Ginger sparklers spicy, chewy

By: Alison Gillmor Posted: 1:00 AM CST Monday, Dec. 12, 2011

There has been an overwhelming response to the call for holiday cookie recipes, so please don't be discouraged if your Christmas favourite doesn't make it in this year. Over the next two weeks, we'll look at the crispy and the chewy, the fancy and the homey, the gooey and the airy. And of course, the chocolate.

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Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 12/12/2011 (5360 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

There has been an overwhelming response to the call for holiday cookie recipes, so please don’t be discouraged if your Christmas favourite doesn’t make it in this year. Over the next two weeks, we’ll look at the crispy and the chewy, the fancy and the homey, the gooey and the airy. And of course, the chocolate.

We start off with a spicy, chewy ginger cookie, a holiday favourite from Eriksdale’s Yvonne Groff.

Ginger sparklers

171 g (3/4 cup) butter, softened
250 ml (1 cup) brown sugar
60 ml (1/4 cup) molasses
1 egg
500 ml (2 cups) all-purpose flour
10 ml (2 tsp) baking soda
2 ml (1/2 tsp) salt
5 ml (1 tsp) cinnamon
5 ml (1 tsp) ginger
2 ml (1/2 tsp) cloves
175 ml (3/4 cup) crystallized ginger, minced fine
granulated sugar or sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 190C (375F). In a medium bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add molasses and egg and beat well. In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Stir in crystallized ginger. Add dry ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix until blended. Shape into 2.5 cm (1 in) balls, roll in sugar, place balls on greased cookie sheets and flatten with a fork. Bake 8-10 minutes. Cool on racks. Yields 3 dozen.

Tester’s notes: This is a soft ginger cookie as opposed to a snap, and it gets a real flavour kick from the crystallized ginger. The dough spreads quite a lot during baking, so do leave room on the sheets. I think these cookies are lovely as they are, but if you want to fancy them up for a cookie tray, you could use coloured sanding sugar or drizzle the baked cookies with melted white chocolate.

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.

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Alison Gillmor
Writer

Read full biography

Our newsroom depends on a growing audience of readers to power our journalism. If you are not a paid reader, please consider becoming a subscriber.

Our newsroom depends on its audience of readers to power our journalism. Thank you for your support.