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Soft Ginger Cookies are Perfect taste of Fall

By popular demand, we are posting the recipe for our soft, sweet, and spicy ginger cookies.  We find the rich, warm tastes to be perfect for fall. 

The ancient Chinese first cultivated ginger root, where it was often used as a remedy for stomach ailments.  Traders on the Silk Road brought the spice to Europe.  The term “gingerbread” came to refer to any baked good that included ginger and a sweetener such as honey or molasses.  Europeans made hard gingerbread cookies, sometimes gilded with gold leaf.  These were a popular treat at festivals and fairs.  Ladies often gave their favorite knights a piece of gingerbread for good luck in a

Ginger and spice make these cookies nice!

tournament.  Queen Elizabeth I is given credit for popularizing fancily decorated ginger cookies and they came to symbolize all that was elegant in England.  http://time.com/4602913/gingerbread-men-history  The colonists brought ginger baked goods to the New World.  Early Americans appear to have preferred softer gingerbread and the first American cookbook contains three different recipes.  The Marquis de Lafayette was partial to the soft gingerbread served to him by George Washington’s mother.  Buckhorn Inn’s soft ginger cookies offer a delicious taste of history.

Recipe for Soft Ginger Cookies

1/4 pound butter at room temperature

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 egg

1/3 cup molasses

3 tablespoons dark corn syrup

2 tablespoons milk

4 cups flour

2 teaspoons baking soda

2 teaspoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons ground ginger

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cloves

extra sugar for rolling

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Cream butter, sugar, and egg until light and fluffy.  Then mix in molasses, corn syrup and milk.  Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves, creating a stiff dough.  Pinch off small pieces of dough and shape into 1 1/2″ balls.  Roll in sugar.  Place 3 inches apart on ungreased baking sheets.  Bake 11 to 12 minutes until tops are puffed.  Cool cookies 2 minutes on baking sheets, then remove to racks to cool.  These freeze well.  The recipe makes about 40 cookies.