Mama’s Chewy Gingersnaps
This is a Christmas cookie staples in our house. My husband will eat the entire batch in a hour if I left him unsupervised with them. He begs me on a weekly basis to make them! I’ve played around with this recipe over the years to perfect them with my oven and so many of you were asking to share the recipe. I cannot take ANY credit for this gem, as my mom has been making them for years and she’s the magic behind the perfect gingersnap!
Mama’s Chewy Gingersnaps
2 cups flour
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup butter or margarine (see notes below)
1 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
1/3 cup cinnamon sugar
Preheat over to 350 degrees
Sift the flour, ground ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt into a mixing bowl. Stir the mixture to blend evenly.
Sift a second time into another bowl (DO NOT skip the sifting step!!!)
Place the butter or margarine into a mixing bowl, beat until creamy.
Beat in the sugar, egg and molasses. Sift 1/3 of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Stir. Sift in remaining flour mixture and mix until a soft dough forms.
Roll into tablespoon balls. Roll those balls into the cinnamon sugar.
Place on a parchment lined baking sheet and gently press down for a fork.
Bake for 8-10 minutes
Cool on a cookie rack and enjoy!
Here’s a few tips and tricks to help you perfect these cookies.
SIFT - Seriously. Do NOT skip this step, else these cookies will suck. Sifting sucks, but bad cookies suck more. And do not be lazy and skip the three sifting steps. It is key to the perfectly crinkled cookie.
BUTTER vs. MARGARINE - Okay, Butter always wins in my opinion. I don’t bake with margarine, ever. I’m a butter girl. This is my moms perfected recipe and she swears by using margarine. She hasn’t had luck with using butter, and I haven’t had luck using margarine. So moral of the story, if you try one and it doesn’t work - try the other.
BAKING - My oven sweet spot is 8 minutes. My mom’s is around 10 minutes. Check them at 8 minutes and go from there. I find if you bake them too long, they will flatten out and not settle with the perfect crinkle.
COFFEE MUG HACK - I can’t take credit for this genius trick I am about to tell you. I learned it on TikTok but it changed my cookie game forever. Right when you take your cookies out of the oven (before you take them off the baking sheet), take a perfectly round coffee mug and place it overtop of your cookie. Keep the mug on the baking sheet and circle around the cookie touch the outer edges to make the perfectly round plump cookie. Your welcome. Your cookie game just levelled up!
I hope you make these cookies and absolutely love them as much as we do. Enjoy dipped in a warm cup of tea, with a glass of milk or you can be like my husband and inhale them so quickly you probably don’t even enjoy them!!!
Merry Christmas my friends. Have a wonderful holiday season, eating all the cookies.
