Cookie Time!

Well, thanks to our GAL's Saturday post about marshmallows and Rice Krispie treats, I found myself making a run to the store for marshmallows and Rice Krispies. Talk about a craving. Man, those things are comfort food to the max. And I enjoyed every last bite. Thanks for the reminder (and the pic), Julie. :)

But that wasn't the only baking I did. Although, I guess you can't really call Rice Krispie Treats baking, since there's no baking involved. Cookies, though...now that's definitely baking.

You know, long ago and far, far away, when I was still in high school, I received my very first cookbook. This thing has traveled all over the world with me, from Michigan to Texas to Germany to South Dakota to Iceland and back to Texas. It's been my constant companion and, at times, a distant memory. Yet for all the outlets of cooking tips and recipes, this old gal is still my go-to when I'm looking for a good recipe.

Over the years, I've probably gone through this book a thousand times, searching for something new. So imagine my surprise when I was looking through it for one recipe and found another that I'd never seen before. One that's even in the1950 Betty Crocker Cookbook.

As you know, I love the flavors of fall. The cinnamon and cloves, the ginger and nutmeg. Which is probably why this recipe stood out to me. It has all of the aforementioned spices. Whoo-hoo! Talk about hog heaven.

To make these wonderful Ginger Creams, you will need:

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/3 cup shortening
• 1 egg
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

The recipe says to mix the sugar, water, molasses, shortening, and egg. So I did everything in that order. Yeah, I was able to make it work, however, I recommend mixing the sugar and the shortening first, then the molasses, egg and water, because adding the water first made it too difficult for the shortening to incorporate without beating the hooey out of it. Which I did.

Now stir in your remaining ingredients.

See how nice and creamy it looks. Smells wonderful too.

 

Scrap (or lick, whatever your preference) the thin dough from the beater, then cover and refrigerate for one hour. I covered mine with plastic wrap, smoothing it over the top of the dough.

 

Once the dough is ready, preheat your oven to 400 degrees and uncover the dough.

Now this is where I took a little detour from the recipe. Not on purpose though. 

You see, the recipe says to drop dough by teaspoonfuls 2 inches apart onto an ungreased baking sheet. Well, I would have sworn it said tablespoonfuls.

 

So needless to say, I ended up with much less than the 4 dozen cookies the recipe said it would make.

And that wasn't the only problem.

The recipe said to bake until almost no indentation remains when touched, about 8 minutes. Well, my larger-than-called-for cookies still had indentations at 8 minutes. So I baked them a little longer.

 

Immediately remove from cookie sheet and cool.

 

While my cookies turned out thicker with a cake-like texture, they were still good. But here's what I suspect would have happened had I followed the recipe correctly. I think they would have been flatter and much crisper. Kind of like those really thin Swedish gingersnaps you buy in the tin at Christmastime (love those things with tea). The flavor was almost a match for the gingersnaps.

Then again, the recipe is called Ginger CREAMS. Maybe they're supposed to have a creamier texture.

 

Ah, who knows? Ruthy? Jan?

 

They were still yummy and still got eaten. Hey, that has to count for something, right?

 

Will I make them again?

 

You betcha. Except next time I'll get it right.