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Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

December 16, 2013 by Molly 7 Comments

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Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

I have a special recipe for you today.

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

These cookies are the epitome of “Christmas” for me. My family has made them every year for as long as I can remember…and with good reason.

My maternal great-grandmother first made these, and the recipe has since been passed down to three more generations. These ginger snaps are spicy and sweet with the most incredible texture. They are chewy on the inside, and the sugar crust on the outside gives them a great crunch.

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

They are THE BEST. And this is coming from someone who isn’t even nuts about gingerbread or ginger snaps in general. These are, hands down, my favorite Christmas cookie. It isn’t Christmas unless we have a batch of these ready to go.

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

These cookies conjur up many memories for me. My sisters and I would fight over who got to roll the dough in the sugar…EVERY.SINGLE.TIME…like, even when we were grown-ass adults! My mom always sampled the raw dough unapologetically…and several baked cookies shortly thereafter, too! My dad, who swears he doesn’t eat sweets, could not resist a plate of these after Christmas dinner. When I bite into one of these now, all these memories come rushing back.

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

Good stuff.

Because this is such an old-school recipe, you will see ingredients like shortening and blackstrap molasses. Trust me, you do not want to stray from the recipe AT ALL.

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

I tried making these with butter and it was a horrible fail. Same outcome with regular molasses. I’m not sure what it is about those particular ingredients that makes them so necessary, but they just are. I’m not a master baker, but I have learned by trial and error that you don’t want to mess with the original recipe. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

You’ll also notice that some of the instructions are more casual due to the fact that this is an old fashioned recipe. For instance, the baking soda should be dissolved in “a little bit” of hot water. I know, I know. What the heck does that mean? For me, it’s roughly a tablespoon or two of water. I never measure and these never fail. So take comfort in that!

So, from my family to yours, enjoy these special holiday cookies this season. Maybe they’ll make it into your annual rotation and you can start developing new memories with your family.

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

Dibs on rolling the dough in sugar! No. Seriously.

 

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Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps


  • Yield: makes roughly 3 dozen cookies 1x
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Ingredients

Scale
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 4 tablespoons blackstrap molasses
  • ¾ cup shortening
  • 2¼ cup flour (add more if dough is too sticky to roll)
  • 1 egg
  • 2 teaspoons baking soda, dissolved in a little hot water
  • ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
  • 1 teaspoon ground ginger
  • 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • Pinch of salt
  • Additional sugar, for coating the cookies (about 1 cup)

Instructions

  1. Preheat the oven to 375°F and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.
  2. Whisk together the sugar, molasses, and shortening until smooth in a large bowl. Whisk in the egg and dissolved baking soda.
  3. Combine the flour, spices, and salt in another bowl. Gradually add the flour mixture to the wet ingredients. Stir until well combined. The dough should be shiny and easily hold together when pinched between your fingers. If the dough is too soft to hold together, refrigerate it for 15 minutes.
  4. Place the additional sugar in a shallow bowl. Roll the dough into balls about 1 inch in diameter and roll to coat in sugar.
  5. Place the cookies on the prepared baking sheet and bake for 7-8 minutes. The cookies should look puffy and undercooked when removed from oven. As they cool, they will harden and crack slightly. Do not overbake these! They stay soft and chewy because of the shorter baking time.

NOTES:

  1. This is an old-fashioned recipe. The shortening is key. Butter will not work as a substitute in this recipe – believe me, I’ve tried!
  2. We always mixed this by hand with a whisk/spatula, and that is what works. If you try this using a hand-held or stand mixer, please let me know how it turns out.

Did you make this recipe?

Tag @yestoyolks on Instagram and hashtag it #yestoyolks

Soft & Chewy Ginger Snaps

Related

Filed Under: Cookies, Dessert, Recipes, Vegetarian Tagged With: baked goods, christmas, Christmas cookies, cookie week, cookies, dessert, ginger, ginger snaps, holidays, molasses

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Comments

  1. Eddie says

    December 16, 2013 at 5:07 pm

    3 dozen sounds about the number of these i could take down.

    Reply
    • Molly says

      December 17, 2013 at 12:26 pm

      My husband isn’t a huge fan of ginger, so I ate about 2/3 of them so far. Whoops!

      Reply
  2. Christine @ Cooking with Cakes says

    December 17, 2013 at 10:31 am

    my two all-time favorite cookie recipes (also christmas cookies!) are passed down from both my great grandmothers, so I love this! plus my fiance is obsessive with ginger snaps, so I know he’d freak for these! great pictures 🙂

    Reply
    • Molly says

      December 17, 2013 at 1:43 pm

      Thanks, Christine! Some of the best recipes are those handed down from grandmothers. They always seem to include instructions like “a little bit of this” and “a pinch of that.” It’s super fun trying them out!

      Reply
  3. Alysa says

    September 11, 2015 at 5:49 am

    Hi Molly! This recipe looks fabulous. I’ve never heard of dissolving the baking soda in water first — unique idea. I’m going to make these this morning and send a few in college care packages.

    Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Dark Chocolate Ginger Truffles with Smoked Sea Salt says:
    July 10, 2014 at 8:22 am

    […] sticking with the ginger theme today. I love the stuff. Plus, as I keep reciting, it’s the right season to load up on […]

    Reply
  2. Pumpkin Spice Latte Cookies says:
    October 5, 2020 at 8:12 am

    […] cookies are based off of my great-grandmother’s ginger snap recipe, which is a holiday must in my family. It is simply NOT Christmas without those addictive little […]

    Reply

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