#5 - Ginger Sugar Cookies

Today I decided to finally try a cookie recipe from "The Gourmet Cookie Book".  Ever since I came across this book at work I've been so excited to try out all the recipes in it.  It features "the single best recipe from each year 1941-2009" as originally published in Gourmet Magazine.  When making my resolutions for the year I was tempted to resolve to make one recipe from this book each week, but then I realized it was a really bad idea to make cookies every single week.  Even if I gave them away and brought them to work, I'd still gain a million pounds.  So instead I decided to just try one new recipe of any sort each week, knowing that now and then I'd try a new cookie recipe.  These came out really well.  They feel like Christmas.  And I learned something new!  If you sprinkle 2 or 3 drops of water on the cookies right before you bake them (as the recipe says you should) they get that perfect crackled look on top.  I'll have to try that next time I make snickerdoodles.  I couldn't tell if more or less water led to more crackling... oh well, some water made some crackles and they looked nice and were delicious.  They remind me of the molasses cookies I ate when I was a kid, but with a little bit more of a ginger kick.  The recipe says it makes 11 dozen, but that can't possibly be right.  I think mine were bigger than they were supposed to be and I made 5 dozen.  Recipe #5, another cookie success!

Ingredients:
3/4 cups butter or shortening, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar, firmly packed
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses (mild, not robust)
2 and 1/4 cups sifted flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
sugar
water

Instructions:
Cream butter and then gradually beat in dark brown sugar.  Stir in egg and molasses and blend thoroughly.  Sift flour and combine with baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt.  Gradually blend dry ingredients into the creamed mixture.  Chill dough, covered, for 1 hour.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Roll heaping teaspoonfuls of dough into 1-inch balls.  Dip the tops in sugar and place 3 inches apart on a greased baking sheet.  Sprinkle each cookie with 2 or 3 drops of water (this gives the cookies a distinctive crackled look).  Bake for 7-8 minutes.  If you take them out early, when they've just set, they'll be soft and slightly chewy.  Leave them in a little longer and they'll get crisp.

Makes about 5 dozen.

New skills: dropping water on cookies
New ingredients: molasses, cloves