GINGERSNAPS--Holiday Cookie Party Continues!

by Maggie Sefton


Day #2 of the Cozy Chicks Holiday Cookie Party Week features one of my favorite holiday cookie recipes.  This recipe is found in our Cozy Chicks Kitchen cookbook and the 6th in the Kelly Flynn Knitting Mysteries---FLEECE NAVIDAD, where I "gave" the recipe to Kelly Flynn's Aunt Helen.  :)

This is  my family’s favorite holiday cookie.  They’re meant to be soft and chewy, not crispy.  I’ve loved gingersnap cookies since I was a child and always made a batch every Holiday season. Once I had a family of my own, I tried a new Gingersnap recipe every year, searching for “the perfect one.”  Finally, I gave up searching and started tinkering with some of my old favorites and added my own special touch: grated lemon peel.  Lots of it.  J   I hope you like them as much as we do.  Enjoy!

AUNT HELEN’S GINGERSNAPS

2 ½  cups all-purpose flour

1 Tablespoon plus 2 teaspoons ground ginger

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

2 teaspoons baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

1 ½ sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

1 large egg, room temperature

¼ cup unsulphured molasses

2 Tablespoons freshly grated lemon peel

¼ to ½ cup granulated white sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly grease cookie sheets.  Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, and salt in a small mixing bowl.  Cream butter and brown sugar together in a medium bowl, mixing well for at least two minutes until well-blended, pale and fluffy, scraping bowl with rubber spatula.  Beat in egg, then molasses and lemon peel until blended.  Slowly add half the flour mixture, mixing with wooden spoon just until blended, then add remaining flour, mixing in well.

Cover bowl with plastic wrap and chill for 15 minutes.  Then take out and roll rounded tablespoons of dough into 1 ¼ inch balls (approx.).  Roll balls in granulated sugar and place 2 inches apart on prepared cookie sheets(s).  Bake just until puffed and cookies look dry---anywhere from 9 minutes to 14 minutes, depending on your oven.  (Do not overbake or cookies will become hard).   Carefully remove with metal spatula to wire rack to cool.  Makes approximately 32 cookies.

I usually double this recipe when I make it, because those amounts are easier to work with.  But--be prepared to make a lot of cookies.   
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Don't forget about the Cozy Chicks Kitchen, which has many of our favorite recipes!  Read all about it here.

Remember--we have bookplates signed by the Chicks. Let us know if you need one and we'd glad to send you one for your copy.