Kitchen Reader Cookie Exchange

This month, instead of a book review, we're posting a favorite/meaningful/holiday-ish cookie. My cookie is a double gingersnap. I've been making then for more years than... well, for a long time. I got the recipe from this book: The Wellesley Cookie Exchange. Apparently, this is one of the oldest exchanges around. I'm unsure of the actual history, but I know they've been doing it a while and there are two cookbooks based on their treats.

This was my first real taste of ginger. I have absolutely grown to love this cookie like no other. This is my favorite winter cookie. It's the one people request when they ask me to bake for them. They are spicy and sweet, slightly crunchy and chewy, and, I think I need to go bake. I only ever need to look at this recipe once a year, usually in the fall, to refresh my memory. The page in the cookbook is appropriately stained.

I have no photos of the cookies that come from this recipe. I think we just always eat them before I ever get to take any. I'm stealing this photo (with full credits) because mine look just as yummy.

Here's the recipe if you'd like to have some ginger nirvana:

Double Gingersnaps (courtesy of the Wellesley Cookie Exchange cookbook)

3 sticks butter, softened

2 c. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1/2 c. molasses

4 c. flour

2 t. baking soda

2 t. cinnamon

2 t. ground cloves

4 t. ground ginger

*sugar for rolling

In a stand mixer, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and molasses and mix well. Blend the dry ingredients together. Add carefully to the mix. Stir just until no flour remains. Refrigerate the dough AT LEAST four hours. (I always make this the day before I want to bake.) Roll the dough into walnut-sized balls, and then roll in sugar. Place on ungreased sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 13 minutes. The cookies will puff up and then shrink and crackle.

*I have experimented with different kinds of sugar - granulated, coarse, ginger (the sugar left from candied ginger). All are delicious.

Happy cookies!