I was super excited to be participating in my first ever food blogger event this winter – The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap!
It’s basically a “secret Santa”, with dozens of cookies instead. You mail out three dozen cookies to fellow food bloggers around the country (and the world), and you get three dozen different cookies from three different bloggers in return. I had so much fun this year that I’m definitely going to be participating in it again next year!
Now, on to the cookies I made this year. It’s a classic, and I haven’t met a single person that isn’t a fan of gingernsnaps.
According to my memory, these are the first ever cookies I remember making. Most people start out with something simple and classic – like chocolate chip, oatmeal raisin, or M & M cookies. For some reason, these were the ones I chose to make – I’m weird, I know. And now I’m going to make you think I’m even more weird – that was only a mere 5 years ago. That’s right, I don’t recall ever making cookies on my own up until 5 years ago. I guess I’ve lived a sheltered life up until then…
These cookies were also the ones that won Brian over. I remember making these one day before going to work a few years back and brought them to work one night. They worked like a magic love potion, because after he tasted how amazingly soft these spiced cookies were, he immediately fell in love with me and we lived happily ever after after that.
Okay okay, maybe that’s not exactly how it happened, but I can promise you that these cookies are pretty dang good – so good in fact that it actually is Brian’s favorite dessert item out of everything I’ve ever made.
In our household, gingersnap cookies are considered one of the classic holiday cookies, along with beautifully decorated sugar cookies and anything with mint and chocolate. To me, it is what kick starts the Christmas holiday season – it smells like the holidays, reminds me of the holidays, and tastes just like the holidays…
I like my cookies soft and chewy in the center while having a slight crispy exterior, which is why this cookie is so amazing. It is also why it’s one of the regular cookies in our cookie rotation. It’s rolled in sugar and slightly flattens out a bit after it cools from the oven. And even if it doesn’t seem like it has a whole lot of classic gingersnap crinkles when you take them out of the oven, those crinkles somehow magically appear after sitting out to cool for a while – see, they are magical little cookies.
- 3 sticks (1.5 cups) butter, at room temperature
- 2 cups granulated sugar, plus 1 cup for rolling
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup molasses
- 4.5 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1-2 tablespoons milk
- In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, salt, and nutmeg. Stir and set aside.
- Using an electric mixer, cream the butter and 2 cups of sugar. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add molasses and beat under medium speed for 2-3 minutes. Slowly add in the dry ingredients, beat for a few more minutes until thoroughly combined. You might have to stop the mixer and scrap the bottom and edges a bit with a rubber spatula, then mix some more to make sure everything on the bottom is combined.
- Cover and chill in the refrigerator for at least an hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicon baking mats.
- Place the remaining 1 cup of sugar in a shallow medium bowl. Roll cookie dough into 1" balls, roll in sugar, and place about 2" apart on your baking sheets. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until cookies are slightly puffy and lightly browned. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 5 minutes before moving them onto a wired cooling rack. Cool completely.
- Drizzling these cookies are completely optional. To make the drizzle, whisk the powdered sugar and milk in a medium bowl. Add more milk if mixture is too thick. Place the powdered sugar mixture in a Ziploc bag, cut a small hole on a corner of the bag, and drizzle over cookies.
- Makes 65-70 cookies
The drizzle on top of these are completely optional – I’ve never drizzled glaze over my gingersnaps up until this year. They turned out to be a nice addition though. If you’re a soft chewy cookie kind of person like me, these are definitely for you!
Have I sold you on these yet? I hope so, because these are definitely a must for the holiday season!
**Disclaimer: This recipe was actually adapted from someone else’s recipe I found online a few years ago. Unfortunately I never wrote down whose original recipe it was – if you happen to stumble upon my post and realize the recipe looks familiar, please let me know and I’ll give you credit for it!© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission. If you want to republish this recipe, please re-write the recipe in your own words, or kindly link back to this post for the recipe.
