Ginger Snaps

1 stick butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup flour

Clearly, those quantities are etched in stone, as round numbers don't just happen, you know. After softening the butter, I mixed the ingredients together one by one.

1 teaspoon ginger
½ teaspoon nutmeg
1 teaspoon cinnamon

And then, I shook it all about... er, I mean, mixed it up again. Also, please note the rounded amounts. Or in other words, I care so much about the precise measurement of ingredients that I poured the spice into the measuring spoon over the waiting bowl below, so lots of extra spice fell into the bowl as I did my measuring. But then, I like spice. And I routinely use double and triple the quantities called for in other recipes.

1 dollop (call it 4 teaspoons) of minced ginger (using up this ingredient being the reason for this particular recipe at this particular moment in time)
1 dollop (slightly smaller, so call it 3 teaspoons) of white sugar
1 dash (a sprinkling) of cinnamon

I mixed these last three ingredients together in a small dish, poured over the other batter and folded it in ever so slightly... hardly at all, before spooning the lot into a zip lock bag and freezing overnight.

First thing in the morning, and I mean, the first thing, before coffee or breakfast or even getting out of bed, I sliced the frozen loaf up into thin pieces (call them slices), placed them on a cookie sheet (buttered, but of course) and cooked them for ten minutes at 425°.

Normally, I'd cook for 10-15 minutes at 350°. But after freezing, I figured a flash fry (or baking as fast as possible) was the way to go... so the dough would not spread out.

Um, the dough spread out, anyway.

Whatever.

Ten minutes later... plus two minutes more... plus letting the cookies cool in the oven with the door open... then the door closed... and finally open, because that's the way I roll.

Oh, wait! It's not finally!

A few minutes later, I took the cookie sheet out of the oven and scraped off the ginger snaps, flipping them over to dry a bit more on their backsides, back in the slightly warm oven.

I was worried that this recipe would be too spicy, you know, not cookie-like enough, but just the few crumblies I tasted at this point completely reassured me that this was going to be a taste sensation.

And later, after eating a full cookie, let me just say that I find these to be wonderfully sweet and spicy delights.

June, 2018