Sensible Ginger Snaps

The Gingerbread Project progresses apace. I'm already getting a little bored of ginger cookies, to tell the truth, but not of the quest. This week's batch comes from a book that I've overlooked for years, but am slowly coming to appreciate more and more, Mitchell Davis' Kitchen Sense: More Than 600 Recipes to Make you a Great Home Cook. The writing isn't fascinating, the layout has no fancy pictures or sweet drawings, and frankly, it just hasn't called out to me, and I never got much of a sense of Mitchell Davis' unique voice.

I am slowly finding that unique voice in the recipes themselves, which have so far been just perfect. For years I used it only for one pancake recipe, then at Orangette's suggestion, I branched out to a cake that was 'reminiscent' of pancakes. The man is growing on me. And he loves buttermilk and buckwheat... Definitely growing on me. His ginger snaps, while not snappy or chewy enough for me, had a very interesting flavor twist, lemon zest. And it worked. These weren't the winner, but they were a very worthwhile detour, with a pleasing flakiness.

Oh, and on a somewhat unrelated side note, Matt made delicious turkey sausage meatballs full of garlic, breadcrumbs and semolina flour. Stacey told me to tell him to do it. Good job all around.

Click through for the Ginger Snap recipe:

Ginger Snaps
Adapted from Kitchen Sense, by Mitchell Davis

• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 Tblsp ground ginger (I used more)
• Pinch of ground cloves
• 1 Tblsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp kosher salt
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper
• 1 cup dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 Tblsp molasses
• 2 tsp freshly grated ginger (I used dried candied)
• 1 tsp freshly grated lemon zest (I used more)
• About 1/2 cup granulated sugar (for rolling or sprinkling)

Preheat oven to 350, butter or line cookie sheets.

Sift or whisk dry ingredients.

In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Beat in egg, then molasses, fresh ginger, and zest. Stir in flour mixture for a stiff dough.

Roll out balls of dough and roll the balls in sugar. Place on cookie sheets with some space to expand. (I found it helped to flatten the balls a bit.) Bake 10-12 minutes, until cookies spread and tops crack.