Ginger Snaps

The holiday season is underway! I especially love the rich flavor and spice of ginger snaps this time of year, and this recipe is deliciously rich with flavor and spice. I have a feeling these cookies may become a holiday tradition for us.

The recipe is easy enough, though it is tedious work rolling out all those ¾-inch balls of dough. Turns out, Sarah, my trusty assistant (she came for coffee and I put her to work), isn't so trusty with the more tedious tasks - her cookies were twice the size they were supposed to be and spread out too much on the cookie sheet. I relieved her of her duties after the first batch and finished the job myself. Also, just because it seemed like a good idea, I rolled the dough balls in sugar before baking.

Sarah's cookies are on the left; mine are on the right:

The one thing I regret was that I took the cookies out of the oven too soon. The recipe says to let them cook 12 minutes, but I was afraid of overcooking them and left them in only about 9 minutes. I don't know what I was thinking. Ginger snaps are supposed to be snappy. What I mostly ended up with were more like ginger chews. They all tasted fantastic, but only a few of the smaller ones were crisp the way ginger snaps are supposed to be. Oh, well... there's always next year!

Ginger Snaps
Preheat oven to 325°
Cream ¾ cup butter with 2 cups sugar.
Stir in 2 well-beaten eggs, ½ cup molasses, 2 tsp vinegar.
Sift and add 3¾ cups all-purpose flour, 1½ tsp soda, 2-3 tsp ginger, ½ tsp cinnamon, ¼ tsp cloves.
Mix ingredients until blended.
Form dough into ¾-inch balls. [Roll in sugar if desired.]
Bake on a greased cookie sheet 12 min.