2 3/8 cups unbleached flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
5 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
170 grams unsalted butter
1 1/4 cups white sugar
1/4 cup ginger syrup (see recipe below)
1 large egg plus 1 egg yolk
2/3 Recipe
1/3 cup plus 1/4 cup unbleached flour
1 1/3 tsp baking soda
1/3 tsp salt
3 tbsp plus 1 tsp ground ginger
1 1/3 tsp ground cinnamon
1/3 tsp ground cloves
1/6 tsp ground black pepper
pinch of cayenne pepper
113 grams unsalted butter
2/3 cup plus 1/6 cup white sugar
38 grams ginger syrup (see recipe below)
1 large egg
Place the flour, baking soda, and salt in a mixing bowl and set aside.
Measure the spices in a small bowl and set aside.
Melt the butter over medium heat until it melts and foams, then let the foaming subside but down’t let it begin to brown. Remove from the heat and whisk in the spices. Next add the sugar and ginger syrup, and whisk to combine. Add the egg and egg yolk and mix until the wet mixture is sticky, smooth and glossy.
Pour the wet mixture into the dry ingredients and combine with a spatula. This will combine into a stiff dough. Do not over-mix. Adjust with flour or ginger syrup until you have a consistency that you think you can roll into a “log” once the dough cools. Still in the pan, let the dough cool in the refrigerator for at least an hour. Then roll it into a log, between 2 and 2 1/2 inches in diameter. Wrap well in plastic wrap and chill again.
When you are ready to bake the cookies, preheat the oven to 300°. Place a rack in the middle position. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. With a sharp knife, slice the cookies in thin, even slices, about 4mm thick (about 4-6mm). Place rounds on the lined baking sheet with 3/4″ between each cookie. They will spread slightly during baking.
Bake for 15 minutes. The goal is to have completely hard, dry cookies that are crisp but that will break easily when you bit into them.
Wrap and refrigerate or freeze any unused dough. It will keep in the refrigerator for several days; longer in the freezer.
Notes:
There are inspired by the chocolate covered ginger cookies that are readily available in England and Scotland; also in the US at Trader Joes during the winter holidays. If you want to coat the bottoms with chocolate, it takes about 3 grams per cookie.
2021 15 minutes at 300° in my convection microwave oven is very good. The cookies have more flavor if they aren’t allowed to get very brown, but they also need to be crisp. These are delicious by themselves, dunked in hot tea, of eaten with bits of good quality chocolate. Also very good as the cookies in ice cream sandwiches made with the Ginger Ice Cream from Cook’s Illustrated. Two-thirds recipe of cookies was perfect for one recipe of ice cream (1 quart), and made 15 sandwiches.
Ginger syrup
1 cup sugar
2 cups water
4 ounces finely sliced raw ginger
Slice and then mince the ginger. There is no need to peel the ginger. Bring the water and sugar to a boil, then add the ginger. Keep the mixture at a steady simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. It will eventually gain a syrup-like consistency. At that point, take it off the heat and cool slightly. Pass it through a fine sieve to remove the ginger pieces. Keep the syrup in a glass jar in the fridge until needed.