Gingersnap Gems Recipes

Steps:

• Make dough:
• Whisk together flour, five-spice powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
• Pulse ginger with 1/4 cup sugar in a food processor until finely ground.
• Add syrup, butter, egg, and remaining 3/4 cup sugar to processor and blend until mixture is thick and creamy, about 3 minutes. Add flour mixture and pulse just until a dough forms. Form dough into a disk and chill, wrapped in plastic wrap, at least 8 hours to allow flavors to develop.
• Bake and ice cookies:
• Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 325°F. Line 2 large baking sheets with parchment paper.
• Quarter dough. Keeping remaining 3 pieces wrapped in plastic wrap and chilled, roll out 1 piece of dough on a lightly floured sheet of wax paper with a lightly floured rolling pin to 3/4 inch thick. (If dough becomes too soft to roll out, chill on wax paper until firm.) Cut out rounds with cutter and transfer to 1 lined baking sheet, arranging cookies about 2 inches apart.
• Bake cookies until slightly puffed and a shade darker, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 5 minutes on sheet. If desired, make holes with piping tip near edges to hang cookies, then transfer cookies (still on parchment) to a rack to cool completely. (Cookies will flatten slightly as they cool.)
• While first batch is baking, roll out and cut another batch, arranging cookies on second lined sheet. Bake in same manner, then gather scraps and chill until dough is firm enough to reroll, 15 to 20 minutes. Make more cookies with scraps (reroll scraps only once) and remaining pieces of dough, cooling sheets and lining them with fresh parchment before using.
• If using icing and coloring it, transfer small batches of icing to small bowls, 1 for each color, and tint with food coloring. Spoon each color of icing into a separate pastry bag, pressing out excess air. Twist bag firmly just above icing, then decoratively pipe icing onto cookies. Let icing dry completely (about 1 hour, depending on humidity) before serving or storing cookies.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
• In a medium bowl, cream together the margarine and 1 cup white sugar until smooth. Beat in the egg and molasses until well blended. Combine the flour, ginger, cinnamon, baking soda and salt; stir into the molasses mixture to form a dough. Roll dough into 1 inch balls and roll the balls in the remaining sugar. Place cookies 2 inches apart onto ungreased cookie sheets.
• Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely.

Steps:

• In a bowl, cream butter, sugars, molasses and egg. Combine flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon and ginger; add to creamed mixture and mix well. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface to 1/8-in. thickness and cut into desired shapes. Place on ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 375° for 5-6 minutes or until set (do not overbake). Remove from pan to cool on wire racks.

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and grease cookie sheets. Cream the butter with the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Add the molasses and egg and beat until smooth. Sift the flour with baking soda, ginger, cinnamon and cloves. Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat until well blended. Pinch off a little of the dough and roll it into 1-inch balls (dough may be very moist, if so, dip hands in warm water before forming balls). Dip each ball into the granulated sugar and arrange sugar side up on prepared baking sheet approximately 2 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until cracked on top.

Steps:

• Set racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven and preheat to 350 degrees. Combine the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices in a bowl; stir well to mix. In the bowl of a standing electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together on medium speed the butter and sugar for about 5 minutes until very light, fluffy and whitened. Add the egg and continue beating until smooth. Lower speed and beat in half the dry ingredients, then the molasses. Stop the mixer and scrape down bowl and beater. Beat in the remaining dry ingredients. Remove bowl from mixer and use a large rubber spatula to finish mixing the dough. Use a small ice cream scoop to scoop out 1-inch diameter pieces of dough. Roll into balls between the palms of your the hands, then roll in the sugar. Place the balls of dough on the prepared pans leaving about 3 inches all around each, to allow for spreading. Bake the cookies for about 15 to 20 minutes, or until they have spread, the surface has crackled, and they are firm to the touch. Slide the papers from the pans to racks. Store the cooled cookies between sheets of parchment or waxed paper in a tin or platic container witha tight-fitting cover.

Steps:

• Whisk 2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, cloves, black pepper, and cayenne together in a large mixing bowl until thoroughly mixed.
• Cream together butter and 2/3 cup sugar in a separate bowl until pale yellow and creamy, about 2 minutes. Add candied ginger, molasses, vanilla, and egg. Whisk mixture until well blended. Add dry ingredients to butter/sugar mixture and stir just until the flour disappears. Cover dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate until chilled, about 1 hour.
• Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pour 1/2 cup white sugar in a shallow dish for rolling cookies.
• Scoop out about 1 1/2 teaspoons dough with a small scoop or teaspoon. Form dough into balls and roll in white sugar. Place cookies on prepared baking sheet. Slightly flatten cookies to about 1/4 inch thick; sprinkle with a pinch more sugar.
• Bake in preheated oven until cookies are your desired crispiness or chewiness, 10 to 15 minutes.