Ginger Creams with Brown Butter Icing
A modern version of a classic recipe for Ginger Cream Cookies.
Ingredients
- 1/3 cup butter*
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup molasses, use light molasses if you can find it
- 1/2 cup water
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon powdered ginger
- 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
- 1/2 teaspoon cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
for the browned butter icing
- 5 tablespoon soft butter
- 3 cups of powdered sugar
- 3 tablespoon cream or milk
- 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla
Instructions
- Mix the first 5 ingredients together thoroughly. Stir all of the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl and gradually blend them into the egg mixture. Chill dough. Heat oven to 400 degrees and line a baking sheet with parchment. Drop dough by tablespoonful (for medium cookies) or teaspoonful (for mini cookies) about 2 inches apart on a lightly greased baking sheet. Cookies will spread slightly during baking. Bake about 7-10 minutes (depending on size of cookie) or until almost no imprint remains when touches lightly. While slightly warm frost with browned butter icing.
- Makes about 2 dozen cookies.
for the icing
- To brown the butter, heat it up in a saucepan over medium heat until bubbly and frothy (about 5 minutes but watch carefully and stir as needed). Then blend the browned butter with the powdered sugar. Stir in milk and vanilla until smooth. I like to spoon the icing into a little plastic bag then cut off one end so I can easily pipe out the icing onto each cookie.
Notes
The classic recipe from the 20's uses shortening instead of butter. I've tried it both ways but I usually go for butter since it's a natural ingredient. The shortening does make the cookies keep their shape more and spread less while the butter creates a thinner cookie. I've used both dark molasses and light and they both work but the classic recipe calls for a light molasses.