Ginger spice cookies

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 09/12/2010 (5506 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Day 8 of the Free Press’s 21 Days of Holiday Cookies features Ginger spice cookies. We will be publishing one cookie recipe every day — Monday to Saturday — till Christmas.

Karen Makowski of Pilot Mound sent in her family’s favourite ginger cookie recipe. “This one even smells like Christmas when it’s baking,” she writes.

Ginger spice cookies

500 ml (2 cups) all-purpose flour

5 ml (1 tsp) baking powder

2 ml (1/2 tsp) baking soda

1 ml (1/4 tsp) salt

7 ml (1 1/2 tsp) ground ginger

5 ml (1 tsp) ground cloves

5 ml (1 tsp) ground nutmeg

3 ml (3/4 tsp) ground cinnamon

114 g (1/2 cup) butter or block margarine, softened

114 g (1/2 cup) white shortening

205 ml (3/4 cup plus 2 tbsp) brown sugar, packed

37 ml ( 2 1/2 tbsp) molasses

1 egg

1 ml (1/4 tsp) finely grated orange zest

60 ml (1/4 cup) white sugar

Preheat over to 175C (350F). Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. Cream together butter, shortening, brown sugar and molasses until light and fluffy. Beat in egg and zest until blended. Beat in half of dry ingredients, stir, then beat in remaining half. Let stand five minutes until dough firms up slightly.

Shape into 2.5 cm (1 in) balls. Roll each ball in white sugar, place on ungreased baking sheet, spacing about 6 cm (2 1/2 in) apart, and flatten slightly. Bake 8-10 minutes until barely firm in the centre and faintly brown at the edges.

Taster’s notes: A really good spice cookie, soft and chewy with a slight sugary crispness at the edges. My dough initially felt too soft, so I added just a bit of flour.

Alison Gillmor
Writer

Studying at the University of Winnipeg and later Toronto’s York University, Alison Gillmor planned to become an art historian. She ended up catching the journalism bug when she started as visual arts reviewer at the Winnipeg Free Press in 1992.

   Read full biography