Whenever you order anything from King Arthur Flour they will always include a card with one of their recipes as well as a discount code for your next order. Usually I see these and simply think it would be a good idea to make them. Then I saw GINGERSNAPS!
The recipe is too good to be true.
- Deceptively simple instructions.
- The ingredients needed were all in out kitchen. (Except as it turns out Molasses. A quick trip to the Associated remedied that.)
- All the tools necessary were available and functioning.
So here, in photographic (and motion picture) form…
Traveler Bill’s Test Kitchen: King Arthur Flour’s Gingersnap Recipe
Five ounces of shortening
Weighed out, of course.
7 ounces of granulated sugar.
(Also on display, Traveler Nell’s penchant for labeled Tupperware.)
A half teaspoon of salt.
Two tablespoons baking soda…
Oops…that was supposed to be two TEASpoons.
Lets, go back a couple steps.
Ok, Sugar, Salt and Baking Soda…back to the recipe.
A large Egg
A third cup of molasses…aw crap…it’s spilling. Let me dump it here.
(Ok this is adding the molasses two steps too early…what harm could come?)
Nine and 7/8ths oz. of KAF All Purpos Unbleached Flour
One to two teaspoons of ground ginger. I opted for about one and a half.
A half teaspoon of ground glove.
A teaspoon of ground cinnamon. Now last Christmas Traveler Nell made an authentic English Christmas pudding that called for what would have been a $100 of ingredients if bought locally. Luckily I married a savvy shopper. Sourcing online she found all the necessary items at Nuts.com. She got a huge bag of cinnamon sticks for a ridiculously low price and we have been searching for recipes to grind our own cinnamon since.
My former coffee grinder with the broken sticks.
Give the ground spice a little strain so there are no large pieces in the dough.
Take a teaspoon of fresh ground cinnamon and add to the other spices.
Put another teaspoon in a bowl.
Along with a quarter cup of sugar for the coating.
Now, in a large bowl beat the shortening, sugar and salt until combined. (Remember, the molasses was added early in error.)
Then beat in the egg…THEN the molasses.
Oh yeah, I’m supposed to pre-heat the oven to 375° F
This (I am assuming) is what the batter should look like at this point.
Add the flour and spices and beat until you get a smooth but fairly stiff dough.
Scoop a teaspoon of the dough and coat it in the cinnamon sugar. (My cookie scoop was too large and I ended up using a table teaspoon for portioning.)
Arrange 1.5 in. (3 cm) apart on a baking sheet that has been greased or covered with parchment paper.Put them into the 375 oven for 11-13 minutes.
Ginger Snap in a Snap from Traveler Bill on Vimeo.
Here is a time-lapse film of a batch of ginger snaps cooking.
Slide the parchment out of the pan and cool on a rack. Just try to not eat any of the snaps out of the oven. ( At this I did not succeed.)
After four and a half dozen I decided I was done rolling dough and made one massive snap.
Which was delicious!
I would definitely recommend this recipe to anyone who likes a Gingersnap. Next time I am thinking of using fresh ginger instead of or in addition to the ground stuff. I think this will give the cookies an authentic kick. Otherwise this is as foolproof a recipe as you can find (as I have shown with my multiple errors). Typically I am not that error-prone when baking.
