Ginger Hottendots
By: Jenny Richards
Published: Thursday, December 10, 2009 - 3:21pm

Ingredients




3 3/4 cups AP flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
2 cups sugar
2 large eggs, well beaten
1/2 cup dark (not blackstrap) molasses
2 teaspoons cider vinegar or balsamic vinegar

Preparation

1 Preheat oven to 325. 2 Sift the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, and cloves onto a sheet of wax paper. 3 Cream the butter and sugar with an electric mixer at medium speed. 4 Stir in the eggs, molasses and vinegar. 5 Add the sifted dry ingredients and mix until just blended, no longer. 6 Roll the dough into 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch balls. 7 Roll the balls in vanilla or rosemary sugar. 8 Place the balls about 1” apart on parchment paper covered baking sheets. 9 Bake until soft, about 7 minutes. Don’t overbake – they will crisp as they cool. 10 Transfer the baked cookies to a cooling rack when they come out of the oven.

About


I got this recipe from Richard Sax’s Classic Home Desserts. This is a basic spicy gingersnap recipe that comes from MFK Fisher’s catalog, and it’s a lovely grown-up cookie. I like to make double batches of this dough to keep it on hand during the holidays, because it’s a fast-baking cookie that isn’t too sweet and works well for tea and coffee.
After rolling the dough into little balls, I like to roll it in sugar – either vanilla or rosemary – and then drop them onto the baking sheet and into a hot oven.