Day 3- Ginger Snap (Wafer) Cookies

Back to work after a great week off. The best part about being a teacher is the strategically placed vacations- just when you think you’re going to lose it, a vacation comes along. While I still had to work (for myself) at the bakery, my husband says I am far more pleasant when I’m not teaching/stressed. Do not get me wrong, I love to teach… but as anyone in the profession knows, teaching is only 40% of the job, and the easiest part at that.

But onward to the day 3 recipe…


I was blessed to be born in to the only non-Italian family with a Dad that makes killer spaghetti sauce from scratch. This delectable homemade sauce is a taste from my childhood, and I was blessed to receive a tub of it for dinner last night. I served it with GF pasta and followed it with these...

I am a little embarrassed to say that my first cookie recipe for my blog has come out a little… um… flat. I have helped create three amazing cookie products in the cookie line for Par Dela (though I may be biased), but this one was not quite up to par (pun not intended J)- at least in the “plumpness” category.

Today’s recipe is one for ginger snap cookies. I bought a fairly large stalk of ginger for my homemade ginger sauce in Sunday night’s (Monday’s blogged) salmon with ginger sauce recipe- this recipe used the better portion of the remainder of the fresh ginger. I love it when things do not go to waste!

I know why it did not meet my initial expectations, after reviewing the ingredients below, but I am always hesitant to use butter and too much brown rice flour… a little more of each would have changed this recipe. Butter is something I try to infrequently cook with… while brown rice flour has a tendency to make baked products a little gritty.

I used about twice this amount, but be aware,
a little goes a LONG way.

But enough about the “look”… they tasted GREAT! As I sit here typing this, I am snacking on them. Don’t tell my husband, but that will be why he finds crumbs on his keyboard of his laptop later.  I’m a fan of the old fashioned ginger snap, so what the cookie lacked in girth it made up for in taste. I very rarely use FRESH ginger in my baking or cooking, but after this recipe (and the one yesterday), I’m a convert.

For anyone else who has never (or rarely) used fresh ginger- it really only took a couple of extra minutes to peel the root and grate. I used the small grate side of my “cheese grater”. Keep in mind that mine is a house without a dishwasher- so for me to recommend one extra step with two extra utensils used, the dishwashing time is well worth it!

Ginger Snaps

(Yields 50+ wafer-thin cookies)

GF, CF, CoF, NF, SF

Those of you who may be EF… I’m pretty sure you could substitute a flax gel (1 TBS ground flax+3 TBS water) for the 1 egg and this would still come out good!

1 ½ Cups Brown Rice flour 

¼ Cup Tapioca Flour

½ Cup Potato Starch (NOT FLOUR)

1 tsp baking soda

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp xanthan gum

2 tbsps fresh ginger (grated)

½ Cup Canola oil

1 cup white sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

Preheat oven to 350

Line baking sheet(s) with parchment paper

Combine all ingredients well (I didn’t even use my stand mixer, just mixed well with a rubber spatula)

Roll out approx. 1 TBS size gobs of dough and space about 4 inches apart on the lined baking sheet. These guys spread like crazy! The batch shown at left were TOO CLOSE together.

Bake at 350 for 8-10 minutes- on the middle rack of your oven.

The cookies will come out of the oven very soft. Allow them to cool for a few minutes on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack or plate.

Let me know your thoughts! Enjoy!

Naturally,

Raych