Thursday, December 31, 2009

Double-Ginger Spice Cookies

I baked all of my usual treats over the holidays this year--sugar cookies, walnut-cardamom balls, snickerdoodles, chocolate-walnut bars. But my favorite was this little ginger snap.

I found a recipe for a spicy little cookie on Epicurious. The recipe called for vegetable shortening, but I was shopping at Whole Foods, and all I could find that might suit was coconut oil, which is solid at temperatures below 76 degrees. I crossed my fingers and tried it. Delicious! The cookies were crisp on the outside, but soft and chewy on the inside. And the coconut oil added a wonderful, exotic fragrance and flavor to the cookie. One small substitution that had a big impact on the finished product, and a cookie that I will bake again.

Ginger Spice Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
2 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup chopped crystallized ginger
1 cup (packed) brown sugar
1/2 cup coconut oil
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 large egg
1/4 cup unsulphered molasses

Combine flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in a bowl. Add the chopped crystallized ginger, and stir to coat with the flour mixture. In a mixing bowl, beat the brown sugar, coconut oil, and butter until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and beat until combined. Add the flour mixture and beat until just blended. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper. Roll spoonfuls of dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Roll the balls lightly in granulated sugar to coat, and place on the cookie sheets. Bake 12 minutes until the cookies begin to crackle on top but are still soft.

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