This year for Thanksgiving our group of thanks-givers has elected to make a pumpkin cheesecake, rather than a pumpkin pie. Normally, this would be really sad for me, since pumpkin pie is really my favorite part of Thanksgiving dinner (besides the company). Instead of being sad, though, I’m actually pretty excited to try a new recipe. We love cheesecake in this house and we LOVE cooking with our friends Phoebe & Ray, who are visiting us for the holiday.
The recipe I plan to use calls for a gingersnap crust. Being me, I decided to make the gingersnaps rather than by them. For one, I’m sure they will taste better than anything I could get from the store. Add that to sure price savings and confidence about what’s in them and I’m way on the side of baking the cookies from scratch. Plus, making them at home I was able to substitute some of the AP flour with whole wheat flour.
Of course, I couldn’t just bake the 7 oz of cookies that will be needed for the crust. That would be silly. I baked a whole batch, 60 cookies, so we would have extras for snacking and desserts between now and then.
Gingersnap Cookies
(based on a King Arthur Flour recipe)
- 1 1/3 c AP flour
- 1 c white whole wheat flour (or regular ww flour)
- 1 t ground ginger
- 1 t cinnamon
- 1/2 t ground cloves
- 1/2 t salt
- 2 t baking soda
- 3/4 c shortening
- 1 c sugar
- 1 large egg
- 1/3 c molasses
- 1/2 c cinnamon/sugar mixture (2t cinn & 1/2 c sugar)
Preheat your oven to 375°.
You’ll need two bowls for this recipe. In the first bowl, sift together the flours, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt and baking soda.
In a separate bowl beat the shortening, sugar and egg together until fluffy. Beat in the molasses and stir in the dry ingredients to make a soft, sticky dough.
Measure the dough 1/2 oz (rounded teaspoon) increments. Roll the each piece of dough into a 
ball and then gently roll in the cinnamon sugar mixture. Place cookies 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets.
Bake cookies at 375° for 10 minutes. Immediately after you remove them from the oven, raise the baking sheet 5 inches above the burners on your stove (or your counter, or the floor) and drop the pan quickly to push air out of the cookies. I usually do this 2-3 times per batch.
Cool the cookies completely on wire racks and store in a tightly closed container. Makes roughly 60 cookies.
Enjoy with hot cocoa, coffee or tea. Yum!
Tags: Baking, cinnamon, cloves, cookies, cooking, Dessert, food, ginger, gingersnaps, treat
November 19, 2008 at 11:08 am
i’m making gingersnaps this weekend for cheesecake crust as well! these look perfect.
November 19, 2008 at 12:10 pm
I’m a huge fan of ginger snaps (and even more so of the beautiful natural cracks that form on top)! Yours came out beautifully!
Have you had them with a pinch of cayenne pepper mixed into the dough? I read that somewhere before and tried it for the first time last week; now I’m telling the world. It’s that good. When you’re not making ginger snaps for a crust, you should give it a go
November 19, 2008 at 10:38 pm
You should try dipping the ginger snaps into lemon lime Gatorade. Weird? Yes. But breathtaking.
November 20, 2008 at 9:19 am
Cindy ~ I hope both our cheesecakes turn out well
Tony ~ I’ll try the cayenne for sure. That sounds all warmy and delicious!
Gregarious Glutton ~ Dude, that’s gross. Still, I can kind of see it. I’ve heard rumors gingersnaps are tasty with lemonade…
November 20, 2008 at 10:41 am
Thanks for mentioning us on your blog. The cookies look wonderful and I’m sure they will make a great crust.
p.s. Gingersnaps and lemonade really is good.
Happy Baking!
MaryJane @ King Arthur Flour
November 21, 2008 at 10:21 am
yum. must say your photos are amazing (recipe book quality)
super blog. cheers
November 23, 2008 at 9:30 pm
i just made these and they are FABULOUS! i haven’t yet been able to find a recipe that leaves the cookies crunchy enough like the store-bought ones. i think the dropping of pans helps a lot with this. and i love that you used wheat flour in this; i try to do that as much as possible in my cooking and baking. thank you for sharing it!
November 26, 2008 at 6:51 pm
thank you for this recipe! Just like you, I did not want to buy Kraft gingersnaps, with all the hydrogenated oils and processed ingredients. Planning on making the pumpkin cheesecake with gingersnap crust. So looking forward to it!
December 1, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Bakers ~ Thank *you* for all of the wonderful recipes KAF shares with the world. I am very grateful to have your books and website as a resource!
pascallphotography ~ Thanks! Someday I think I might want to do a cook book, but that’s surely a long way off. I’m glad to hear you like the photos!
Kristen ~ I am thrilled that these scratched an itch for you! Pan dropping is supposed to keep cookies chewier (less air in the cookie to cause staleness), but with these I found it made them dense and crispy.
melissa ~ I hope your cheesecake turned out fabulously!
December 3, 2008 at 5:05 pm
I’ve been looking for a crisp-like-the-store-kind gingersnap cookie recipe. I’ll be giving these a go this weekend, dropping pans and all.
December 12, 2008 at 8:55 am
[...] (from Scraping the Skillet) [...]
December 18, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Hi Micha,
I love your website! I enjoy browsing recipes on line and will often print out recipes to try when I feel like experimenting. The gingersnap cookies are one of a couple I pulled off your site and I tried this one the other day. They were fantastic! I was able to successfully substitute the wheat flour with my favorite gluten free flour blend and they turned out wonderful.