Molasses Ginger Cookies - Soft Baked
Ingredients
2 1/4 C (280g) all-purpose flour1 1/2 tsp baking soda2 tsp ground ginger1 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon1/4 tsp ground cloves1/4 tsp ground nutmeg1/4 tsp salt
3/4 C unsalted butter, softened to room temperature1/2 C (100g) packed light or dark brown sugar1/4 C (50g) granulated sugar1/4 C (60ml/85g) unsulphured or dark molasses1 large egg*, at room temperature2 tsp pure vanilla extract
Sugar for rolling cookies
Directions
1. Whisk together the first 7 dry ingredients and set aside.
2. With a hand mixer, cream together butter and both sugars until creamy, about 2-3 minutes. Beat in molasses until combined, then add egg and vanilla and beat until combined.
3. On low speed, mix in dry ingredients gradually until combined. Dough will be sticky. Press a piece of plastic wrap onto the surface of the dough, smoothing until no air is exposed. Set in refrigerator and chill for 1 hour (or up to 2 days if you're not ready to bake today).
4. When ready to bake, take dough out of fridge to soften, and line 1 or 2 large baking sheets (depending on how many cookies you want to bake) with a silicone baking mat or parchment paper. Preheat convection oven to 340°F **. Pour some sugar into a small bowl for rolling the cookies. I prefer turbinado, but you can use anything you like.
5. When dough has softened just enough to scoop without too much resistance, scoop out dough with a scoop or spoon and roll into balls with your hands - they should be somewhere between a ping pong ball and a golfball sized. If you have a #40 cookie scoop, pack the scoop and flatten accross the top, then release and roll into ball with hands. Roll each ball to coat in the sugar and place on the baking sheet - do not flatten. Leave a little room for cookies to spread.
6. Bake for excatly 12 minutes. Remove from oven and let rest on baking sheet 5 more minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to continue cooling.
7. If you did not use all the dough (and it has not been sitting in the fridge already for 2 days), you can leave it in the fridge for another day. Or, you can make all the dough balls, but don't sugar coat the ones you're not baking today. Flash freeze the dough balls on a baking sheet and, when frozen, place in a plastic freezer bag. Later, when you want to cook them, let them thaw for 30-40 minutes, roll in sugar and bake. If you DID bake all the cookies... they freeze beautifully once fully cooled.
Notes
* I find when adding an egg late in the mixing process, it is best to break the egg into a tiny bowl or measuring cup first, rather than straight into the mixture. It's rare you get a bad egg these days, but you can't take it back once you've added it to the bowl.
** This was written for a convection oven. In a non-convection oven, you might try raising the temp a bit, or baking longer.
Credits: This comes largely unchanged from Sally's Baking Addiction. It is a fabulous website full of very reliable recipes.
Tags: cookies, dessert
Original Post Date: 4/13/21