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Dessert

Extra Ginger Snaps

A sweet cookie made with flour, butter, molasses, sugar, milk, egg, ginger, and cayenne pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 10 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Extra Ginger Snaps

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Prepare the dough

  1. Preheat your oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a large bowl, rub together the flour, baking soda, and cream of tartar.

  3. Add the butter and mix until well combined.

  4. Stir in the molasses, sugar, milk, and egg until smooth.

  5. Add ginger and cayenne pepper to taste.

  6. Gradually mix in enough flour to form a dough that can be rolled out thin.

Shape and bake

  1. Roll out the dough and cut into desired shapes.

  2. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-12 minutes or until lightly browned.

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. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  2. Cream + buttertop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  3. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

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

    Shared aroma: ethanol (alcoholic, ethereal).

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

All-purpose flour
Provides the structure that holds the dough together and sets as the cookies bake.
Baking soda
Reacts with the acidic cream of tartar and molasses to lift and lighten the cookies.
Cream of tartar
Adds acidity that works with the baking soda to help the cookies rise and stay tender.
Unsalted butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and helps the cookies spread and brown.
Molasses
Adds moisture, deep sweetness, and color, and contributes to browning and chewiness.
Egg
Binds the dough and adds structure and moisture as it sets in the oven.

The step that matters

Gradually mix in enough flour. Adding flour gradually lets you reach a dough that rolls out thin without becoming stiff. Too much flour makes the cookies dry and dense, while too little leaves the dough too soft to cut and shape cleanly.

Swap the ginger

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

  1. Cinnamonfits better
  2. Nutmegfits better
  3. Gingerthe original
  4. Allspicefits about as well

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