mulberryshoots

A couple of weeks ago, I picked up a small packet of gingersnap cookies at Market Basket. They were extraordinarily tasty: crisp, very gingery and not very sweet. One cookie or even half of one with a cup of hot coffee after dinner was very satisfying.

The weather is kind of overcast and grey today so I thought maybe I’d make a half batch of cookies to share with the folks across the street and to have when G. returns from a day’s piano tuning appointments in Boston’s environs.

Since I’m trying to avoid having too many sugary snacks around, I found a recipe that I cut in half which still yielded about two dozen cookies. I erred on the side of adding a tad more spices than called for: cinnamon, ground cloves and ground ginger – and a little less sugar. The dough was creamier than the recipe indicated so rolling balls by hand wasn’t feasible. I did scoop up melon ball sized batter, set them three inches apart and sprinkled with a sugar before baking for about fifteen minutes at 350 degrees in a preheated oven.

They spread out and baked to an even light brown color – and I sprinkled a little more granulated white sugar on top of the warm cookies, dusting off the excess as they cooled to crispy thin cookies. I bit into one to see how they tasted before posting this piece – and next time, I might add even a little more ground ginger – or how about some freshly hand-grated gingerroot! Now why didn’t I think of that earlier?