On a cold, rainy Sunday last month I woke up without a plan for what I was going to bake. But as I flipped through some cookbooks, I decided that Sarah Kieffer's pan-banging "Ginger Molasses Cookies" seemed like the perfect antidote for the dreary weather. To make the dough, you beat room temperature butter with sugar until light and fluffy; add an egg, molasses, and vanilla; and incorporate the dry ingredients (flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and cloves). You roll the cookies in sugar before baking them on foil-lined baking sheets (and banging the pans periodically during the latter part of the baking time).
I've found that with Kieffer's pan-banging cookies, I sometimes don't get a lot of ripples unless the cookies are enormous. So I typically start out with smaller cookies (that would be considered quite big in normal circumstances) and then move on to larger cookies if I'm not satisfied with the amount of rippling I'm seeing. I first tried a #16 scoop (which is four tablespoons, or a quarter cup) and wasn't pleased with the small amount of rippling, so I moved on to a #12 scoop (which is larger than five tablespoons) and was much happier with the result. In the photo below, all of the cookies are the larger size except for the two cookies at the top and bottom, on the right half of the photo. You can see how the smaller cookies have one ripple around the edge that formed from the pan-banging process, but the larger cookies have multiple ripples.
I definitely preferred the more rippled appearance of the larger cookies, but both sizes were equally tasty. The cookies were thin and crisp only around the edge, with a very chewy center. While I liked the spice flavor of the cookies, I did think that the cookies read as a bit sweet overall. I wouldn't say that these are the most complex or interesting flavored ginger cookies I've made, but their texture still made them immensely satisfying. These would be a welcome treat at any time, rain or shine.
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