Friday 13 December 2013

Soft Ginger Cookies



I don't think I've mentioned it before on this here blog, but for a couple of years I've been attempting to participate in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap, only for my plans to be foiled by some sort of obstacle, which, despite all beign my own fault, had caused many an evening of despair.

This year, however, was different. As soon as I got an email saying it was coming soon, I set up daily reminder emails (desperate times call for desperate measures), which by no means stopped me from leaving it until midnight on the last day, but did end up working! And so I found myself, amid the stress of beginning a new school year (teachers to impress! folders to buy!) searching for a delicious, christmassy but not tooo christmassy for early December, cookie recipe to bake.

These are the ones I chose, based on a Joy of Baking recipe, and I'm very glad I did. They're delicious and a really nice texture, somewhere between a softer gingerbread and a rock-hard gingernut (it's not my recipe anyway so I'm not going to count this as self-flattery). They're also dead-easy, which was a priority because YEAR ELEVEN (ahhh it scares me just to say it!).

I packaged them up prettily (and securely) as I could, and then totally forgot to photograph them in their boxes which sucks a little :( But you can glimpse the cute little IKEA bags I put them in a photo Erika took of them when they arrived here.

They were sent to Erika from Erika Rax, Faaiza from Modest Munchies and Fatima from Fati's Recipes, and fingers crossed they all arrived ok!

I received cookies too, and I can't in words explain the excitement I felt, sweltering hot after the walk home from the train after school, to see not one but two (!!!) parcels sitting on my door step just for me! Then, just when I'd forgotten, the last ones came, and it happened all over again. My cookies were these scrumptious Peanut Butter Choc-Chip cookies from Cassie, these delicious Espresso meringues with Chocolate and Almond and some amazing Double Choc Cookies with Hazelnuts from Fatima. I loved them all (as did my family, who I have begrudgingly shared with)!

Soft Ginger Cookies
Adapted from: http://www.joyofbaking.com/GingerCookies.html

1 cup (226 grams) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup (210 grams) light brown sugar
1/4 cup (60 ml) liquid molasses
2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups (345 grams) all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
200g crystallised ginger, finely chopped
1 cup (200 grams) brown sugar (for covering the cookie balls before baking)

1. In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the molasses, egg whites, and vanilla extract and beat until incorporated.
2. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and mix until well combined. Add the crystallised ginger and stir until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
3. Cover the batter with plastic wrap and chill in the refrigerator for about 60 minutes.
4. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (350˚F) . Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place about 1 cup (200 grams) of white granulated sugar in a medium sized bowl.
5. When the dough has chilled sufficiently, roll into 1 inch (2.5 cm) balls. Then roll the balls of dough into the sugar, coating them thoroughly. Place on the baking sheet, spacing about 5cm (2 inches) apart and, with the bottom of a glass, flatten the cookies slightly.
6. Bake for about 8 - 10 minutes or until the cookies are firm but are still a little soft in the centers. (The longer the cookies bake, the more crisp they will be.) Cool on a wire rack. Makes about 4 dozen cookies.

Enjoy! I'm off to have a morning coffee and cookie, but how will I ever decide which one?
Mia :)

P.S. What time is it? Summertime! Yup, school's finally out for the summer down under and so (hopefully) you'll be hearing a bit more from me in the next 6 weeks. I can't wait!


1 comment:

  1. This is so cool! I would love to participate next year!

    ReplyDelete

Why hello there! If you liked or disliked this post or just want to say 'hi', feel free to leave a comment. I love getting comments- it's nice to know that someone out there is actually reading what I have to say, and they're really motivating!
Mia xo

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