Old Fashioned Gingersnap Cookies

I hope you all enjoyed my previous post about Wilder Ranch and maybe some of you who live nearby have visited this spectacular place. 

Years ago, some docents at Wilder Ranch State Park wrote a cookbook that is now for sale. We use the recipes from this book to cook in the old fashioned stove in the Victorian Kitchen. The visitors are amazed when they see this antique beauty. We tell them how we light the fire and how long it takes to heat the oven (when the water on top of the stove starts boiling). There is no temperature gauge and more than once, the cookies got burned. My friend and fellow docent, Georgia, does it the best. I love being in the kitchen with her. My favorite recipe is the one for gingersnap cookies. They disappear very fast when visitors come through the kitchen, and I always save some for my husband who likes them too. ​

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Here is a little history about molasses. Molasses is a thick, dark syrup produced during the refining process of sugar cane and sugar beets. Molasses was the primary sweetener used in America (and in Europe) until the 1880s, as it was more affordable than sugar. It contains vitamins and minerals and is nutritionally better than refined sugar. Molasses was a staple in the Victorian kitchen.

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Ingredients:
This recipe makes about 34 cookies. 
Preheat the oven to 375° Fahrenheit
¼ cup butter 
1 cup sugar
1 egg
¼ cup molasses
2 cups white flour
2 tsp. baking soda
¼ tsp.salt
1 tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp. ground gloves 
1tsp. ground ginger

Directions:
Cream butter and sugar. Add eggs and molasses and beat well. Sift flour and mix with baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt. Sift again and then add it to the creamed mixture. Shape the dough into one-inch balls and roll them in a bowl of sugar. Set them two inches apart on an uncreased cookie . Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until just set and surface cracks. Cool on wire racks.  


Guten Appetit!
Recipe from the Wilder Ranch State Park Cookbook
Posted by Sunnycovechef.com