Ginger cookies (or “biscuits”, as they are often called) are popular treats here in New Zealand - often as an accompaniment with tea or coffee, or to help settle an upset stomach.

Rus made ginger beer again over the weekend, and we were thinking of ways to use up the ginger left over after steeping.  The answer?  Ginger cookies!  So will they be a Delight or a Disaster?

The first thing I did was to Google “ginger cookies recipe”.  After viewing several, I chose the one from Southern Food.  Once again, I had all of the ingredients at my disposal (except molasses, but I used a great substitute which I will mention later); these included ginger (I used 1/4 cup fresh ginger instead of dried ground), flour, brown sugar, cloves, cinnamon, sugar (I use raw), baking soda, egg, and butter.  I substituted a mixture of honey and pure maple syrup for the molasses and real, hand-churned butter instead of margarine.  In addition, I included 1 tsp. pure vanilla, 1 tsp. ground nutmeg, and 1/8 cup flax seed (I love to add flax seed to cookies because it adds fibre, nutrients, and heart-healthy omega-3s!  Naturally, and unfortunately, with all the butter and sugar, this still does not make the cookies magically turn into health food!).

Here is what I did:

1. Combine flour, soda, flax seed, and spices in a bowl and set aside.

2. Cream sugar and butter. Beat in egg, vanilla, and honey/maple syrup mixture until light and fluffy.  Add fresh ginger and mix.

3. Stir in flour mixture just until blended.

4. Chill for 2 hours or more (I chilled overnight for convenience purposes).

5. Preheat oven to 190C (375F).

6. Shape dough into small balls, roll in granulated sugar, and place on lightly greased baking sheets about two inches apart.

7. Flatten each ball with the bottom of a glass dipped in sugar.

8. Bake about 8 to 10 minutes, until set.

Results:

These cookies turned out beautifully from the beginning to end; they are easy to make.  The crispy edges were fabulous, giving way to a moist centre.  I thought the raw sugar on the outside would make them too sweet; however, to my pleasant surprise, it gave the cookies a crunchy texture and almost made them sparkle like glitter!   Overall, the spices were not overpowering.  Furthermore, and amazingly enough, I could barely discern all of the fresh ginger.  Regarding cookie size, the first batch was a bit too large for my liking (eight per cookie tray), so I made the balls smaller.  This adjustment yielded me fourteen cookies each of the next two batches.    The recipe says it will yield 96 cookies; I produced about a third of that number total.

Flatmates Say:

Monique, Ryan, Leanne, and Dylan loved them.  Arno does not like ginger, so I could not get his opinion on this one.

These were some of the best cookies I have ever made.  Since they do not taste too sweet or rich, it is easy to eat too many!  This Tasty Tuesday Ginger Cookie recipe was definitely a DELIGHT!