My Mother’s Gingersnaps
Recipe By :Maida Heatter/Christmas Memories with Recipes
2/3 cup candied ginger -- loosely packed (3 1/2 ounces)
2 cups all-purpose flour -- unsifted, or unbleached, plus additional for rolling out dough
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper -- ground fine
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
8 ounces unsalted butter -- (2 sticks) at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark molasses
1 large egg
1 1/4 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour -- unsifted
(When ready to bake) Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets (preferably the kind with only one raised rim) with aluminum foil, shiny side up.
Cut the ginger into pieces 1/4 inch or less and set aside.
Sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, pepper, and ground ginger and set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter until it is soft. Add the sugar and beat to mix. Beat in the molasses, egg, and vinegar (the mixture might look curdled; it is okay). Then beat in the cut candied ginger. Add the sifted dry ingredients and the whole-wheat flour and beat on low speed until incorporated.
Spread out three lengths of wax paper or foil. Place one third of the dough on each paper. Wrap and refrigerate overnight. (If you can’t wait, put the packages in the freezer for about an hour.)
To roll the dough, generously flour a pastry cloth and rolling pin. Place one piece of chilled dough on the cloth, press down on it a few times with the rolling pin, turn the dough over to flour both sides, and roll out the dough until it is 1/4 inch thick. Work quickly. Do not leave the dough unattended; it becomes sticky and gooey if it is allowed to reach room temperature) which seems to happen quickly). Reflour the cloth and the pin as necessary.
With a round cookie cutter measuring 3 1/8 inches in diameter (or any other size), cut out the cookies; start cutting at the outside edge of the dough and cut the cookies just barely touching each other. Reserve the scraps and press them together (the dough will be too sticky for you to press the scraps together with your hands – it is best to put the scraps in a bowl and mix them together with a spatula). Wrap and rechill.
Wide a wide metal spatula quickly transfer the cookies to the foil-lined sheets, placing them 2 inches apart (if the cookies are 3 1/8 inches wide, I place only 5 cookies on a 15 1/2-by-12-inch sheet – they spread).
Bake two sheets at a time, reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during baking to ensure even baking. As they bake, the cookies will rise and then settle down into thin waferlike cookies. They will take about 15 minutes to bake; if you bake only one sheet, use a rack in the middle of the oven – one sheet might take slightly less time.
When the cookies are done, remove the sheets from the oven and let stand until they are just barely cool. (If you have used the sheets with only one raised rim, slide the foil off the sheet and slide the sheet – which may still be hot – under another piece of foil already prepared with cookies on it, and continue baking.)
Then lift the cookies away from the foil, or transfer the cookies with a wide metal spatula (if the cookies stick to the foil they were not baked long enough – return them to the oven).
Place the cookies on racks to finish cooking or just turn them over to allow the bottoms to dry.
Store airtight.
MAIDA'S NOTES : Many famous people left our house carrying a box or bag of these. They are crisp, chewy, large and thin, spicy and peppery but mellow. The dough should be refrigerated overnight before rolling, cutting, and baking.
Recipe By :Maida Heatter/Christmas Memories with Recipes
2/3 cup candied ginger -- loosely packed (3 1/2 ounces)
2 cups all-purpose flour -- unsifted, or unbleached, plus additional for rolling out dough
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper -- ground fine
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
8 ounces unsalted butter -- (2 sticks) at room temperature
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup dark molasses
1 large egg
1 1/4 teaspoons cider vinegar
1 cup all-purpose whole wheat flour -- unsifted
(When ready to bake) Adjust two racks to divide the oven into thirds. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line cookie sheets (preferably the kind with only one raised rim) with aluminum foil, shiny side up.
Cut the ginger into pieces 1/4 inch or less and set aside.
Sift together the all-purpose flour, baking soda, salt, pepper, and ground ginger and set aside.
In the large bowl of an electric mixer beat the butter until it is soft. Add the sugar and beat to mix. Beat in the molasses, egg, and vinegar (the mixture might look curdled; it is okay). Then beat in the cut candied ginger. Add the sifted dry ingredients and the whole-wheat flour and beat on low speed until incorporated.
Spread out three lengths of wax paper or foil. Place one third of the dough on each paper. Wrap and refrigerate overnight. (If you can’t wait, put the packages in the freezer for about an hour.)
To roll the dough, generously flour a pastry cloth and rolling pin. Place one piece of chilled dough on the cloth, press down on it a few times with the rolling pin, turn the dough over to flour both sides, and roll out the dough until it is 1/4 inch thick. Work quickly. Do not leave the dough unattended; it becomes sticky and gooey if it is allowed to reach room temperature) which seems to happen quickly). Reflour the cloth and the pin as necessary.
With a round cookie cutter measuring 3 1/8 inches in diameter (or any other size), cut out the cookies; start cutting at the outside edge of the dough and cut the cookies just barely touching each other. Reserve the scraps and press them together (the dough will be too sticky for you to press the scraps together with your hands – it is best to put the scraps in a bowl and mix them together with a spatula). Wrap and rechill.
Wide a wide metal spatula quickly transfer the cookies to the foil-lined sheets, placing them 2 inches apart (if the cookies are 3 1/8 inches wide, I place only 5 cookies on a 15 1/2-by-12-inch sheet – they spread).
Bake two sheets at a time, reversing the sheets top to bottom and front to back once during baking to ensure even baking. As they bake, the cookies will rise and then settle down into thin waferlike cookies. They will take about 15 minutes to bake; if you bake only one sheet, use a rack in the middle of the oven – one sheet might take slightly less time.
When the cookies are done, remove the sheets from the oven and let stand until they are just barely cool. (If you have used the sheets with only one raised rim, slide the foil off the sheet and slide the sheet – which may still be hot – under another piece of foil already prepared with cookies on it, and continue baking.)
Then lift the cookies away from the foil, or transfer the cookies with a wide metal spatula (if the cookies stick to the foil they were not baked long enough – return them to the oven).
Place the cookies on racks to finish cooking or just turn them over to allow the bottoms to dry.
Store airtight.
MAIDA'S NOTES : Many famous people left our house carrying a box or bag of these. They are crisp, chewy, large and thin, spicy and peppery but mellow. The dough should be refrigerated overnight before rolling, cutting, and baking.