Chez Panisse Gingersnap Recipe...

I have a list of cookbooks that I want to buy one day... Since I have a lot of them already and do not have enough opportunity to try the recipes I bookmarked, I try to pace out the buying part... One of those books is Art of Simple Food by Alice Waters of the famous restaurant in Berkeley, California... This gingersnap recipe is originally from that book, found and posted by David Lebovitz - that is where I found it...

This gingersnaps are low on the sugar but high on the complex flavor and aroma resulting from the combination of black pepper, ginger, molases, vanilla and cinnamon... And it fills your home with the beautiful/yummy smell of all these spices while baking in the oven and afterwards... My cookies ended up being crispy, and compared to the photo in David's blog mine were lighter in color and had more cracks on them... The result was definitely a success, my husband and my friends loved it... I highly recommend you to try if you like ginger and/or gingersnaps...

Below is the original recipe from David Lebovitz's blog, with my comments in parentheses and italic... Like the Korova Cookies, Ginger Snap cookie dough can be frozen for future use, which is very handy when you have company next time...

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GINGER SNAPS
Makes 40-50 cookies (My cookie dough did not make as much, I had around 20 cookies from the total recipe)

From The Art of Simple Food: Notes, Lessons, and Recipes from a Delicious Revolution (Clarkson Potter) by Alice Waters.

2 cups (280 g) flour
1½ teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
11 tablespoons (150 g) butter, salted or unsalted, at room temperature (I used unsalted)
2/3 cup (130 g) sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ cup (80 g) mild-flavored molasses* (sometimes called ‘light’ molasses) (I used Turkish grape molasses, since I couldn't find light molasses in the grocery store and I had the Turkish one at home, and it worked great)
1 large egg, at room temperature

Optional step: coarse sugar crystals for coating the cookies (I highly recommend this step, it gives crunch to the cookies and also makes them look great)

1. Stir together the dry ingredients.

2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, or by hand, beat the butter just until soft and fluffy. Add the sugar and continue to beat until smooth, stopping the mixer to scrape down any butter clinging to the sides of the bowl.

3. Stir in the vanilla, molasses and egg.

4. Mix in the dry ingredients gradually until the dough is smooth.

5. Divide the dough in two equal portions and roll each on a lightly-floured surface until each is about 2-inches (5cm) around. Don’t worry if they’re not perfect; you can neaten them up in a second.

6. Wrap each in plastic wrap then roll them lightly on the counter to smooth them out. Refrigerate, or better yet, freeze the cookie logs until firm.

7. To bake, preheat the oven to 350F (180C) and line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.

8. Slice cookie dough into 1/4-inch (a scant 1 cm) rounds with a sharp knife. Dip one side and press firmly in a bowl of coarse sugar if you want (you can also use granulated sugar instead), and place sugar-side up on baking sheet, evenly-spaced apart. Leave a couple of inches, about 5 cm, between cookies since they’ll spread while baking.

9. Bake for 10-14 minutes, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, until deep-golden brown. The cookies will puff up a bit while baking, then settle down when they’re done. Bake on the lower end of the range for softer cookies, and more for snappier ones, depending on your oven.

10. Let the cookies cool two minutes, then remove them with a spatula and transfer them to a cooling rack.

Storage: The dough can be refrigerated for up to five days, or frozen for up to three months. Once baked, the cookies can be kept in an air-tight container for a couple of days but like anything made with butter, of course they’re best the day they’re baked.

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Bon Appetit! Enjoy!