Ginger Snap recipe and thanks

Friends,

What a pleasure it was to see old faces and meet new ones at this year's Eggtoberfest. Thank you to everyone for your kindness, friendship, and camaraderie - this truly is a special community of folks. It's kind of like coming home, in a way - no matter how long you've been gone, you're always welcomed back with open arms. And thanks to BGE Headquarters for throwing another successful fest.

Several of you have asked for it, and I know Bill wants it for the cookbook, so here is the ginger snap recipe (I have to give credit to Shirley Corriher - this is pretty much verbatim from her cookbook, BakeWise - I just added allspice to bring the spice medley closer to a "pumpkin pie spice"):



2 cups granulated (I use turbinado) sugar
3/4 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 large egg
2 1/4 cups spooned and leveled bleached all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
(The I added 1 teaspoon allspice)

1) In a heavy-duty mixer, beat 1 3/4 cups of the sugar and the butter until fluffy. Add the molasses and beat to blend in well. Add the egg and beat on low just to blend in.

2) In a medium mixing bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg. Add this dry mixture to the mixer and blend on lowest speed. Cover and chill dough for at least 1 hour or overnight.

3) Preheat Egg with indirect setup to 350 F.

4) Roll the dough into 1 1/4 inch balls. Place the remaining 1/4 cup sugar in a small bowl and roll each ball in sugar. Place on the baking sheet, 2 inches apart. Bake until edges just begin to color, about 12 minutes.

5) Remove the cookies to a rack to cool completely.

Some notes for cooking these on the Egg: Honestly, Eggtoberfest was the first time I've done these on the Egg, and they did not produce a cracked surface like the ones I did previously in the oven and shown in the picture above. I think this was a combination of the very humid air outside and the moisture retention of the Egg. To get a cracked surface cooking these on the Egg, you might need to play with the moisture content of the dough - perhaps up the amount of flour a little bit. Just a thought.

Cheers,

Jason