Because I feeling all Christmas-y, I’m going to share with Doperdom the recipe for the Ultimate Ginger Snap. These are guaranteed to make any snap-lover orgasm with one bite.
Roll spoon-sized bits of dough in sugar, place @ 2" apart on a no-stick baking sheet and bake at 375° for 14-16 minutes. Remove to a rack and cool.
You’re welcome.
Thanks! I’ve been looking for a good ginger snap recipe for years. I’ve found several that were almost – but not quite – right. I’m doing all my baking this Thursday, so I’m going to try this recipe and see how it goes.
You can modify as needed. The recipe I gave is a modification of one I found in the LA Times one year. I added the vanilla and tripled the spices, which according to the rules makes it my recipe now. Diced candied ginger would make it really snap. If you can find ginger sugar, use that as the “roll in” sugar.
Call me clueless, but how do you cream oil and sugar? Does it get fluffy and light like butter/shortening and sugar? It seems to me that sugar and oil wouldn’t do that.
Here’s the recipe for my wife’s internationally-famous Carnahan Ginger Drops. They are incredibly good; I’ve been known to request them instead of cake for my birthday.
3/4 cup margerine
3/4 cup shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup light molasses
3 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. cloves
2 tbsp. ginger
Beat margerine, shortening, sugar and eggs until light and fluffy. Add molasses. Add flour sifted with baking soda, cinnamon, cloves and ginger. Drop by teaspoonfuls on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 8-10 mins. at 375 degrees. Makes about 7 doz. cookies.
Alas, I burnt the first batch - really just the sugar on the outside, but the middles are outstanding! I’ll be making, more carefully and not while cooking dinner, a second batch for my sister, and maybe a third for my aunt…
My dough was almost more batter-y than doughy so I added a little flour. Still, the “bits of dough” I baked were hardly spherical. How does cookie dough know to get round?
Ideally, the dough should be malleable but not sticky. If you scoop a bit out with a spoon, you should be able to pat it into a ball without it sticking to your fingers. This is a fine line you learn from practice. I can tell by looking at the dough in the mixer whether or not I need to add a bit more flour or a touch more liquid. The humidity the day you bake can also affect the dough a bit.
A liquid oil (whether it be melted butter or vegetable oil) will give you a flatter, crisper cookie, which of course is what a ginger snap should be. Vegetable oil as opposed to melted butter will give you a crisper cookie yet, because butter has more water in it, which boils and steams the cookie as it bakes. Less water, less steaming = flatter, harder cookie.
For more cookie science, including how to modify the classic Toll House Morsel cookie to make it cakey, chewey or thin, see Alton Brown’s Good Eats episode, “Three Chips for Sister Martha”.
Speaking of ginger snaps: a long time ago I was hankering to make some cookies and found a ginger snap recipe in an old cook book. Had all the ingredients but molasses. I substituted honey and the result was some amazing golden brown cookies with a really nice texture and taste. End of story.
