Saturday, March 19, 2011

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.

22 comments:

  1. Family Circle used to be a great magazine and very inexpensive. I haven't read it in years.

    All you have to do is say "ginger" and I'm there. I prefer spice to chocolate, so I would eat these before a chocolate chip cookie any ole day.

    Bookmarking this page for future reference.

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  2. I used to agree with your son-in-law that choc. chip cookies were the best but I've let that go and now believe my favorite cookie is a ginger cookie (snap). I found a recipe on a blog a few months ago (author blog) that I tried and loved but I'll give yours a try :-)

    By the way, we found our favorite corned beef recipe in a Family Circle magazine about 20 years ago.

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  3. Love Ginger cookies, yours look so good!

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  4. I love ginger cookies, but they have to be soft, plus very spicy! Actually I usually achieve the effect just by eating sugared ginger that you can buy from bins in health food stores!

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  5. They sound very nice. Usually I always go for the chocolate cookies also, but I'd definitely give those a try.

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  6. Shouldn't have stopped by...those look soooo good and now I am craving cookies which aren't on my diet plan. Have a great weekend.

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  7. My mother still subscribes to Family Circle and Woman's Day and she gives me the issues when she's done. There's something so homey about those magazines :)
    Ginger cookies are one of my faves!

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  8. I love a good spicy cookie made with molasses. I'll have to give yours a try. I remember the days when those magazines were so inexpensive right there at the check-out counter. I was a big Woman's Day fan. I also remember the specials sales each week at grocery stores for things like the books you mentioned. I got a great set of dishes that way plus all sorts of other things. I remember when gas stations did that sort of promotion too, usually with glasses.

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  9. Margaret has become our official cookie baker... wonder if she'd make these for us. They look delicious!
    Love the plate, too :-)

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  10. I am going to make these this week!
    I was tidying up my spice shelf and noticed a rather large jar of ginger that I bought for something...and really need to use up.
    Also, if I bring them to work, people really like me. :-)

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  11. I love ginger cookies! I had no idea ginger helps with vertigo. I'll have to try it the next time I struggle with vertigo.

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  12. Now that brings back memories. My mom always bought Family Circle when she was grocery shopping.

    My cooking baking specialty is chocolate chip, but I'd try these.

    You can visit my Weekend Cooking HERE

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  13. These look great! I am not sure how accessible molasses and shortening are here though
    (not actually sure what shortening is!).

    Visiting all these weekend cooking posts early on a Sunday morning is sure making me hungry though!

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  14. Oooo...these look so good. I've already saved the recipe and hope to make them this coming week.

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  15. I've been thinking about baking ginger-y things lately, this is a wonderful recipe that I'll have to try soon. Thanks for sharing :)

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  16. I haven't made these in years. Thanks for the recipe. I'll whip out a batch before the Texas summer heat gets here and the oven stays unused until the cold weather hits again.
    Ann

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  17. I LOVE ginger cookies. Yours are just a bit different from the Irish Ginger Snaps I make -here if you want to see the recipe:
    http://lettersfromahillfarm.blogspot.com/2006/12/irish-ginger-snaps.html

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  18. Yummy!! These look great and I love that ginger can help settle your stomach and taste good at the same time.

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  19. These cookies look super yummy! Thanks for sharing the recipe!

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  20. I haven't tried eating ginger cookies. I might consider this one.

    Buy WoW Accounts

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