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Dessert

Ginger Snaps

A ginger snap cookie made with brown sugar, molasses, butter, soda, ginger, and flour, baked thin and crisp.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann · From a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg) · 7 ingredients
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Why it works: Sugar and molasses 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 ↓

Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

Make the dough

  1. Combine one cup brown sugar, two cups molasses, one large cup butter, two teaspoons soda, two teaspoons ginger, and three cups flour to commence with.

  2. Rub butter and sugar together into the flour.

  3. Add enough more flour to roll the dough very smooth and very thin.

Bake the cookies

  1. Bake the dough in a quick oven.

  2. The dough can be kept for days by putting it in a flour barrel under the flour, and bake a few at a time.

  3. The more flour that can be worked in and the smoother they are rolled, the better and more brittle they will be.

  4. They should be rolled out to wafer-like thinness.

  5. Bake quickly without burning.

  6. Let them cool completely before setting aside.

Make the decorated cake

  1. Bake a plain cake in rather thin sheets.

  2. Cut the cake into small oblong pieces the size and shape of a domino, a trifle larger.

  3. Frost the top and sides.

  4. When the frosting is hard, draw the black lines and make the dots with a small brush dipped in melted chocolate.

Nutrition, whole recipe (rough)

666Calories
13 gProtein
13 gFat
123 gCarbs
What these numbers assume: 5 portions
IngredientPortion assumedkcal
Flour1 cup (125g) all-purpose455
Butter1 tbsp (14g)102
Molasses1 tbsp (20g)58
Sugar1 tbsp (12.5g) granulated49
Ginger1 tsp grated fresh (2g)2

One typical portion per ingredient; the recipe's quantities are not counted. A rough guide only, not for medical or dietary planning.

By F. L. Gillette and Hugo Ziemann. Recipe from a historical cookbook (Project Gutenberg).

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. See the original page.

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. Sugar + molassestop 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. Sugar + flourtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Ginger + flourtop 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

Flour
Forms the structure of the dough and absorbs the liquid so it can be rolled thin.
Molasses
Adds sweetness, moisture, and a deep color to the cookies.
Butter
Adds fat that tenderizes the dough and helps it become crisp.
Brown sugar
Adds sweetness and moisture and helps the cookies brown.
Soda
Releases gas during baking so the cookies spread and turn lighter in texture.

The step that matters

Rolling the dough very thin and baking quickly. Thin dough with enough flour dries out and crisps during a short, hot bake. Thick dough or a slow bake lets the cookies stay soft, and too long in the oven makes them burn.

Swap the ginger

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

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

Fit is the average pairing score against sugar, molasses, flour, butter. 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.

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