Gingersnap Cookies are one of my favorite fall foods. When the weather turns cold and the leaves start to fall, gingersnap cookies are a weekly bake at my house. They are soft and chewy with the perfect combination of bright, fall spices.
Last Sunday, my son and his wife came over to eat dinner. After the dinner dishes were done, he turned and looked at me and said, "Can we make Gingersnap Cookies?" with a huge smile and maybe even a small jump. When asked this question, the answer is always, "Of course!"
How to Make Gingersnap Cookies
1. These cookies are made with shortening. Some people have problems with shortening, but I don't. These cookies have been good for 25 years with shortening. I tried making them with butter, and I could never get them right. Then I decided, why am I trying to change something, I love so much! There is a lesson in that!
2. When measuring the shortening for this recipe, fill a four cup, glass measuring cup with water to the 2 1/2 water mark. Use your spoon and take big scoops of shortening and put them in the water in the measuring cup. Keep filling up the measuring cup until when the shortening is pushed underwater, it hits the 4 cup line. Now you have 1 1/2 cups of shortening in your cup. Dump out the water and put the measured shortening in the bowl you are going to use to make the cookies.
3. When I make cookies, I use my stand mixture. Use the whip attachment on your machine and mix the shortening and sugar for 4 minutes. This time allows the sugar crystals to get coated in the fat. This makes fluffy cookies and makes a big difference in the taste of the cookies.
My sister made my Valentine's Sugar Cookies this last year. She makes these cookies each year and this year, the only thing she did different, was to beat the sugar and fat together for four minutes. She told me later, her kids went crazy for the cookies. Everyone kept telling her how good they tasted.
4. While the sugar and shortening are mixing, put all the dry ingredients in a bowl, except the baking soda.
5. Mix each soda with a teaspoon of water, then set this aside. By dissolving the baking soda in water, you keep the baking soda from clumping in the cookie dough.
6. After the four-minute timer goes off, add the molasses. Try adding the molasses to the outside of the bowl instead of right over the beaters. You will find it will make less of a mess. After this has been mixed in, add the eggs, one at a time.
7. Add the dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time. Half way through adding the dry ingredients, change out the whip attachment for the paddle attachment or your kneading arm. If your dough is thick, you have done it right.
8. Use an ice cream scoop to make balls of cookie dough. Drop them on a plate or some kind of dish. Roll these balls in your hand. Then roll each cookie dough ball in a bowl of sugar.
I like smaller cookies and my kids like bigger cookies. Ice cream scoops purchased in a bake shop have numbers on them. The bigger the number the larger the size of cookie. I like size 18 and my kids like size 40.
I only make these cookies when my kids are around because it goes so much quicker when I have hands to roll the dough in sugar.
9. Place the cookie balls rolled in sugar on a greased cookie sheet. I use the flat side of a juice glass to push the cookies down to make a disc instead of sphere of cookie dough. They are about 1/2 inch thick. Bake at 350° for 13 minutes.
Everyone's oven cook just a little different. What you are looking for are the cookies to crack. Once this happens, they are ready to come out. Cool completely if you can. We usually cannot make it!
Let me know on Instagram or Pinterest if you make this.
Post a picture and tag me @dinasdiner. I want to know how it turns out.
Gingersnap Cookies
1 1/2 C. Shortening
2 Cups Sugar
1/2 C. Molasses
2 Eggs
4 Cups Flour
1 tsp. Salt
2 tsp. Cloves
2 tsp. Ginger
2 tsp. Cinnamon
4 tsp. Baking Soda
4 tsp. Water
2 Cups of Sugar for outside of Cookies
1. Put shortening and sugar in a bowl and mix for four minutes.
2. Add molasses until everything is well mixed.
3. Add eggs one at a time.
4. Put all dry ingredients except the soda into a bowl and get ready to add to the sugar and fat mixture.
5. Mix the soda and water together and add this to the wet ingredients.
6. Add the dry ingredients 1/2 cup at a time.
7. After adding the last 1/2 cup of dry ingredients, mix until you cannot see any more flour in the dough.
8. Use an ice cream scoop and drop balls of dough on a plate.
9. Put the last 2 cups of sugar in a bowl and drop and roll the balls of dough in the sugar.
10. Place on a greased cookie sheet.
11. Use the flat bottom of a juice glass to push the dough down a little.
12. Bake in a 350° oven for 13 minutes or until the cookies begin to crack.
