5-Star Ginger Cookie Recipe for Belated Father’s Day Celebration

We are celebrating Father’s Day tomorrow at Sarah’s and I asked Ray would sweet he would like me to make for him.  He requested ginger cookies, which come from a recipe I adapted from the book bigfatcookies by Elinor Klivans. We don’t eat refined sugar so I used maple sugar instead. Here is the recipe with my adaptations, but if you prefer regular sugar simply substitute the maple for refined.

Super-Sized Ginger Chewies

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour 2 teaspoons baking soda 1/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1 teaspoon ground ginger 1/2 teaspoon cloves 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature or 3/4 cup coconut oil 1 cup maple sugar 1 large egg 1/4 cup molasses about 1/4 cup maple sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Sift the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and cloves into a medium bowl and set aside. In a large bowl, using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat the butter and maple sugar until smoothly blended, about 1 minute. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides of the bowl as needed during mixing. Add the egg and molasses and mix until blended and an even light brown color, about 1 minute. On low speed, add the flour mixture, mixing just to incorporate it.

Spread the maple sugar on a large piece of wax or parchment paper. Roll 1/4 cup of dough between the palms of your hands into a 2-inch ball, roll the ball in the maple sugar and place on one of the prepared baking sheets. Continue making cookies, spacing them 2 inches apart.

Bake the cookies one sheet at a time until the tops feel firm but they are still soft in the center and there are several large cracks on top, about 14 minutes. Cool the cookies on the baking sheets for 5 minutes, then use a wide metal spatula to transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.

The cookies can be stored in a tightly covered container at room temperature for up to 4 days.

I highly recommend this cookie. The texture is firm, but soft in the middle, and they taste delicious.