generally, i'm a soft and chewy kind of cookie girl. i have no time for biscotti. why? why would you double bake a cookie? it's wrong, i tell you, just wrong!
but, when it comes to ginger cookies, i'm a snap kind of girl. something about the hard crunch of a ginger snap just seems to fit the hard spicy flavor.
but then, i got sucked in by the magazine photo.
so sparkly, so deep and warm looking. that's a cookie that needed to enter my repertoire.
these cookies really are softer than they are chewy. the mixture of butter and shortening makes them tender, and i think the molasses helps them down that path as well.
molasses cookies are totally acceptable as soft cookies.
but do not mistake these for molasses cookies. they have a serious one-two-three ginger punch: powdered, fresh, and crystallized.
crystallized ginger really is magical. well, crystallized pretty much anything's pretty good. foodie friends of my mother's from the big easy came to visit one summer and made crystallized citrus rind. it totally blew my mind that you could MAKE that. like, from SCRATCH.
they also kick started my obsession with squash blossoms, but that's a story for another time, and definitely another season.
but don't worry. i didn't crystallize my own ginger, and really, neither should you. it would ruin what is otherwise a super easy cookie recipe.
the ginger teams up here with some other nice holiday flavors. nutmeg, cinnamon, obvious.
it is the black pepper, though, that i think adds a nice, unexpected layer of spice to the mix. i think i'm going to keep that in mind for future recipes.
if i can ever find any of my spices again. my ocd spice organization system seems to be rebelling on me.
i guess i can't be that ocd since my kitchen counter's looked like that for a couple weeks now. i just can't bring myself to address the situation.
ahem.
back to the cookies. i might be failing in spice organization, but i finally did my math-hating self a huge favor and got a new app for my iphone that automatically converts cup amounts to ounces or grams.
i mean, seriously. why have i been multiplying fractions for so long?
and i wonder why i can never get the flour right.
my iphone and ipad are seriously some of my most important kitchen tools.
they help save me from myself. if only siri could see what i was actually doing, i'd really be rolling.
but, to be honest, these cookies came out great. the turbinado sugar on the outside gives a great crunch, but the cookie is melt in your mouth soft, and the flavor is a wonderfully intense spice bomb.
bake them. you won't be sorry.
Chewy Ginger Cookies
Find the recipe at Bon Appetit
"well, crystallized pretty much anything's pretty good."
except meth...
I found a recipe on crystallized ginger a few weeks ago - surprisingly easy, although I didn't let the ginger cook in syrup long enough because it boiled over at one point.
Posted by: anthea | 12/20/2011 at 10:45 AM