Anne Severson’s Gingersnaps
Updated Oct. 27, 2022
- Total Time
- 45 minutes, plus at least 2 hours’ resting and cooling
- Rating
- Comments
- Read comments
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Ingredients
- ¾cup butter
- 1cup sugar, plus more for rolling
- 1egg
- 2teaspoons baking soda
- 1scant teaspoon kosher salt
- 2teaspoons ground ginger
- 1teaspoon cinnamon
- 2teaspoons ground cloves
- 4tablespoons molasses
- 2cups flour
Preparation
- Step 1
In a stand mixer or food processor, cream together the butter and 1 cup sugar, then add the egg, soda, salt, spices and molasses and mix well.
- Step 2
Add flour and mix well. Use a bit more flour if the dough seems too sticky — it should be stiff. Shape into a ball and refrigerate for at least 1 .5 hours or overnight.
- Step 3
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Roll dough into small balls (smaller than a golf ball but bigger than a marble). Rolls balls in a bowl of sugar; set each on an ungreased cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. Bake 11 to 13 minutes, or until puffy. Cool on a wire rack.
Private Notes
Comments
Funny thing is my mom used to use four teaspoons of cloves. I cut it back to two, and you really do need a lot of clove for the kick. That's not to say less cloves is a wrong move, by any means.
Not "freakish" (previous comment) if you had a chance to read the story that accompanied this recipe when it was first published in the newspaper. It was titled "Please Mom One More Time" and begins, "I asked my mom the question this year, hoping like a child the answer would be 'yes' ". I can't make these cookies, or even think of them, without remembering Kim Severson's beautiful tribute to her mom. Almost like I was there.
Ginger snaps are meant to be flat and crisp.
Really delicious. Not too sweet, firm and moist, just right. I doubled all the spices and I’m glad I did.
Delicious….
My new favorite cookie! Buzzed up some for a key lime pie crust (do not add any sugar and only half the butter), and then watched guests "sneak a few" of the remaining cookies once the pie was gone, until at the end of an evening there was not one left.
