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Sunday, June 27, 2010

Sweet Melissa Sundays: Ginger Snaps

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June, which became Cookie Month at Sweet Melissa Sundays, is coming to a close. All of the cookie with the exception of the macaroons were big hits in this house. It would be hard to pick a winner amongst the other three - Honey Chestnut Madeleines, Pistachio Linzer Thumbprints, and these Ginger Snaps all are passed our test with flying colors. This was a great recipe to round up the month with! Nice pick, Gloria! (Gloria's blog is The Ginger Snap Girl so this choice was appropriate!)

I halved Melissa's recipe because I didn't want to end up with 4 1/2 dozen cookies... but I only wound up with 16! And I used a one inch cookie scoop like the recipe stated. Not sure what happened there! Maybe I scooped heaping spoonfuls of the dough. Knowing how good these cookies are, next time I'd go for the whole batch.

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They are not super spicy like other Ginger Snaps I've had. I think they're actually quite mild, but the flavors are definitely still there. The only change I made was to use black pepper (I don't have white) and I reduced the amount called for by half. I also subbed in half cinnamon-half nutmeg for the allspice (I've still haven't picked up any allspice yet). I wound up chilling my dough almost twelve hours, so I'm not sure if that made any difference in allowing the flavors to blend together so nicely.

I didn't love how they looked when they came out of the oven. They got a little thin and ugly at the edges, so I quickly grabbed a cookie cutter and punched shapes out from the still hot and soft dough. It worked like a charm! (And eating the scraps was pretty great, too :)

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I followed Jeannette's advice from the Ginger Snaps P&Q - to underbake the cookies slightly to get that soft-baked chewiness. Since the edges that I cut off crisped up, I got to taste what the cookie would have turned out like had I not underbaked them. What's really nice about this recipe is that the cookies are good both ways - slightly underbaked and soft, AND crunchy and crispy way.

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These were absolutely delicious and didn't last very long. So good in fact that I'm actually tempted to make another batch right now and whip up some homemade lemon ice cream to make Gingersnap - Lemon ice cream sandwiches. :)
Thanks for hosting, Gloria! These were probably one of my favorite recipes from SMS so far! Be sure to visit the other bloggers' who baked along this week to see how their ginger snaps came out!

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15 comments:

Candy said...

Your cookies are adorable! Great idea to cute them up with a cookie cutter. I have been on the fence about making these but after reading your glowing review am thinking I just might have to do it!

Julie said...

Love the idea of using the cutter! So creative. The doggies are so cute!

Chats the Comfy Cook said...

What a difference after you cut the warm cookies to their new shape. I noted, immediately, how "fat' they looked. Good thinking.

Flourchild said...

I love the cookie between the doggies..so cute. Your cookies turned out very nice! Mine or MY one cookies is ugly but so yummy!!

Tessa said...

I love how the cookies look with the scallopped edges! Beautiful! From your comments, I wish I could have made these!

Gloria - The Ginger Snap Girl said...

Your cookies are so cute! What a great save to use the cookie cutters....and you get the nice scalloped edge. The dog photo at the end was too funny! Totally cracked me up. :)
hit! Ginger Snap lemon ice cream
Glad to hear these were such a big sandwiches sound fabulous. I definitely think another batch is an excellent idea. I filled mine with a lemon cream and am thinking about trying out a mango cream later today. I bought some fresh mangoes yesterday and in my head these flavors sound like they would be good together. I only baked up a dozen and I have 2 1/2 dozen in the freezer asking to be baked!

Thanks for baking along this week!

Tiff said...

Your gingersnaps look so delicate and pretty. What a great idea to use a cookie cutter to trim off the edges. I wish I had thought of doing that!

rebecca @ beurrista said...

Pretty, pretty, pretty! And the dogs are adorable.

Ah yes... The bacon fat. I read such a wonderful piece on it in a NY Times Magazine article that I was inspired to collect enough bacon fat for one batch. I did sub in a bit of butter, but they ended up tasting, well, a little too bacony. Interestingly, I'm working on a blog post for tomorrow, where my favorite find of the day is a brownie- heat. What I don't mention is that their limited edition is bacon brownie. That I did NOT try. Once in the Ginger snap was enough!

Kerstin said...

Nice job saving them with the cookie cutter! They look completely addicting.

Anonymous said...

Oh my goodness those dogs with the cookie are absolutely adorable!

margot said...

The cookies look really pretty with the scalloped edges, what a creative idea. I under-baked mine, too, and thought they were great. I felt the same way about the recipes this month; all but the macaroons were a big hit here.

Katiecakes said...

What a good idea to cut them out. Makes them look so pretty.

Katie xox

Eliana said...

The edges of your snaps look so perfect and dainty. Love them :)

Unknown said...

What a great idea to grab the cookie cutter - wish I'd thought of that! My first batch baked together into one big huge misshapen cookie :) I liked this month's recipes too, especially because they were all relatively quick and easy!

Ingrid_3Bs said...

I'm so not a cookie baker but you have me wondering what I'm missing.
~ingrid

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