My Friend Ginger

Recently I was given the gift of a stack of new cookbooks.  It’s a nearly perfect gift for a food lover like myself, and I have been enjoying pouring over the possibilities within their pages.  When planning and dreaming became too much this past weekend, I got to baking.

These are the Ultimate Ginger Cookies from Ina Garten’s Barefoot Contessa At Home.  The recipe, like most of her work, is simple and straightforward.  In fact, I already had all of the supplies in my pantry, including the crystallized ginger (thanks, mom)!  I happen to love ginger in all its sweet and spicy forms, so this was an easy first recipe to make from this book.

There is a lot of mixing time involved, so I would recommend using a stand mixer if you have one.  That way you can let the batter do its thing while you chop up the ginger and prepare your baking pans. I was worried that the pieces of ginger would be overpowering in the cookie, but they blend right into the crumb and play nice with the rest of the cookie.  These cookies are crisp and sugary on the outside, tender and chewy on the inside.  Like Ina says, “How bad can that be?”.

The recipe says it will yield 16 cookies.  I made mine a little smaller and got about 24.  They don’t spread much while baking, so you can really get a lot onto one sheet.

The best part is, it’s Tuesday and I still have some leftover to enjoy with my afternoon tea!

What’s your favorite cookie?