 14, 2011 at 3:08 amSure can! That’s what the recipe calls for.
These are chewy- make sure that’s what you’re looking for.
Vanilla Bean Baker says
September 9, 2011 at 6:15 pmI love a chewy cookies and ginger ones are one of my favourites. Yours look delicious. No wonder these were fought over 🙂
Karen Gall says
September 1, 2014 at 4:17 pmIn your instructions, you omit adding the eggs. I went to the King Arthur Flour website and found that the eggs were added after the molasses, baking soda, salt and spices: “Add the eggs, beating well and scraping down the sides to incorporate everything evenly.”
Also, do I bake the balls of dough into cookies or do I flatten the balls at all?
I’m going out shopping now to get some molasses. These cookies look delicious!
overtimecook says
September 1, 2014 at 5:02 pmThanks for pointing that out, I fixed it. No need to flatten the balls of dough!
rikki says
September 11, 2014 at 1:51 pmdo you think this recipe would work with agave nectar instead of the molasses? Thats what I have in my house 🙂 also, do you think the cloves can be omitted?
Thanks! these look delicious
caryn says
October 20, 2015 at 9:55 pmI have to try the molasses ginger cookies and the healthy ruggies!