Ginger Creams

The third recipe for you all is Ginger Creams. I made these on Tuesday to deliver to my church as a part of our PADS program. Our church provides one dinner and then the next morning's breakfast once a month at Hesed House, the homeless shelter in our city. The parishioners can sign up for whatever items they would like to donate (according to a menu), and three dozen cookies, along with two packages of brown-n-serve sausage was my responsibility this month. Lucky for my kids and husband, this recipe makes four dozen, so there were still cookies left to be munched on after the delivery.

I found this recipe in an old cookbook in which they grouped cookies not by type (drop or refrigerator), but by categories like: Lunch Box Surprises, Picnic Stars, and Fun for the Youngsters. This recipe was categorized under "Beau-Catchers (and Husband-Keepers.)" I kid you not. With a category like that one, I knew it had to be good!


Ginger Creams

1/4 cup soft shortening
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1 tsp. baking soda dissolved in 1/2 cup hot water
2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. cinnamon

Mix together thoroughly shortening, sugar, egg, and molasses. Stir in soda and water mixture. Combine remaining dry ingredients and stir into mixture. Chill dough for two hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Drop dough by small rounded teaspoonfuls on lightly greased cookie sheet (or use parchment paper) about 2 inches apart. Bake 7-8 minutes or just until set. Remove to cool on racks. Frost with Quick Cream Icing.

Quick Cream Icing:
Stir together 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar, 1/2 tsp. vanilla and 1-2 Tbls. cream or half & half until easy to spread.

Yield: Approx. 4 dozen

The dough for this cookie looks very much like cake batter. I made the mistake of forgetting that the dough needed to be chilled, and ended up only chilling it about 45 minutes (I threw it in the freezer for part of the time). The cookies were fine. Do use very small spoonfuls as these spread and puff up a lot! These are really soft, cake-like cookies. My children declared these to be the best cookies EVER (disclaimer: they do that a lot when I make cookies), but my husband also emphatically agreed that they were very good cookies. I guess these really are husband keepers!