Ohhh gingersnaps…..any cookie lover’s favorite dream….the perfect dunker for cold milk…..and my absolute favorite kind of cookie. Yep. I love gingersnaps even more than I love chocolate chip cookies. Maybe that will give you a little hint to how incredible these cookies are…
These cookies are everything I think a classic gingersnap should be….They’re crunchy on the outside with a sugar topping…….they’re moist and chewy on the inside, loaded with tons of ginger and spice flavors.
Gingersnaps are the ultimate “milk dunker.” and I would be perfectly content to spend my whole afternoon dunking these cookies in cold milk. Trust me. After one bite of these crisp-on-the-outside and chewy-on-the-inside gingersnaps, you will want to do the same thing.
{ *Just a warning: I’ve got many photos to share with you in this post, so if you want to go straight to the recipe, just scroll straight down past the photos* }
It was all I could do not to eat all of these cookies during my photoshoot, but somehow I controlled myself. (I won’t even tell you what I did after I snapped the last picture of these cookies 😉 )
I adapted this recipe slightly from America’s Test Kitchen…My grandmother, who knows how much I love cooking, generously gave me two of their newest cookbooks the other day and over the past few days, I’ve been reading them every free second I can find (we’re in the middle of a vacation to the mountains in Tennessee). I was very excited when I came across a recipe for “perfect gingersnaps.” You can bet I dropped what I was doing right then and there, and headed into the kitchen to make some magic.
Magical pretty much sums up these cookies in one word. They are, without a doubt, the absolute BEST gingersnaps I have ever tasted.
One of the best parts? You don’t have to spend all afternoon in the kitchen! These cookies come together in 1-1/2 hours. An hour of that time is inactive, while you’re chilling the dough, and yes, chilling the dough IS necessary, as it contributes to the cookie’s wonderful thickness and chewiness. The cookie dough can even be stored in the fridge up to 2 days. (For whenever you get that craving for cookies, warm from the oven 😉 )
You don’t even need any fancy ingredients for these cookies either! The main ingredient that you absolutely must have, is obviously ginger. I used ground ginger and I would definitely recommend using it ground. These cookies call for a whopping 2 tablespoons ground ginger. I’ll admit that I thought this might be a little too much ginger, since this recipe yields only 16 large cookies, but I thought, oh what the ‘heck, let’s try it and see how it turns out. I’m so glad I did, because 2 tablespoons turned out to be the perfect amount. The ginger was definitely noticeable, which was how I wanted it to be, but it wasn’t overpowering either. The ginger, combined a few other spices: cinnamon and ground pepper, yielded the perfect balance of spice in these gingersnaps.
The ingredient that gives these gingersnaps that awesome crunch on the outside is coconut sugar. Have I mentioned how much I LOVE baking with coconut sugar? I love using it in pancakes, muffins, cookies, ect. It works great! And it works even greater as a topping for any baked goods. You’re only going to need 1/4 cup coconut sugar for the topping…Unless you’re like me and you love to roll your cookie dough balls around in the sugar for awhile 😉 In that case you might need a little more, but I found that only 1/4 cup of coconut sugar worked out fine and gave the cookies a pretty sweet crunch on the outside.
We’re going to bake these cookies 12 minutes. I know that seems like a long time for cookies to bake, but remember that these ARE gingersnaps and we want the outside to be nice and crunchy. Don’t worry, though because the inside stays perfectly moist and chewy. If you like your gingersnaps a little more crunchy, bake them 14 minutes, but since I like the outside of mine crunchy and the inside chewy, 12 minutes of bake time was the perfect solution. Cool your cookies on the baking sheet 4-5 minutes before transferring to a wire cooling rack. At this time it is necessary that you pour yourself a tall glass of milk and grab a few of these cookies before they disappear. Because, believe me they will, and in no time at all.
I am just completely and 100% IN LOVE with these cookies. They are absolutely perfect. I would not change a single thing about them. They balance the sweetness and the spiciness beautifully AND they have the perfect texture–sugar-y and crunchy on the outside, and soft and chewy on the inside.
Like I said, these are CLASSIC gingersnaps. Everything a gingersnap should be and thensome. Any good baker’s swear-by kind of cookie. Any cookie jar’s staple kind of cookie.
And officially my new favorite cookie, which is going to be making a pretty frequent appearance in my cookie jar.
Classic Gingersnaps
Ingredients
- 2-1/2 cups white whole wheat flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup butter
- 2 tablespoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground pepper
- 1-1/4 cups coconut sugar divided
- 1/4 cup molasses
- 1 large egg plus 1 large egg yolk
Instructions
- Combine flour, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl. Place butter in a medium saucepan and melt over medium-high heat. Continue cooking, stirring frequently until butter turns golden-brown. Transfer butter to a large bowl, and gently whisk in ginger, cinnamon, and pepper. Allow to cool 5 minutes. Once butter mixture is cool, add 1 cup coconut sugar, molasses, and eggs, whisking until smooth. Add flour mixture and gently stir until just combined. Wrap cookie dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour. (Dough can be stored in fridge up to 2 days)
- Preheat oven to 350 and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Remove chilled dough from refrigerator and roll dough into 1-in balls. Place remaining 1/4 cup coconut sugar in a small bowl, and roll dough balls in coconut sugar until coated. Place balls on prepared cookie sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake in preheated oven 12 minutes. Let cool on baking sheet 5 minutes before removing to a wire cooling rack to cool completely.
Notes
Notice the little hands in this picture?
My little helper, Rachel was assisting this “cookie photoshoot” 🙂
Check out my other “classic” cookies!
(My child-hood FAVORITE cookie!)
(Chocolate, oats, and peanut butter all wrapped up in a cookie!)
Nutella Cookies.
(Nutella + Chocolate + Cookies = Heaven.)
Golden Applesauce Raisin Cookies
(A healthier cookie that you can feel good about eating!)
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