Weekend Cooking: Ginger cookies

This is my contribution to Weekend Cooking, a meme hosted by Beth Fish Reads. Weekend Cooking is open to anyone who has any kind of food-related post to share: Book (novel, nonfiction) reviews, cookbook reviews, movie reviews, recipes, random thoughts, gadgets, fabulous quotations, photographs.

This is the only ginger cookie recipe I have been making for years and years; I've never found a better one. It's a big fave at our house. My son-in-law, who says the only good cookie contains chocolate chips, is now a big fan of these cookies since I made them on their last visit.

Ginger cookies:

2 cups sifted all- purpose flour

1 tbsp ground ginger

2 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3/4 cup vegetable shortening

1 cup sugar

1 egg, unbeaten

1/4 cup molasses

granulated sugar to roll dough in

1. Measure flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into sifter. Sift onto wax paper. Return to sifter.

2. Cream shortening until soft in medium-size bowl; add sugar gradually, creaming after each addition until mix is well-blended.

3. Beat in egg and molasses

4. Sift dry ingredients over creamed mixture; blend well.

5. Form teaspoonfuls of dough into small balls and then roll in granulated sugar to cover the entire outside surface; place 2" apart on ungreased cookie sheets.

6. Bake in moderate oven (350) 12-15 minutes or until tops are slightly rounded, crackly and lightly browned.

Note: For my oven I cook them about 12 minutes and they almost look a little underdone but I take them out and they are perfect when they cool. If you follow this recipe and use a teaspoon of dough, it should make about 4 dozen. I like a bigger cookie so I use a  small (1 1/4" in diameter) ice cream scoop to make 2 1/2 dozen cookies.  Make a nice hot cuppa tea to go with a couple of these cookies and heaven awaits!

 Ginger is a great ingredient for nausea or vertigo. I've made this recipe before taking a cruise and  ate 3 cookies about 1/2 hour before sailing and no seasickness. When we make the "big trek north", I eat three of these for breakfast, a couple after lunch and I am not reeling when we get out of the car.

This recipe was taken from The Family Circle Illustrated Library of Cooking, Vol. 5, copyright 1972. I bought this set of cookbooks, week by week,  from the grocery store for .99 cents per book. Somehow, though, I missed 2 volumes out of 16. They are still one of my favorites! When we first got married I used to pick up the Family Circle magazine and at that time they cost .05 cents per issue.