Chewy Ginger Crackles
September 23, 2020 | By Jeremy Scheck | 48 Comments
Gingersnaps, molasses cookies, ginger crackles—-whatever you want to call them—are the sort of cookie that you might not crave, but when you have a bite, you won’t be able to stop. These cookies are crisp on the outside and chewy in the middle and filled with warm spices. I set out to find a gingersnap recipe with this texture that does not call for shortening, and the task was surprisingly difficult. Not only is it gross, vegetable shortening is made of hydrogenated oils (banned in many countries) which disrupt cell function and can contribute to cancer. I’ll stick to butter, thanks.
I settled on this food network recipe as a base for the all butter factor, but I adjusted the spices slightly, doubled the recipe (because why wouldn’t you want more cookies?) and added metric measurements.
Chewy Ginger Crackles
Ingredients
- 4 1/2 cups (605g) all purpose flour
- 4 teaspoons ground ginger
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg (optional)
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup/2 sticks (226g) unsalted butter at room temperature
- 2 cups (400g) granulated sugar
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- 2/3 cup (226g) molasses
- Extra sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 375° F. Line two baking sheets with silicone mats or parchment paper.
- In a medium bowl, measure the flour, ginger, cloves, nutmeg, baking soda and salt. Whisk to combine and aerate.
In a large mixing bowl (4-5qt) cream the butter with the sugar for 3 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, then the molasses. Once the molasses is mixed in, mix another minute or two until the mixture lightens slightly in color. - Pour the dry ingredients over the wet (if your ground ginger is lumpy, sift the dry ingredients in), and mix on low until no dry bits remain.
- Scoop 12-15 cookies per half-sheet pan using a 1.5 tablespoon cookie scoop (or with a dinner spoon).
- Pour about 1/2 cup of sugar into a small bowl, and roll each ball of dough in the sugar to coat. Arrange the balls of dough back on the sheet tray, making sure to leave room for spreading.
- Bake one tray at a time for 12 minutes, until the cookies are puffed and slightly more brown. Let each batch cool on the tray for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. The cookies will taste great warm but the texture and flavor is much better at room temperature.
Jeremy Scheck spent high school perfecting his signature cupcakes, making quiches and coffee cake by the dozen at a local bakery, and teaching cooking demonstrations at Williams-Sonoma. As a 10th grader in 2016, he began documenting his favorite recipes on a blog called The After School Bakery. In college, Jeremy learned to make 50 gallons of ice cream in the food science lab, how to prune grape vines in the teaching vineyard, the best way to milk a cow in Northern Italy, and why film photography is an art worth saving. As a sophomore in 2020, he traded blog photos for video and became a TikTok culinary sensation. Jeremy has been featured on the Today show, The Washington Post, Bloomberg, BBC Radio, People, and Access Hollywood, among others. Jeremy is a graduate of Cornell University with a double major in Spanish and Italian, and significant coursework in food science. He lives in Brooklyn, NY. Learn more about Jeremy.
So good!
these are insane! super quick to make, bake perfectly even, and are just the right amount of softness! watch them the last few minutes since the dark color makes it harder to know when they are ready
I’m testing out desserts for Thanksgiving and these are amazing. I love gingersnaps but usually they’re too crunchy, and these are perfectly in between soft and crunchy. And not overpoweringly ginger. 10/10
AMAZING! I’m here from tik tok and ginger cookies are always my favorite but I never thought I could make them but this recipe is so easy I even did it without a mixer in my college apartment. Just definitely keep in mine this makes 4 dozen, I cut my recipe in half and it made the perfect amount!
These are really good, I made them for my dad’s birthday because he doesn’t really like chocolate chip/sugar cookies and he loves these! They taste almost exactly like ginger snaps but are chewy!
I CANNOT THANK YOU ENOUGH FOR THESE THEY SMACK
These cookies are soft on the inside and crunchy on the outside. Jeremy, who is my cooking idle did not disappoint with these. They have a nice spice to them, and I made my cookies pretty big, so I added another minute. solid 20/10 would recommend.
Amazing so chewy so delicious 10/10 would recommend so easy to make as well
So so so good! I made these as a gift for my friend and she absolutely loved them. Thank you so much for this recipe!
Literally the most perfect cookies. So moist and soft yet also crunchy. I’ve made these for several friends and all of them have said these are so good!
These are so good! 12/10 would recommend them. I’m so glad they do not have shortening in them.
These are amazing! Definitely better than any store-bought ginger cookies I’ve had. if you’re contemplating making these, just do it.
Perfect recipe!!! This will now be my go to recipe next to chocolate chip 🙂
Literally a perfect recipe! 11/10
they were sooo good!!! fairly easy to make and they were really fun to bake! 10/10 and i don’t really like cookies so that’s an impressive grading <33
Oh my Gaia! So many cookies, yet so tasty. Thank you for sharing this delightful taste and texture combination.
I may go back to halving the recipe though…
Knowing I get to eat some of these cookies is the only thing getting me out of bed in the morning.
Reminded my mom and I of a similar cookie my grandma used to make. Great cookie and easy recipe, makes quite a few.
Okay these were so so good! They were so simple to make and the recipe made so many! The chew to them was just so great and it made the house smell amazing. Everyone who tried the cookies loved them! I will definitely be making these again 🙂
These are my favorite cookies!!! Everyone who I have made them for says the same! Absolute perfection. After making them multiple times I decided they were missing my favorite thing, candied ginger. So I chop up about 1-1 ½ cups of candied ginger and throw it in for an extra chewy ginger kick! I highly recommend (they are great with out the added ginger but it is my favorite part)
THESE ARE AMAZING
These cookies are fantastic! Some of the best ginger cookies I’ve ever had, and very easy to make! On top of that, they look beautiful, so I’ll definitely be making more to give away. I did find out that for my oven, taking 2-3 minutes off the bake time is best, because otherwise the bottoms burn a little bit. So keep an eye on your cookies.
This recipe was spot on, even the baking time! They came out perfect and taste awesome!
These cookies were a huge hit! Each cookie tasted the same as the one before it I was truly amazed. However I needed an extra minute of baking in my oven and when I did a batch at 12 min they were under baked! Luckily this recipe provides enough dough that if you mess up the baking at first you got plenty more chances to try! Everyone I have a cookie to were very impressed.
Just made these for my grandma as they are her favourite kind… they came out so amazing! Love this recipe
These cookies are amazing and simple to make! I’m in love
THESE ARE AMAZING! Thank you Jeremy!
These are so good! Gingersnaps are one of my dad’s childhood favorites so this was a great twist! Super easy to make too!
i made these twice (halved the recipe each time) and they taste amazing! i don’t know if i made mine smaller than his but they ended up crispier than i would like and got pretty hard within a few days to the point where it was really hard to break them in half (chewy if you took a bite though). i would probably do 9-10 minutes and keep checking instead of the 12 next time and maybe flatten them a bit because they didn’t spread as much as his.
Store them in a bag or container with a few peices of bread, it will soften them up overnight
So Amazing! Has taken a couple tries and tweaks to get right, sometimes I do have light brown sugar half white sugar, this last time I added finely chopped crystallized ginger and they were the best yet! Also, the texture is much better the next day but they never last that long
These were delicious, my whole family loved them. So good and the recipe is easy to follow.
These were so good! By far the best cookie recipe I’ve ever made. The warm spices were perfect and they’re not too sweet, which I love. My friends loved them and I froze some for myself for later as well. Definitely recommend!
these are the best i love them make them
I needed a change from my usual Christmas cookies, so I made these. The texture and flavor are amazing. Everyone who tries them loves them!!
I made these for Christmas and they were delicious! My mom told me she likes gingerbread but doesn’t eat ginger snaps since they’re hard/crunchy. However, she loved these since they’re really soft and they stayed fresh for several days! I’ll definitely make these again!
I made these for a gluten free friend and subbed 1:1 Bob’s Red Mill GF AP that has the xanthan gum already in it. I added a tiny extra baking soda since gf things flatten out.
I did the first baking sheet at 12 minutes and they were a little too crunchy, but did the second sheet around 9 minutes and they were phenomenal. Not just delicious for a gf goodie, but like, for any cookie.
Can’t wait to make these again with all the gluten!
These are excellent, ginger snaps have never done anything for me but the chewiness is quite perfect. I could eat a whole batch
This is amazing!!!
I’ve been searching for this because i recived some last christmas and i checked your videos one by one with hope, thank you soooo much, God bless you, i hope you will be more successful ♥️♥️
i made the cookies and the product came out exactly like his !! i love this recipe so so so much and my dad loves them too ❤️❤️
Gingersnaps were my favorite type of cookie growing up but I had never tried to make them myself- this recipe was amazing. They came out so chewy and with such a nice ginger flavor.
FIVE STARS🤩🤩🤩🤩🤩 I love this recpie! I loved gingersnaps as a kid (also Trader Joe’s triple ginger cookies). I eat them as if I had an addiction☺️. This recipe is better than Trader Joe’s. I have made them three times. Everyone that tries them loves them. Thank you so much!
Five stars. Made these on Christmas Eve and they smelled delicious and tasted amazing. Perfect for the season! Recipe makes a ton.
Wow these are seriously so addicting! I used freshly grated ginger because I was out of grounded and it was phenomenal. The cookie itself was so nice and soft from the middle and crispy from the edges. Thanks for the great recipe.
I love the way these cookies came out! Really scratched that holiday spice itch.
My one thing is that having an oven thermometer and timer will really help! I tried this for different bake times bc even an extra minute over might lead to the sugar on the bottom of the cookies burning! I underbaked these slightly (like 8-10 min) for a softer cookie. Definitely looking forward to making these for the holidays!
These cookies are great! I make them gluten free and dairy free and they still turn out amazing every time.
First time making gingerbread cookies.
They are soft & chewy.
For my taste, I would reduce the sugar by half (one cup instead of two).