My friend Marcus is throwing a big party next weekend and I offered to bring a dessert. After hemming and hawing about what type of dessert would be best, taking into account the current heat wave and the type of party it will be, I settled on ginger cookies.
The smell of ginger, nutmeg, and cloves reminds me of winters growing up in Western New York. Emanating from the oven, the spices are warm and inviting, promising a delicious baked treat with a savory bite. But there is no reason these flavors can’t work equally well in a summer recipe, especially paired with fresh seasonal fruit. A plate of chewy cookies makes a great casual dessert for a warm-weather party.
Because I’d never made this particular recipe before, and because they were for “others” (that is, not to shovel in my own gob), I decided to make a tester batch first. I was skeptical of how the finished cookies would turn out, mostly because I accidentally added the crystallized ginger to the mix before the dry ingredients. The little ginger nuggets clogged up my KitchenAid mixer, which is already on its last legs, so I had to do the final mixing by hand. The dough was thicker and drier than I expected, so I was a little worried about the consistency of the final product. I chose to ignore the little voice of negativity in my head, however, and formed the sugar-crusted cookies as directed.
I baked the cookies for only 12 minutes, as my scoop makes cookies slightly smaller than those in the recipe. I let the cookies cool a bit before digging in. They are delicious--chewy and spicy, with the perfect burst of extra flavor from the chunks of crystallized ginger. I will definitely make more of these for Marcus’s party next weekend.
The recipe I used can be found here.
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