Gingersnap Cookies

Growing up, my family didn't eat a lot of chocolate.  Okay, any chocolate.  My mom is a migraine sufferer and my brother was allergic, so there were no brownies and no chocolate chip cookies.  I know!  What childhood is complete with chocolate chip cookies?  To this day, a chocolate chip cookie seems very rare and special to me.  We occasionally had carob-chip cookies, but any of you carob eaters out there know that it's really not the same.  The go-to cookie in my house was the gingersnap.

Even though my own family eats chocolate (and we eat A LOT, mostly the dark stuff), I still make these cookies about half the time instead of chocolate chip and the boys don't mind one bit.  I like cookies that ride the line between cakey and crispy and these cookies are exactly that, thin but chewy and toothsome.  If you are looking for gingersnaps that actually snap, this is not the recipe for you, but you might find you like it anyway.

If you've made gingersnaps before, then you're probably familiar with rolling the balls of dough in sugar to make a sweet, sparkly exterior on the cookie.  While there's nothing wrong with a sparkly cookie, I usually omit that part because, honestly, can you really taste the extra sugar?  I for one would rather not eat that extra sugar and I've found that the cookies spread, bake and taste the same, so you're really not missing out.

One last comment on this recipe: you must use shortening.  The cookies do not turn out the same with butter because of the different water content between butter and shortening.  You will notice that I have a weight measurement for the shortening in addition to the standard cup measurement--it is much, much easier to put your mixing bowl on a scale and add globs of shortening until you get to the right amount than it is to scoop it into a cup, level it out, then scoop it back out.  The same goes for measuring molasses.  Less waste, less mess.  And I will go out of my way every time to avoid a mess.

You can click right on the recipe to be taken to a download page that will give you an easy to print copy of the recipe.  I am happy to share these cookies with you and would appreciate you following the hobby room before you download (if you already follow, thank you and enjoy!).

How have food allergies or restrictions changed the way you see your favorite foods?