Molasses ginger cookies with cracked sugary tops.
Ingredients
¾ cup softened butter
¼ cup molasses
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp baking soda
Pinch salt
1 ½ tsp ginger
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp cayenne
+1/4 cup granulated sugar for rolling
Instructions
Cream butter, molasses, and sugar. Add egg.
Add 1 cup flour and combine.
Incorporate remaining flour, soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, and cayenne.
Bring the dough together. It should be shapeable and not sticky. Refrigerate the dough in plastic wrap for 1 hour or overnight (overnight is best).
Preheat oven to 350 F.
Take the dough out of the refrigerator and break it up into cookie sized pieces. Roll the pieces into balls.
Roll the balls in granulated sugar and place on a cookie sheet.
Bake for 15 min, take out when tops are cracked and browned. Makes about 23 cookies.
Tips
Butter
Make sure that the butter is softened. NOT melted. This is my method: chop the butter into chunks. Microwave in a bowl at 10 seconds intervals for about 30 seconds total. Check the butter every 10 seconds. It should be soft enough to press down using your finger. Then use a fork to mash the butter into the sugar.
Refrigerate overnight
I know it seems like work, and you can skip this part, but I promise it makes them better. I made the dough at 10:00 pm, chucked it in the fridge, slept, then got up the next morning and baked them.
Roll them in granulated sugar
Is it a bit extra? Maybe. But it doesn't take long, and it makes them sparkly, like the vampires in Twilight. Also, sugar is yummy.
Calories
Baked goods are often high in sugar, fat, and carbs. As someone who bakes often, I have to watch how much I eat. I love to eat. I do. I also love to have a healthy body. That being said, I appreciate when a recipe states a calorie count. So I've decided to provide that for you.
Total calories: 3,384
Take that number and divide by how many cookies you made. I made 23, so each cookie is 147 calories. If you use different ingredients, your calories will be different. I calculate calories by adding up the calories in each individual ingredient.
Photos!
LOOK at their perfectly cracked tops! See the sugar sparkles?
I store them in a tin wrapped in gingham.
I spent a semester in rural northern Michigan. During the winter months, I constantly made ginger cookies. I tried a lot of recipes, but in the end this won. These cookies remind me of cold, dark nights and a fire glowing in the wood-stove. I would pop these in the oven and go stand outside for a bit, the snow dimly reflecting the Christmas lights strung up on our porch. Then I came back in to a lovely smelling house. Dangerously addictive and perfect with tea.
Love,
Rachel