Sweet and spicy classic ginger cookies

’Tis the season for cookies, and every day till Christmas, Star journalists are  baking a recipe from the Star’s extensive archives. Follow our holiday baking adventures here on The Star, or get the recipes first plus some inspiration for your inbox with our free Cookie Calendar newsletter. Sign up here.
Kelly Skjerven is a digital producer who is not much of a baker unless Pillsbury’s ready-made dough counts. Plus, her co-baker and partner, Russ, who loves to bake.
This recipe for classic ginger cookies was published in 2020 from The Pan Chancho Cookbook, promising a sweet, spicy and chewy result.
This simple, classic recipe was an easy pick for me since it didn’t look too difficult to make for novice bakers. Russ grew up looking forward to his grandma’s ginger cookies every holiday season so it was a good choice for him too.
The recipe doesn’t have too many ingredients – we already had most in our cupboards, and we’re a household that bakes maybe a handful of times in a year. The one ingredient we were missing was kosher salt – which I did find but it was in a large box that would take up too much valuable cupboard space for the small amount we needed. Plus, a quick google search proved that the sea salt we did have on hand was a fine substitution.
Making the dough didn’t take us long at all. The hard part, however, is that I’ve been too stubborn to buy a handheld electric mixer since moving out of my parent’s house eight years ago so we had to mix by hand. After this experience, I will cave and add it to my Christmas list.
The recipe directions say to sprinkle a quarter cup of sugar onto the 24 rolled balls of dough before baking them. This seemed like a lot of sugar to me, so I was stingy on the amount but after the first batch came out, we ended up adding more sugar to the top of the cookies, which I think was the right call.
With three minutes left in the oven the gingery smell started wafting throughout our apartment and we were ready to try these bad boys. The final result was the perfect mix of ginger and cinnamon – sweet and spicy – and crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. For first time ginger cookie-bakers, these turned out just perfect.
We’re grateful to have leftover ingredients to make these yummy treats again. 
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp ground ginger
2 tsp Baking Soda
1 tsp Ground Cinnamon
0.5 tsp kosher salt
0.75 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
1.25 cup granulated sugar, plus 2 tbsp
1 large egg
0.25 cup fancy molasses
In medium bowl, whisk together flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.
In large bowl using electric mixer on medium, cream butter and 1 cup (250 mL) plus 2 tbsp (30 mL) sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in egg, scraping down sides of bowl. Add molasses; beat well. In three additions, beat in flour mixture just until incorporated.
Shape dough into 24 balls, each about 2 tbsp (30 mL). Roll balls in bowl with remaining 1/4 cup (60 mL) sugar. Place several inches apart on large, parchment-lined baking sheets. Bake 15 to 17 minutes in preheated 325F (160C) oven until just golden.
(Cookies will spread to about 4 inches/10 cm.)