Gingersnaps

Paul and I got back to our apartment late last night. Hungry and bleary-eyed from our long vacation of driving across the state, we had started discussing options for dinner around 2 pm (a usual occurrence for two food obsessed individuals). Still, we couldn’t decide on what we wanted to eat.

Just when we had almost resigned ourselves to eating nothing at all I heard a quiet voice inside my head. It was my dad and he was saying, wholeheartedly, that “We’re going to make all of our cookies from here on out.”

I’m not really sure why my dad said this to my brother and sister and I when we were younger. Maybe it was his horror at the prices of packaged cookies or something about us getting fat. Or, maybe it was something about the cookie aisle itself, so clean and crisp. So bright. So far removed & foreign to an actual lived-in kitchen. Or, maybe it was just his desire to return to something basic-baking from scratch and enjoying cookies with the ones you love the most. The true definition of home.

Regardless, what seemed to be such an abhorrent idea when I was a kid: “What! Why would we eat homemade chocolate chip cookies when we could eat O-r-e-o’ s instead?” was the perfect solution for this very moment. So, I whipped up some quick gingersnaps and Paul and I enjoyed their crispy outside and chewy inside with a glass of red wine...and with a cup of coffee for breakfast the next morning.

Memories and food. They just go together.

Aunt Big’s Gingersnaps

Thanks to:
How to Cook Everything
Simple Recipes for Great Food
Mark Bittmen

about 30 min, plus time to chill…
makes around 4 dozen

On food…

for the cookies
½ pound or 2 sticks of butter, room temperature
1 cup sugar
1 cup molasses
1 heaping teaspoon baking soda
2 tablespoons hot water
3 ½ cups all-purpose flour
1 heaping teaspoon ground ginger
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
pinch of salt

hints
After you take the cooled dough out of the fridge, roll your wax paper logs on the counter a few more times to try and get them as even & round as you can.

If you prefer a perfectly round cookie roll each slice into a ball in your hands & then place on baking sheet.

On Baking...

1. Use a Kitchen Aid fitted with a paddle attachment or an electric mixer to cream the butter, sugar and molasses until smooth. Mix baking soda with the hot water and beat into this mixture.

2. Combine the flour, spices, & salt into a bowl and beat into butter mixture.

3. Lay down 2 sheets of wax paper and scoop out dough into both. Shape into a long roll with your fingers, doing your best to make it even, and refrigerate for several hours or overnight.

4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees, slice the cookies as thinly as you can & place on ungreased baking sheets (see hints about cookie shape). Bake for 9 minutes-watch them carefully because nothing is worse than a burnt gingersnap! Cool on a wire rack and enjoy.