Skip to main content
Dessert

Brandy Snaps

A sweet, ginger-flavored molasses cookie made with flour, butter, and sugar.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Molasses and sugar are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 11% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 9,225 recipes. Both carry ethanol, which smells alcoholic, ethereal. The science ↓

Brandy Snaps

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the batter

  1. Heat molasses to boiling point.

  2. Add butter and stir until melted.

  3. Mix flour, sugar, and ginger together, then add to the molasses mixture.

Bake and shape

  1. Drop small portions onto a buttered baking sheet, spacing them three inches apart.

  2. Bake in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C) until set.

  3. Cool slightly, then use a sharp knife to remove from the pan.

  4. Roll each piece over the handle of a wooden spoon.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Molasses + sugartop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,225 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  2. Flour + buttertop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Molasses + gingertop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together4,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + gingertop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,564 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Flour and butter barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Molasses
Provides the dark color, rich flavor and sweetness, and helps the batter spread and crisp.
Flour
Gives the batter structure so the cookies set and hold their shape while baking.
Butter
Adds fat for richness and tenderness, and helps the snaps spread and crisp.
Sugar
Adds sweetness and helps the snaps brown and crisp as they bake.
Ginger
Adds warm, spicy aroma that defines the flavor of the snaps.

The step that matters

Spacing the portions on the baking sheet. Brandy snap batter spreads a lot as it bakes, so portions placed too close together will merge. Leaving generous room between them lets each one spread into a thin, separate lacy piece.

Swap the ginger

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (molasses, flour, butter, sugar):

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Jalapenofits better
  4. Gingerthe original

Fit is the average pairing score against molasses, flour, butter, sugar. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Ginger CookiesGinger Cookies213 recipesMolasses CookiesMolasses Cookies96 recipesGinger CakeGinger Cake93 recipesMolasses CakeMolasses Cake90 recipes