Well, this is the first time that I’ve written the first half of my blog AFTER I’ve already baked and tried the cookies. Normally I like to write up the intro before tasting them so that I can deliver an unbiased first impression. But I have been so busy this past week that I decided to kill two birds with one stone and baked these Ginger Creams yesterday while I was already in the kitchen cooking. Now I’ve had a good 24 hours to dwell on them. And frankly, the more I think about them, the more I don’t like them. And now trying to write about them from an unbiased place is moot.
After the complete awesomeness of the gingersnaps, I went into this cookie optimistic. You’ll notice that the ingredients are almost exactly the same as the gingersnaps, with the addition of water (which had me scratching my head) and an icing (which you don’t even know about unless you read the entire recipe beforehand). I did notice that this recipe calls for a very high ratio of flour. It uses 2 cups of flour for 3 dozen cookies, whereas the gingersnaps used 2.25 cups for 5 dozen. And after mixing the dry ingredients with the wet, it became apparent why the recipe called for the additional water. All that flour made for a thick batter.
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| reminds me of a Venn diagram |
Adding water to a baking recipe seems almost unethical to me. I feel like the integrity of the ingredients will be watered down. Like if I were to add water straight to the molasses. What a waste of flavor! If the dough is a bit tough, change something else or add something that will contribute both moisture and flavor, don’t just add water. Seems like a cop-out.
Speaking of molasses, I do love molasses. Goes great over pancakes. Its distinct flavor is sweet with a slight bitter ending. One of nature’s candies. What is it exactly? Molasses is the left over liquid that comes from extracting sugar from boiled sugar cane and sugar beets, and it is delicious. When you buy molasses, always look for unsulphured molasses. Unsulphured molasses is made from mature sugar cane, which does not require adding sulphur dioxide during the extraction process. No need for extra chemicals in something you can find it otherwise. There are three grades of molasses: mild, also known as first molasses; dark, or second molasses; and blackstrap. The three grades come from the number of times the molasses is boiled, thus concentrated. Blackstrap molasses is a source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, and iron; one tablespoon provides up to 20% of the daily value of each of those nutrients. Blackstrap is even sold as a health supplement! But even with all these wonderful qualities, molasses wasn’t enough to save this cookie.
I mentioned before that this cookie also has an icing, a Confectioners’ Icing to be precise. In my BH&G cookbook, the icing is stated very matter-of-factly in this cookie recipe. Like I should know what it is? I find a recipe for Confectioners’ Icing on page 122 in the cakes section and it’s as easy to make as it was to write (it’s only a 4 line blib on the page). Overall, the icing is the best part of the entire cookie. I give my little cookie monster a taste, and she agrees. |
| What did you put on my nose? Let me have a taste! Oh yeah, that's good! |
The recipe states to frost the cookies while they are still warm, though I found that just melted the icing, so I let the second batch cool down before I iced them and that worked out much better. The cookies turn out very light, but cakey. And the flavor does seem watered down. There isn’t a strong presence of any of the spices or molasses. They are not exactly sweet, not exactly flavorful, not exactly good. But I will say that the icing was a nice touch. Still, after having all this time to think about them, I am disappointed with ginger creams. In comparison, the gingersnaps should be upgraded from an “A” to an “A+”. As for these cookies….
Cookie Grade: C- = I would love to give them an F, but the icing is okay. They are edible and someone might like them.
What I was jammin’ too: Spotify radio, I love my new iPhone!!!
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