The Ultimate Ginger Cookie

This post is dedicated to Katie, the one who introduced me to this blog, let me be part of it, and gave me the cutest baking supplies known to man as a holiday present! If you're wondering how baking supplies can be cute, picture a spatula with an orange, plastic, bendable little person on the end of it. Okay, that doesn't sound cute.... but I promise they are. So thank you, Katie! Her present reminded me of these ginger cookies I had made a couple weeks ago for a fundraising holiday bake sale, and since this blog has been sadly inactive for a while, I thought I'd give a little gift back to Katie- in the form of a blog post.

Although it's a little late to make them for Christmas, that's what New Year's Eve is for! These sweets are everything you could want from a ginger cookie. They are crunchy, sugary, very gingery, and overall just delicious. I had a few issues with expansion of the cookies- some of them stretched out so much they joined edges, resulting in a square cookie- but that is easily remedied by forming smaller cookies before baking. My friend also made these cookies, and hers turned out much smaller and differently colored. But who cares? The flavor is the same and if you are the type of baker who obsesses over aesthetics, practice makes perfect or, in this case, uniform.

The two things that you notice first when you take a bite of this cookie are, first, the pronounced ginger flavor. Folks, if you don't like ginger, don't make these. Although who doesn't like ginger when it's in the form of dessert? Anyway, the second big flavor in the cookies is sugar. The extra sugar that the cookies are rolled in before baking creates that crinkly top and sweet crunch that elevates a simple cookie to a memorable experience.

I'll stop talking now. Go make these cookies; eat a few tomorrow night to keep you awake until midnight, and usher in the New Year with a much-deserved treat!

Yummy Ginger Cookies

Ingredients:

2 1/4 all-purpose flour

2 tsps ground ginger

1 tsp baking soda

3/4 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp salt

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 cup white sugar

1 egg

1 tbsp water

1/4 cup molasses

2 tbsps white sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt.

2. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1 cup sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and the mix in the molasses and water. Stir the sifted dry ingredients gradually into the wet ingredients.

3. Shape dough into walnut sized balls and roll them in 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place them 2 inches apart (make sure there is enough space inbetween!) on an ungreased cookie sheet. Flatten very slightly.

4. Bake for 10 minutes. Allow cookies to cool completely before removing them from the baking sheet.