Molasses Ginger Snaps

I had planned out my whole cookie “menu” and thought I was done until I saw a facebook post from an aunt of mine that said she was making these ginger snaps and that the recipe is my great grandmothers. Why had I never received this recipe? Or tired one of these cookies? No hard feelings but I HAD to obtain this recipe! I’m so glad I did because these are wonderful!

They are full of flavor, have a nice crunch to the outside and then are so soft and dense in the middle. Heaven. They are beautifully old-fashioned too, don’t you think?

These are also one of the simpler cookies that I made this year, which is a plus. A simple drop cookie, dipped in a bit of sugar and baked until crackly on the top. The original recipe doesn’t call for orange zest and/or extract but I added it for a bit of brightness. You can’t really taste orange but it’s that something in the background that really gives this cookie a nice complex and full-rounded flavor. Sometimes I find that spice-type-cookies can be a bit heavy but these are not and I attribute that, in part, to the added orange. I’m sure they are wonderful without this as well so if you prefer, just omit these ingredients.

Another thing that I changed about the original recipe is I used half brown sugar and half granulated, while the original called for all brown sugar. I did this because I ran out of brown sugar. I had my ingredients all figured out for my cookie menu, and bought accordingly, so this unexpected addition used more than I had planned for. After some research, I found that many ginger snap recipes use granulated sugar instead of brown all together so I didn’t see the harm. I also used half shortening and half butter instead of all shortening, just because I like butter I think. I suppose I should make this recipe as originally intended at some point but I wonder if I even will because these came out so wonderfully.

***PRINTABLE RECIPE (MOLASSES GINGER SNAPS PDF)***

Molasses Ginger Snaps

*Prepare dough at least 1 hour before baking

Ingredients:

¾ cup vegetable shortening
¾ cup unsalted butter, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
½ cup unsulfured molasses
4 ½ cups unbleached flour
3 ½ tsp. baking soda
2 tsp. cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. cloves (optional)
1 tsp. orange extract (optional)
½ tbsp. orange zest (optional)

Directions:

Cream together the shortening, butter, brown and white sugar until thoroughly blended
Stir in the eggs, one at a time, scarping the bowl down after each addition
Mix in the molasses, orange zest and extract
Sift together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger and cloves
Mix flour mixture into the egg mixture 1/3 at a time, scraping the bowl after each addition until just mixed
Chill the dough for at least 1 hour

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Prepare baking sheets with nonstick mats or parchment
Roll dough into the size of large walnuts and dip the tops in sugar
Place sugar side up, 1 ½ inches apart on prepared baking sheet

Bake until just done, not hard, about 9-10 minutes. The tops will crack a bit, they are supposed to
Allow to cool on the baking sheet for a chewier cookie or to a drying rack for a less chewy cookie