Three Times the Ginger = Three Times the Yum! (Holiday baking, part three)

If you love ginger as I do, these are the cookies for you. I remember the first time I had these cookies. A classmate of mine, in the Baking and Pastry program, came into one of our not-so-hands-on classes (I think it was nutrition) and handed these cookies to each of us. The recipe was wrapped around the cookie (at least, that's how I am remembering it). The first bite was heaven.
Sharp ginger flavor with strong molasses tones and the mellowing flavor of butter in the background. These are close to the top of my list of favorite cookies. Before these cookies came along, I was making cut out decorated gingerbread men for my cookie gifts...after these cookies,
the gingerbread men were out of the picture. Not that I don't delight in a yummy frosted gingerbread man, but I make a huge amount of cut out decorated sugar cookies and figured I could cut out the gingerbread men without anyone objecting. And who could object, with these cookies in their place? Yum. Now I will stop myself just short of singing the praises of these cookies ad nauseum and get on with the recipe.

Triple Ginger Cookies: (should yield about 5-6 dozen cookies depending on the size you make them...maybe more, could be less)

3/4 cup butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar (really, you can use light brown sugar if that's what you have)
1/4 cup molasses (if you want to use a little more molasses, just add a little more flour)
1 egg
2 1/4 cups flour
2 tsp. ground ginger
2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. peeled, grated ginger root (mmmmmmmmmm)
1/2 to 3/4 cup diced crystallized ginger (I tend to go for a heavier amount because, and I'm not sure I mentioned this, I love ginger)
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-Cream together the butter and brown sugar.
-Add molasses and egg to the butter mixture and mix until blended.
-Add the flour, ground ginger, baking soda and salt and mix until it just starts to come together, then add the fresh and crystallized ginger. Mix thoroughly.
-Place the dough in a bowl (or I use a gallon freezer bag) and chill overnight. Because this is such a soft dough, the chilling is necessary.
The next day:
-Preheat oven to 350f, Prepare cookie sheets with either a spritz of pan spray or line them with parchement paper.
-Remove the dough from the fridge and roll the dough into little balls (I do them very small, about 1/2 inch around) and then coat 3/4 of the ball with granulated sugar (the reason I only do 3/4 and not the whole thing, is so the bottom of the cookie doesn't burn from too much sugar coating it). Place cookies on the sheet pan sugar free side down. Bake 6 to 8 minutes, or until done. I like these a bit chewier, so I bake them for 6 minutes. I think you could probably bake them for 10 minutes or longer if you want a crisp cookie (just keep a close eye on them).
-Cool cookies and enjoy (or stack them into little cityscapes and take pictures of them if you are a nut job like me) Mmmmmmm.
Happy Snappy Ginger baking!

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