Old-fashioned ginger cookies

My family’s favourite cookie!

In our house, these are considered the greatest cookies of all time. Moist and chewy, fragrant with spice but not overly sweet, they disappear very quickly from the cookie jar. While these cookies do freeze beautifully, I like to make a double batch and freeze half the dough balls so they can be baked fresh when we’re ready for more, because, really, is there anything better than a still-warm-from-the-oven cookie and a glass of milk? The only thing I can think of is ice cream sandwiches made with these cookies.

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup (185 mL) butter or block (not tub) margarine, at room temperature
• 1 cup (250 mL) white sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup (60 mL) molasses
• 2 cups (500 mL) flour
• 2 teaspoons (10 mL) baking soda
• 2 teaspoons (10 mL) powdered ginger
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground allspice

Method

• Mix dry ingredients together and set aside.
• Cream the sugar and margarine together, then beat in egg and molasses.
• Blend in dry ingredients and stir till thoroughly combined.
• Refrigerate dough for at least one hour; this allows the flour to become fully hydrated.
• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Shape dough into one inch balls and roll each one in white sugar to coat completely. If freezing dough balls, don’t roll in sugar until you are ready to bake them.
• Place 2” apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Don’t flatten the balls – they will flatten as they bake.
• Bake for 8 – 10 minutes. They are done if the tops have developed cracks all across them. Do not overbake – you want them to still be quite soft coming out of the oven.
• Let cool on baking sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks.

Makes 3 – 4 dozen cookies depending on the size of your dough balls.