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Old Fashioned Gingersnap Cookies are crisp, tender, and perfect for autumn and the holidays. While some gingersnaps are soft and chewy, this is a crisp, delicate cookie. Want to know how to make them chewy in the center but crisp on the edges instead? Read below for the details.
What’s in Old Fashioned Gingersnap Cookies?
Gingersnaps are a classic cookie that can be soft and chewy or crispy and light. Most gingersnaps have a few ingredients in common.
They typically include molasses, spices, baking soda, sugar, and butter. They may also include shortening, egg, water, and salt.
The types of spices vary from recipe to recipe. Some include cloves, nutmeg, allspice, ginger, and/or cinnamon.
For this recipe, I chose a simple but flavorful combination of ginger and cinnamon. When added to the molasses, these spices blend beautifully to give you a flavor that’s not too strong nor too soft.
Sounds like a winner, right?
Why are They Called Gingersnaps?
Did you know that the word “gingersnaps” has German roots? While I don’t know German, my mom happens to know some.
And the word gingersnaps means “snappen.” In other words, it means a crisp cookie.
In some ways, this recipe reminds me of these Speculoos cookies in terms of texture. I’m almost always a soft and chewy cookie kind of woman, but I’ll never say no to these gingersnaps!
How to Make Old Fashioned Gingersnaps
- Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy.
- Add the egg and mix.
- Then, add the molasses, water, and vanilla.
- Mix in the dry ingredients.
- Scoop the dough, roll the gingersnaps in sugar, and bake.
I created my version of gingersnaps for my cookie course, and this cookie was a huge hit among the bakers in my program. If you want to really understand cookies, how baking works, and learn how to create your own cookies, then you can join here.
As always, my mission is to empower you as a baker so you can become the authority in your kitchen. Don’t let everyone else tell you what you “should” do.
Through your membership in my program, you can learn essential baking science and professional baking techniques. You can then have the freedom to create and bake in a way not possible before.
How to Make Crisp Cookies Chewy
One of the best things about this recipe is that you can make it completely crisp or slightly chewy in the center.
The trick?
The amount of baking time determines the texture. It’s that simple.
If you want a crisp edge and a chewy center, bake the cookies for closer to 11 minutes (depending on your oven, this can vary some).
For completely crisp cookies, bake for around 13-14 minutes.
Don’t know which kind you like? Try it both ways with two pans of cookies!
As a note, this tip is specific to this gingersnap recipe, so it won’t work for every cookie recipe out there.
How to Store Gingersnaps
Storing old-fashioned gingersnap cookies is easy, but I want to give you a couple of tips that are helpful.
First, store them in an airtight container at room temperature. This might seem like a no-brainer, but I still want to give you the info.
Second, don’t store these cookies with other cookies. When I made these cookies a few months ago, I stored them in a container with some chocolate cookies.
And you know what happened? The gingersnaps absorbed the moisture from the chocolate cookies, so they no long had any snap! Instead, they were soft.
So, if you want your cookies to stay crisp, store them separately from other baked goods.
Baking Essentials for This Recipe
- Stand Mixer
- Kitchen Scale
- Tablespoon Cookie Scoop (#60)
- Parchment paper
- Rimmed Half Sheet Pans
Old Fashioned Gingersnap Cookies
Old Fashioned Gingersnap Cookies are crisp, tender, and perfect for autumn and the holiday season. While some gingersnaps are soft and chewy, this is a crisp, delicate cookie recipe. If you want to make them slightly chewy, read the info above the recipe.
- Author: Camille
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 13 minutes
- Total Time: 28 minutes
- Yield: 30 cookies 1x
- Category: Cookies
- Method: Creaming
- Cuisine: German
Ingredients
UnitsScale
For the Gingersnaps
- 113 g unsalted butter, room temp (65 F)
- 125 g light brown sugar
- 25 g granulated sugar
- 1 large egg, room temp (50 g)
- 1 Tbs water
- 45 g molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 225 g cake flour (can use ap flour if you can’t find cake)
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 3/4 tsp cinnamon
- 3/4 tsp baking soda
- 50 g granulated sugar (for rolling the cookies)
Instructions
To Make Old Fashioned Gingersnap Cookies
- Preheat the oven to 350 F, and line two rimmed half sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Cream the butter and sugars together on medium-low (speed 4 for a 10-speed mixer) for 3-5 minutes or until light and fluffy. The texture will look be fluffy and will be light in color.
- Add the egg on low speed and mix until combined.
- Add the water, molasses, and vanilla, and mix on medium-low speed until combined.
- Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. With the mixer on low, and add the dry ingredients until no flour streaks remain.
- Add the 50 g of sugar to a bowl. Use a tablespoon cookie scoop to scoop the gingersnap dough, and then gently roll each dough ball in the sugar until coated. Place the cookies two inches apart on the sheet tray so there are 12 cookies on a pan.
- Bake gingersnaps for 11-13 minutes. They will crackle some on top, have crisp edges, and will look darker than their color before baking.
- Remove the cookies from the oven and cool on a sheet pan for 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a cooling rack and allow to cool completely.
- These cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week.
Notes
This is a Baker Street Society original recipe.
Keywords: old fashioned gingersnap cookies, gingersnaps
