Grandma’s Gingersnap Cookies

As much as I try to avoid sugar (especially when I’m pregnant), sometimes I just can’t help it, and I need something sweet! These are my favorite “healthy” cookies because they are high in iron (thanks to the blackstrap molasses) and made with good ingredients like farm fresh eggs, real butter, and fresh ground flour.

Ingredients:

1 c. Butter – 2 Sticks (Pastured butter like Kerrygold is the best, organic butter is the next best, and butter without rBST growth hormones works too.)
¾ c. Sugar
¾ c. Brown Sugar
2 Eggs (Pastured are best.)
½ c. Molasses (Blackstrap has the most iron.)
3½ c. Fresh Ground Flour
2 t. Baking Soda
½ t. Real Salt
3 t. Cinnamon
1 t. Cloves
3 t. Ginger (I like to use fresh ginger juice made in our juicer.)

Directions

Preheat oven to 350˚F.
Mix butter, sugar, molasses, and eggs with a beater until creamy.
Add the rest of the ingredients and mix together.
Roll into balls and roll in sugar.
Lay out on an ungreased cookie sheet and bake for 8 minutes at 350˚F. (It should make 3 full sheets with a little left over.)
For a nice flat bottom, lay out on parchment paper to cool. (It absorbs the moisture and helps the cookie to be firm, yet still soft.) *The trick with these cookies is to not overcook them. When you take them out of the oven, you’ll think, “These are too soft, they can’t be done yet,” and yet that’s how you know that they are actually just perfect.

This recipe was passed on to me from my Mom who got it from my Grandma, and my Grandma has always made THE BEST gingersnap cookies. On Christmas, she sends these cookies to her children who live across the country and they wait for them with baited breath. My Grandma came over once and I had her walk me through the process step by step because no matter how closely I followed the recipe, I could never get them to turn out just right. Turns out, the trick was to cook them for 8 minutes instead of the 10 that I had been doing.