Soft, Spicy, Heavenly Ginger Cookies

pollen's Note:

I found the original recipe for these cookies on allrecipes.com, and modified it to be vegan, as well as by changing the spices slightly. They are truly delicious cookies, and very easy to make.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 15 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 40 cookies

• 3/4 cup margarine, softened
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup molasses
• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup water
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 tablespoon fresh ginger, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup raisins (optional)
• 2 tablespoons white sugar

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup sugar until light and fluffy.
2. Stir in the molasses.
3. Mix the water and baking soda and stir.
4. Sift together the flour, salt, and dry spices; add gradually to the sugar-margarine mixture.
5. Gradually stir the sifted ingredients, along with the ginger and raisins, into the molasses mixture.
6. Shape dough into walnut sized balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.
7. (The dough may be too soft to handle at this point- I suggest either adding a bit of flour, or refrigerating for 20 minutes[or even overnight]).
8. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet, and flatten slightly.
9. Bake at 350°F for 10-12 minutes.

Reviews

[Roosie]

I am a huge ginger-lover, so this may be a little biased, but these are probably the best cookies I have even eaten! I used butter instead of margarine, but other than that I followed the recipe. The fresh ginger is really what makes these cookies so amazing. I would definitely recommend not putting in grated ginger instead of finely chopped ginger because the tiny chunks are phenomenal! Mine cooked for about 10-11 minutes (I made 3 batches) and are so pretty! They're crinkly and sparkly on the outside and wonderfully chewy on the inside! I love these- I'd give them 5,000 stars if I could!

[Anu]

I'm one of those who "hates" ginger, so I made this for mom and grandma and they completely fell in love with these chewy, ginger-ey cookies, although my mom, who is a ginger fanatic said that she could do with even more ground ginger! I used butter instead of margarine, and honey instead of molasses. I also used the optional raisins, and since I was in a hurry, I added more flour (about 3 or 4 heaped tablespoons extra) to make the dough less sticky and easier to handle, instead of refrigerating. I also needed to use more than 2 tablespoons of sugar to roll them in... it just got sucked right in! :-) The baking time is perfect and in 12 minutes these cookies turned a lovely golden colour. The aroma wafting in my kitchen while these were baking was simply dreamy! Thanks pollen... this was a huge hit!

[catxx]

Heavenly indeed! I made these cookies to give as Xmas gifts, and they were so scrumptious I had to wrap them up very quickly or DH (who "hates" ginger) & I would have eaten them all! I used a mixture of treacle and golden syrup instead of the molasses, and found chilling the mix for an hour before rolling was a very good idea. As Mallina says, the fresh ginger just makes these cookies! Now to make a batch for ourselves...