Last year I asked my mother in law for a recipe for these cookies. My fiance loves them so I wanted to give it a try and see what was so good about them. My family ended up loving them so here I am again this year making more! It's a simple, easy recipe, though the process may seem tedious.
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Ingredients
1/2 cup room temperature butter
3/4 cup sugar
1 egg
2 tablespoons milk
2 cups flour
1/2 teaspoon ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and black pepper
1/8 teaspoon baker's ammonia
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You can purchase it here, as it doesn't seem to be something available in most American grocery stores. This is the one I bought.
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Directions
She puts it all in a mixer, but I don't have a mixer so this is how I do it.
You'll want to preheat your oven to 400F/200C at some point. After you get the dough kneaded should be enough time, as it takes a while to get 1 cookie sheet filled.
Using a fork, I cut up and mash 1 stick (1/2 cup) of room temperature butter in a medium mixing bowl.
I add the 3/4 cup sugar and mix them together well. Then I add and mix in the egg. You can add the 2 tablespoons of milk here. It's probably a better idea to do that and mix it up in the butter mixture. I've been adding it when I add the flour and I think that is making my dough stick to my fingers more than it has to.
I prepare 2 or 3 cookie sheets with parchment paper. You can do it bare if you like. I prefer using parchment paper as I can lift up the paper and let the cookies slide off right into the tin! The size of the sheet does not matter.
Combine 2 cups flour, 1/2 teaspoon ginger, cloves, cinnamon, and black pepper, and 1/8 teaspoon baker's ammonia. I used a huge measuring cup because it's nice to sift my flour into. Mix those up so everything is evenly distributed and combine with your butter mixture.
Scrape off your fork and set it aside (you won't really need it after this unless you're making another batch). Mix and knead the dough by hand until it's firm, brown, and there are no globs of any ingredient hanging around. I do all of this in the bowl.
Take small chunks of the dough and roll them into logs. You don't want it to be too fat as these cookies are meant to be quite small.
Cut the rolls. You can cut it with a knife, or line them up and use a pizza cutter. I prefer using a pizza cutter, but you have to take your time and take care to make uniform sized pieces. Even though I have to go slow to make sure they are around the same size, it's much faster than using a knife for me. They did stick a bit to my pizza cutter though so watch out for that.
Place them on your cookie sheet. They don't expand much so they don't need to be very far apart, though they shouldn't be near touching either. Around half an inch apart should be good enough. You can try and look at my pictures below for an idea.
Place your cookie sheet in the oven at 400F/200C for 10-15 minutes. I live in a high altitude area (3600 feet) and it took somewhere between 15 and 20 minutes. I just kept checking it often after 15 minutes. You might want to do that at 10 minutes instead. You want them to be a light brown. Not dark at all. I place mine in the middle of the oven and do 1 sheet at a time since by the time I'm done with my next cookie sheet the other is about ready to come out.
I take them out and let them cool for a few minutes. I put them in the tin while they are still slightly warm so I can begin filling the sheet for the next batch.
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These cookies are meant to be dry so putting them in a tin is better so it won't trap the moisture and make them soft.
Here are some pictures of my cookies! If you're unsure how far to space them then take a look at some of these pictures.
Hope you enjoyed this recipe!! Please comment any questions you may have and feel free to share your results!
