Ginger & Spice Cookies a perfect Christmas gift

An American lady living in my home town, shared this recipe with me a few years ago.  I usually make these  at  Christmas time and once packaged up, I often use as a wee gift for friends.  Not surprisingly, the same will happen this year – gifting to some of my ni Vanuatu friends living in New Zealand at the moment.

 

Ginger and Spice Cookies – recipe originally given to me by Nancy Roberge

200g butter, softened at room temperature

350g sugar

2 medium eggs

100ml molasses

2 Tbsp fresh, grated ginger (optional)

450g flour

1 tsp baking soda

2 tsp Venui Ground Ginger  (the original recipe uses 2 tsp BUT if you when using Venui Ground Ginger, you can cut back to 1 tsp if you wish, it is so intense, that you will still get a definite ginger zing – however, I’ve used 2 tsp this time and these cookies are good)

1 tsp ground cinnamon

¼ tsp ground cloves

½ tsp salt

¼ cup sugar (to decorate)

 

Preheat oven to 160C

Sift flour and baking soda into a bowl.  Add the ground ginger cinnamon, cloves and salt. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mix the butter and 350g of sugar until creamy in texture.

Add and mix in the eggs, one at a time. Once the eggs are fully incorporated, stir in the molasses and freshly grated ginger (remember this is optional).   Gradually add and stir in the dry ingredients, until it is fully incorporated into the wet mixture.

 

At this point you have 3 options:

1. Roll the dough into small balls, press the ball into spare sugar supply, and place on a baking tray (sugar side up) a few centimetres apart, ready to bake.
2. Put spoonfuls of the dough onto baking paper and shape the dough into logs about 5cm thick.   Refrigerate for about 1 hour (or longer) until firm. Take out of the fridge, remove the baking paper, roll the logs to tidy them up, roll in sugar, cut into 1cm slices, put the slices on a tray a few centimetres apart, ready to bake.   OR do as I did – instead of rolling the length of the log in sugar, cut into slices, and dip one side of the cookie into sugar – and place sugar-side up on a baking tray.
3. Do as with #2 above, but you can put the log into the freezer for up to a month before cutting and baking.

The sugar dipping creates a “crazed” effect on the cookie – and I like the look that texture gives.  I added some of those little silver balls, to give a festive look.

Bake for about 12 minutes until brown. Remove from the oven and let the cookies “set” on the tray for 5-10 minutes before removing to a cooling rack. Keep in an airtight container for up to a month.