How To Make Gingersnap Cookies
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These gingersnap cookies are a wonderful afternoon treat – especially if you love the fragrant and spicy taste of ginger! The cookies are delicious and pair perfectly with a cup of tea. Why not make a batch for an afternoon tea party – the dough can be made in advance and they bake in around 10 minutes.
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Gingersnap Cookies
Ginger is one of those spices that you either love or hate, so if you fall into the latter category then you may want to check out another one of my cookie recipes!
However if you love ginger, then you are going to love these yummy cookies that are spiced with ground ginger as well as ground cinnamon and cloves.
The dough can be be made in advance, which means you can have a batch of cookies baked in no time at all. Make the dough, cover it, and chill it, and when you need a cookie fix then grab some of the cookie dough and bake!
Why not make these gingersnaps for afternoon tea? I’ve got lots of great afternoon tea recipes that you might like to take a look at next. I love making afternoon tea for friends and family – it’s one of life’s little pleasures!
Or how about baking and sharing with others? Package the cookies into boxes or bags to deliver to friends, family, and neighbors. Cookies are a fab bake-sale item too!
Ingredients used in this recipe
The full ingredients list and instructions are found in the printable recipe card at the end of this post, but here is a brief outline so you know what to expect from the recipe.
I highly recommend always reading a recipe all the way through before starting.
Alongside regular baking ingredients like butter, flour, sugar, etc., you will need some more specialized ingredients which include:
- Shortening – a vegetable fat, in the UK you will find this called vegetable shortening, a brand we have here is Trex. In the US, there is Crisco.
- Brown Sugar
- Molasses – or Black Treacle (UK)
- Ground Ginger
- Ground Cinnamon
- Ground Cloves
A Word About Shortening
Two of the common fats used when making cookies are butter and shortening. Recipes may use one or the other, or sometimes both – like in this recipe.
However, if you can’t get shortening you can substitute it for butter. BUT I have not tried this, and according to The Kitchn.
Butter and shortening can generally be substituted for each other in cookie recipes if you keep a few things in mind: Since butter does contain water and less fat than shortening, you’ll need to use more of it as a substitution. Also keep in the mind that the textures and shapes of the cookies will be different, due to moisture content and melting points.
You may want to read more about the differences over on The Kitchn’s post as it goes into great detail about what the different fats do in the cooking process – baking is a science!
Make It A Meal!
So it’s gingersnap cookies for dessert but what about the rest of the courses?
Here are additional recipes to make a full meal!
- Appetizer: Balsamic Mozzarella Stuffed Grape Tomatoes
- Main Dish: Sheet Pan Steak Dinner: Garlic Parmesan Steak with Asparagus
- Beverage: Watermelon Lime Spritzer
There are 500+ Recipes on The Purple Pumpkin Blog for you to enjoy! Please feel free to check them out too.
More Recipes Using Ground Spices
Since we’ve used ground spices in this recipe here are some more recipes using the same that you might like to make:
More Cookies Recipes
Want to bake more cookies? Take a look at these recipes next:
- Iced Cherry Almond Cookies
- Delicious Caramel Apple Cookies with Chocolate Chips Recipe
- Double Chocolate & Almond Cookies
How Do You Make Gingersnap Cookies?
Just read the recipe card below to find out! You can print the recipe out too – don’t worry, the images don’t print!
Gingersnap Cookies
Ingredients
- ½ cup unsalted butter room temperature
- 1 cup vegetable shortening
- 1 cup brown sugar packed
- 1 cup granulated sugar divided
- ½ cup molasses black treacle
- 2 large eggs room temperature
- 4½ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda bicarbonate of soda
- 2 Tbsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp salt
SUGGESTED PRODUCTS
Instructions
- Place the butter, shortening, brown sugar, and ½ cup granulated sugar in a large mixing bowl and cream together with a hand-held mixer.
- Add the molasses (black treacle) to the mixture and whisk together.
- Add the eggs to the mixture and whisk to combine.
- In a separate large bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, ground cinnamon, ground cloves, and salt.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until thoroughly incorporated.
- Cover and transfer the dough to the refrigerator and chill for one hour.
- Pre-heat oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5 and line two large baking sheets with parchment paper or a Silpat® baking mat and set aside.
- Remove dough from refrigerator and form into 1-inch balls.
- Pour the remaining ½ cup granulated sugar onto a plate and roll the dough balls around to coat in sugar.
- Place balls of dough onto the prepared baking sheets, leaving 2 inches between each ball.
- Place in the preheated oven and bake for 8 – 11 minutes or until cookies are nicely browned and cooked through.
- Remove cookies from oven and cool on a wire rack before serving. Enjoy!
Notes
Nutrition
Nutritional information is always approximate and will depend on the quality of ingredients used and serving sizes. If you need exact calories and macros, please do your own calculations.
There is also a slideshow video over on my YouTube channel that you can watch and save to your Playlists for future reference. (Don’t forget to subscribe while you are there!)