Ginger Snaps

When I was a little girl, I used to spend my summers in Thousand Island Park, NY. It is a truly idyllic community almost out of time. I have the best childhood memories of getting a quarter every afternoon to spend at the penny candy counter, competing in sailboat races with my cousins, and lying on the dock until the sun was barely peeking over the river. As with all of my memories, food plays a very central role. Everyone would gather around the picnic tables out back which were always covered with simple, fresh ingredients, prepared deliciously: grilled tomatoes stuffed with corn, iced tea with fresh mint, and the best peach cobbler.

One of my fondest memories is of melt-in-your-mouth ginger snaps made by my cousins’ grandmother, Edna. Neither of my grandmothers left me with an illustrious culinary heritage, so naturally I turned to other people’s grandmothers. Edna’s ginger snaps were crisp on the outside from their generous sugar coating, and cakey on the inside, full of sharp ginger flavor. When we were little, my cousins and I used to sneak into her cottage and steal a few from the tin where she kept them. It’s hers I think of whenever I make these so-called “Screaming” Ginger Snaps.

Screaming Ginger Cookies
adapted from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons non dairy butter
1/4 cup molasses (not blackstrap)
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water
3/4 cup crystallized ginger, 1/4” dice
1/2 cup Demerara sugar for rolling

Heat the oven to 350ºF. In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and salt, and whisk until thoroughly combined.

Combine the flaxseed and water in a blend, and whip until thick and creamy. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove from heat and add the molasses, sugar, fresh ginger, and flaxseed mixture. Stir until combined. Add to the flour mixture and stir until just incorporated. The dough will be soft.

Scoop tablespoons of dough into balls and roll in the Demerara sugar. Place 2” apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating front to back and top to bottom halfway through; 10 minutes for chewier cookies, 12 for crispier ones. Remove from the oven and transfer to a cooling rack. Try not to eat the whole batch in one sitting!

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

I don’t like to play favorites, but I think cookies are the best sweet treat. A wide variety of textures, flavors, and styles, mean that cookies can satisfy so many different tastes. They’re also quick to put together, easily assembled from your standard pantry ingredients, and flexible. I’ve been working my way through Alice Medrich’s Chewy, Gooey, Crispy, Crunchy, Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies recently; see the Peanut Butter Cookies I made a few months ago. Teaching high school students gives me a lot of opportunity to test recipes, and my family is also willing to evaluate any treats that happen to appear in the kitchen. So far, everything has gone over superbly; the Salted Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies are becoming my signature recipe.

The most amazing thing about Medrich’s book is how perfectly every recipe turns out. Medrich is fastidious about her books, each recipe tested extensively, and the specificity of ingredients unparalleled. I’ve never been a huge fan of oatmeal raisin cookies. They seemed kind of pedestrian, nothing spectacular. But, somehow Medrich manages to elevate even the simplest of cookies. Melted butter and sugar creates a caramelized edge, pairing perfectly with cinnamon, chewy oatmeal, and plump raisins. Great texture and great flavor have now made these cookies among my favorites.

Oatmeal Raisin Cookies

2 cups rolled oats
1/4 cup water
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 cup non dairy butter
3/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water
1 cup walnuts, chopped
1 cup raisins

In a small bowl, combine the oats and 1/4 cup water. Stir to combine, then set aside.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Whisk together thoroughly.

Blend the flaxseed and 3 tablespoons water until thick and frothy.

Add the butter to a small saucepan. Heat over medium heat until completely melted. Remove from heat, and add the brown sugar, granulated sugar, vanilla and salt. Whisk together thoroughly. Add the flaxseed mixture, and stir to combine. Add the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Stir in the raisins, walnuts, and oats. Cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for at least two hours, preferably overnight.

Heat the oven to 350ºF. Scoop tablespoons of dough onto cookie sheets, and bake for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pans from top to bottom, and front to back halfway through. Remove from the oven when the cookies are golden brown on the bottom, and transfer to a cooling rack.

Melt-In-Your-Mouth Peanut Butter Cookies

Even though I am abstaining from sweets for the next six weeks, that doesn’t mean the rest of you should suffer! When it comes to cookies, there is no greater expert than Alice Medrich. The thing I respect the most about Medrich is her scientific devotion to baking. She truly understands that baking is not an improvised endeavor, and every recipe is an experiment with variables and controls. Her research into the usage and function of ingredients, precision of measurement, and combination of elements is truly awe-inspiring.

Medrich’s first home baking tome, Cookies and Brownies, came out more than a decade ago. Before releasing a new edition of this seminal cookbook, Medrich revisited her original recipes with an eye to updating and improving them. What resulted is the magnificent and encyclopedic Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies. One major addition to the book is the inclusion of gluten-free recipes. Although vastly different, people tend to think of gluten-free and vegan together. I have my fingers crossed that this gluten-free exploration will lead Medrich to devote her considerable knowledge to vegan recipes. Until then, I will offer my own attempts at veganizing these spectacular cookies.

Peanut Butter Cookies

hardly adapted from Alice Medrich’s Chewy Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your-Mouth Cookies

1 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
8 tablespoons non dairy butter
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/4 cups natural salted chunky peanut butter, stirred to incorporate oil

In a small bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt. Whisk to incorporate all ingredients.

Place butter in the bowl of a mixer, and whip until smooth, about 10 seconds. Add the sugar and blend until creamy, about 1 minute. Combine the flax seed and water in a blender. Blend until thick and creamy. Add to the butter along with the vanilla and peanut butter, mixing all the ingredients together. Add the flour mixture, and stir until ingredients are just incorporated. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours, preferably overnight.

Heat the oven to 325ºF. Scoop large tablespoons of dough, and form them into ball. Place balls of dough 2” apart on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Flatten each ball with a fork, pointing the prongs in two directions to make a crosshatch pattern. Bake for 16 to 18 minutes, until light golden on the top. Remove cookies from the oven and transfer cookies to a cooling rack.

Salted Chocolate Chocolate Chip Cookies

If you’re like me, you are probably drooling over the mere title of this post. But, maybe you’re nothing like me and you need a little convincing. Well, here it is. These cookies are amazing! They are soft and chewy with an edge that fights back just a little. They start off with bitter chocolate, then mellow into sweetness, and linger with a salty finish. If you’re not panting with desire for these buttery delights, then I think we should see other people. But, if you are, could you whip up a batch and bring them on over?

1 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup Dutch process cocoa
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
a heaping 1/4 teaspoon salt
8 tablespoons non dairy butter softened
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar packed
1 tablespoon ground flaxseed
3 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/2 cup chocolate chips

Heat the oven to 350º

In a large bowl, combine the flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. In the bowl of a mixer, whip the butter until it is smooth and creamy. Add the sugar and brown sugar, and mix until smooth and combined. In a blender, combine the flaxseed and water and blend until thick and frothy.  Add the flaxseed mixture, and the vanilla to the butter and sugar and mix until combined. Add the flour mixture to the butter and mix until just incorporated. Add the walnuts and chocolate chips to the batter and mix.

Scoop large tablespoons of dough onto a cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 14 minutes, rotating the cookie sheets and exchanging the top and bottom halfway through. Cookies will puff up as they bake, and then deflate as they get closer to being done. After baking, transfer the cookies to a cooling rack. Enjoy!