103 Gingersnaps
Boil a tea-cupful of molasses, and add two spoonfuls of butter, one spoonful of ginger, and one tea-spoonful of saleratus, stir the flour in when it is hot, roll it thin, cut into rounds. Bake quick.
The recipe has no sweetener save the molasses and very little butter. A tea-cup is 4 ounces or 1/2 cup. Because the measurement of saleratus is specific on the size of spoon, I guessed that the un-specified spoon was most likely a tablespoon. It took 1 1/2 cups of flour to make a cookie dough from the wet ingredients.
So 1/2 cup or 4 oz molasses
2 tbsn butter
1 tbsn ginger
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 cups flour
Mix the flour and the ginger, and set aside. In a pot or sauce pan, put the molasses and butter. Bring to a boil and add the baking soda. It will foam up a bit. Take the pot off the heat, stir in the flour/ginger mixture. The recipe says to simply roll it out, but it's a fairly stiff yet sticky dough, so I wrapped it in plastic film wrap and set it aside for 15 minutes. It was still sticky, but more pliable. I rolled it out both on flour and on sugar. The flour worked best. The sugar caramelized a bit more than I'd prefer but it did taste good. The dough rolled quite thin with ease and I cut out various shapes. I popped them onto a cookie sheet and baked them at 350° for 4 - 5 minutes. Doesn't take long to bake these babies!
In re-rolling the scraps, I had to add a few drops of water, squish them together and let them set for a while, so the moisture could equalize through the dough scraps. I was only able to re-use the scraps once. Next time I'd just roll them into a log and slice, so as to avoid wasting the dough. It is the Economical Housekeeper after all.
The cookie dough is definitely not sweet, but still quite tasty. I was amazed at the fact that though the dough was sturdy, the cookie is not. It's not delicate and flaky by any means, but it wasn't tough and gave a satisfying snap. While I prefer the depth of flavour other ginger cookie recipes might have with multiple spices, this recipe was easy, cheap and still satisfyingly good.
Definitely looks like a fun to try recipe. And I'm always intrigued by old cook books. I'll have to look around for that one. I finally found Mrs. Beeton's for free for Kindle, but wasn't happy with the eBook version. For something like that I prefer a real book.
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