Confession time: I made this cookie recipe about a week ago, but I completely forgot to add the brown sugar and I didn’t watch my syrup and it boiled up (sadly, I can’t blame it on drinking); the taste turned out OK while they were still warm, but the next day the cookies hardened so much that I was afraid I would crack a tooth on it. I don’t usually mess up a recipe quite so badly — into the composting bin they were tossed!
So I tried my hand at the recipe again. The success of this traditional cookie is melting the sugar, butter and syrups gently and not to over bake because then the cookies become way too hard. I used Moroccan Ginger which has a rather strong flavour making this cookie a bit spicier than most other recipes but then again, I like spicy!
Ginger Snap Cookies
Makes about 36-46 Cookies depending on how big your melon baller is.
Ingredients:
- 1/3 cup butter
- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
- 1/4 cup light corn syrup
- 1/4 cup black molasses
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground all spice
Directions:
- Pre heat the oven to 350°F.
- Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, sprayed with non-stick cooking spray.
- In a small saucepan gently melt the butter, brown sugar and both syrups (do not boil unless you want to end up with jaw breakers!). Cool slightly.
- Sift dry ingredients together into a medium-sized bowl.
Make a well in the centre and pour in the syrup mixture. Mix well to make a soft dough. - Using a large melon baller shape into small balls (about the size of a walnut). Place each ball about two inches apart; press down to form even rounds abut 1/4 inch thick.
- Bake 10-12 minutes or until very very lightly browned. Cool on cookie sheet for a minute and then remove to fully cool on a wire rack.
- Store in an airtight container or freeze. If they get too hard, add a slice of bread or a moist brown sugar disk for a few hours.
So tell me lovely reader, have you ever messed up a recipe and were you able to save it or had to toss it?
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[…] Ginger Snaps […]
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[…] her I would bake some cookies for the sale. I ended up making some old fashioned ginger snaps from my recipe from last Christmas, but then I saw a recipe on Zsuzsa’s in the Kitchen blog and was […]
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Hi Eva – just to let you know… I’ve just made these now 🙂 I had to make a couple of substitutions because there were some things I couldn’t get in France. I changed molasses for black treacle, corn syrup for golden cane syrup and baking soda I replaced with a couple spoons of baking powder (so 3 spoons in total). Absolutely delicious! I gotta say – they look nowhere near as perfect as yours… I guess that will come with a bit of practice 🙂
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So glad you made them Charles, and how creative for the substitutions; necessity is the mother of invention after all. Thanks for letting me know. Stay tuned for a post this week…I also made something of your’s again! Thanks.
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I love gingersnaps and the spicier the better. These look perfect – I am happy you persevered!
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Thanks Lynda, your tree looks absolutely gorgeous! I’d be a bit scared of the live flame, but the tradition is wonderful!
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“makes a fantastic, soft delicious bread, especially when you add some cloves and cardamom!”
So, Charles, you’ll add cardamom to SOME of your breads but not to your St. Lucia buns. I’m puzzled by your little idiosyncrasies. 🙂 And do I remember you saying you don’t like RAISINS??
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I think it was Sissi who doesn’t like raisins – I love them personally. I’ve got nothing against adding cardamom to the dough, but I’m a bit of a purist, and for the Swedish people I know – they balk at the idea of a lussebullar with cardamom added in it. No doubt delicious, but not “traditionally” a lussebullar, and since such festivals are all about tradition I like to stick with it. The recipe you linked seemed to be a family favourite from some Swedish people, but referring to the traditional Swedish cooking “bible”, no mention of cardamom is made in Lucia buns – only in the “vetebrod deg” – wheat dough – recipes that are used to make other things like cinnamon buns 😉
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Meant to say of course that that’s not to say there aren’t a great many cardamom-inspired Lussebullar recipes out there (a quick Google search revealed at least 44,000 results) but I use a lot of cardamom in baking these days and I think the flavour can really take over something as delicate as saffron. Since it’s already so expensive I like to keep them “neat” so to speak – added to the fact that plain ones always bring back happy memories, so I’m gonna dig my heels in on the lucia bun front I think 😀
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I wouldn’t add cardamom to the saffron either, Charles, but use it INSTEAD of saffron if it wasn’t available or too expensive cause I’m not unreasonable/obsessive. 🙂 And no one should mess with a recipe that they remember from their childhood and is the perfect representation of a dish they loved. I have a few of those as well.
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Well, I added calvados to a pasta sauce once, thinking it would be good… It wasn’t. At all. lol 😀 Those ginger snaps look incredible – have you ever had an English biscuit called “Ginger nuts”? These look so alike! Are you sure you didn’t get these out of a packet? They look too perfect 😀 If they taste anything like my beloved ginger nuts they must be delicious too!
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No Charles, I’ve never had ginger nuts but would likely love them! I checked out a recipe and found black treacle in the recipe, what is that? Thanks for the lovely compliment.
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Hi Eva! Black treacle is, I think, what you guys call “molasses”. It’s a very thick, black syrup, made from sugar. I think it’s a by-product of the sugar refining process, and it’s often used to give a very rich, almost bitter, sugary flavour and deep colour to biscuits and cakes. I put it into bread around Christmas time. Standard bread recipe, but I dissolve two tbsps treacle into the warm water and it makes a fantastic, soft delicious bread, especially when you add some cloves and cardamom!
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Wow, that bread sound delicious Charles!
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Eva, you have a knack for finding great boxes…..and baking great cookies of course! It looks like 2011 was another successful year, which I’m sure will be reflected in the oohs and aahs of your cookie recipients. Looking forward to seeing you on Saturday.
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Thanks Barb! We’re looking forward to seeing you guys too, and the ponytails!
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These are really beautiful. I love ginger snaps so much. Coincidently our horse’s name is Ginger too. Lol. Nice to meet you and happy to meet a new foodie.
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Hi Kim, nice to meet you too. Thanks for commenting on my site.
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We all make mistakes. Second batch looks great. I’d like couple of cookies with a cup of coffee. Yum!
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Thanks for dropping by Christine. One lump or two (in your coffee)?
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Haha, I mess up recipes all the time, I just don’t always tell 😉 I’m intrigued by the Moroccan ginger…is it fresh ginger or a ground powder? Sounds lovely. I’m glad your second batch turned out well!
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Hi Kelly, the ginger is powdered but taste as strong as fresh.
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Not until I met my husband did I start liking gingersnaps. He loves them and always wanted me to make them for the holidays. Now i can’t get enough but I still haven’t found that perfect recipe- maybe yours is it!
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Thank you Jessica. I just bake them so that they are a little chewier than crispy, but if you prefer crispy then you just need to bake a bit longer. The trick is to have the cookie thin so it’s easy to eat.
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Oh you poor thing with that first batch. This batch looks fantastic though! 😀
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I usually go through a recipe like s check-list Lorraine; I can’t imagine where my head was!
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Eva, I’m SO glad you made them again – because they’re beautiful! What a stunning cookie! I’d LOVE some with coffee!
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Thanks Ann, they remind me of the little ginger cookies that Ikea sells, only better!
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Obviously the problem with the first attempt was the lack of alcohol. 😉
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You’re probably right Jed, although it was a bit early, even for me 🙂
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These cookies look so perfect…hard to believe that you messed up your first batch…but certainly I’ve been there and done that! I’ll bet these are as good as they look with that Moroccan ginger in there!
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Thanks Betsey, they are one of my fav’s that for sure; the ginger has a wonderful little bite to it!
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hehe…I wonder what you drank before you had baked the first batch…;-))
The 2nd batch turned out really perfect.
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Hi Angie,
Surprisingly I had nothing! It was first thing on Saturday morning I just completely missed it. Brain fart is what I call it…happening more and more at my age!
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This is one of the cookies I am making this Christmas, or at least the version of it I have. 🙂 I have overbaked them in the past as well and a quick dunk in tea or coffee helps soften them up. Some Italians use wine to dip their biscotti into but that’s a bit too boozy for my taste.
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Dipping cookies into wine might be up my alley, but then again, do I need another reason to have a glass of wine! I think not! I should have posted the error before I chucked them out. Oh well. Thanks anyway, Maria!
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I would have ground the cookies up and used them as a base for a pumpkin or mango/ginger cheesecake. You can also mix the crumbs with ground nuts and put them in baklava, or sprinkle over apricot preserves and roll them up in rugelach.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rugelach
You DEFINITELY should have posted first. 😦
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Wow Maria, thank you! I wish I would have thought of that! 😦
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I don’t think I’ve really tossed many things out, I just make my brother eat all of it 😛
The cookies look great, I’m thinking about baking some cookies for Christmas as well and there’s only a week left! Time flies…I might just try your recipe 🙂
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Hi Jenny, you’re lucky, my husband wanted nothing to do with them!
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Too many novice cooks fear making a mistake and I’m a believer in mistakes making us better cooks. We learn that if the chocolate seizes, the sauce separates, or the bruschette catch fire, the world will go on and you just start another batch.
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Thanks John, you are absolutely right, we definitely learn from our mistakes.
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This reminds me of the time I burned some bourbon caramel sauce that I was making for Mike. I had to soak the pan for a long time and start the recipe over from the start. It was quite smoky in the kitchen too. Ugh. Anyway, glad you tried these again. They look so good. And I love a good spicy cookie! That Moroccan ginger sounds really tasty. 🙂
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Thanks for being so honest Kristy, it’s nice to know I am not alone in this world screwing up recipes!
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I’m interested to see the difference with the Moroccan ginger! They look pretty on your festive tablecloth — it is definitely beginning to feel like Christmas!
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Hi Barb, I’ll make sure you get a taster in the cookie box…that is, if there are any left!!! 😉
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Glad the second batch was a charm. These look great.
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Thanks Greg. I had a bit of a brain fart the first time…definitely payed more attention on this round!
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