It’s A Snap

Yikes, since we finished off that luscious cheesecake so quickly I needed,  yes I said, “needed”, to bake something sweet!  I decided on gingersnaps.  As I write, the first batch is in the oven and I’m going to tell you they don’t look too promising.  The recipe said form a dough, no dough formed.  It said to roll small balls and place them on the cookie sheets, then flatten with your fingers.  Not exactly how it worked.  I scooped spoons half-full of dough and scraped them onto the cookie sheets, no need to flatten, they did that on their own.  I’m a little baffled at the moment as this is not what I’d envisioned.  If, however, they come out golden brown and delicious then I’ll be a happy camper.

While I wait for the first batch of gingersnaps to come out of the oven I wanted to write some thoughts about the blogging world.  I’ve noticed that more people whom I’ve never met are reading my blog and I in turn am reading theirs.  It is time-consuming to read blogs, so limiting the number of them I read regularly is imperative.  I question how much of a bloggers post is read when it tells a story as opposed to simply posting a recipe?  I’ve noticed that I enjoy reading a story, a life lesson, a journey, a funny saga, or another’s take on our world as much as I like to read the accompanying recipe.  It would be impossible to recreate the many delicious recipes that come across the screen and keep up with my blog at the same time.  So, if there isn’t time to produce all the many wonderful recipes floating in the foodie blog world, why else do we read them?  I suspect it may be for entertainment, plain and simple.

Of course, some blogs don’t appeal to me, as I know The Orange Bee doesn’t appeal to every person who stumbles upon it.  What I find interesting is, in the literally hundreds of thousands of blogs, gazillions to be exact, that are out there it’s so easy to bypass one or another but be completely drawn to others.  Interaction between people, albeit most strangers, with the same interests, sense of humor, lifestyle, etc. have become a valued slice of my existence. I was slow in learning about blogs, as a matter of fact before I started mine I truly, didn’t know exactly what they were.  Now that I do, I will say the amount of reading material out there in the blog world is mind-boggling and only a small percentage of it appeals to me.  I’m curious to know your thoughts or ideas on blogs, reading or keeping up with them.  To what extent do you read  blogs, do you feel drawn to check in on certain bloggers, do you simply write your own blog, or only read them?  Just curious…oblige me if you will and give me your thoughts.

The verdict is in on the gingersnaps.  Failure, to a certain extent.  They look absolutely nothing like the cookies in the cookbook I used and didn’t make the dough as I expected. They should be called “Gingersnap Wafers”.  I’ve read and re-read the recipe to be sure I didn’t overlook or leave something out.  Oven temp-check, amounts correct-check, baking time-check, fresh ingredients-check.  I now have the third batch in the oven.  I decided to chill the dough to see if it would stiffen up a bit.  This is not called for in the recipe.  It seems to have firmed up to the extent I could scoop a little dough with a spoon and shape it into balls with my hands.  9 minutes until this batch is baked and I can’t wait to see how they fare.

The flavor is delicious, gingery with a hint of orange, a delightful combo, chewey in the center and lightly crisp on the edges.  I’m contemplating taking the entire first batch which are very thin and wafery and turning them into gingersnap crust or topping for something with peaches as the main ingredient.  It is a rainy, dark, gray, afternoon and I can’t think of anything better to have spent my time on than baking a batch of cookies, even if they are a flop.  Next I’ll move on to finding a solution for the snaps and some peaches.  You’ll have to check back for how that works out.  5 minutes and counting…….how will this last batch make out?

I’ve decided to go ahead and post the recipe for these cookies as they taste great.  Miss T even gave them a thumbs up.  You can see from my photo that they are flat as pancakes, well actually some pancakes are much thicker than these cookies.  I can’t put my finger on what went awry but for the sake of taste I’ll post the recipe.  Thunder roars and lightning flashes, rain pours and spatters my windows now, so I’ll go.  Try this recipe if you don’t mind flat cookies, that taste fine.  I doubt that I will make them again, but hey isn’t that what experimenting with new recipes is all about?  Oh and by the way, I am a happy camper, they are after all delightfully edible.

Enjoy!

Gingersnaps

2 1/2 cups self rising flour
pinch of salt
1 cup sugar
1 tbsp. ground ginger
1 tsp. baking soda
9 tbsp. butter
1/4 cup dark corn syrup ( I used light)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 tsp. grated orange rind

Preheat the oven to 325*.  Lightly grease cookie sheets.  Sift together the flour, salt, sugar, ginger and baking soda into a large bowl.  Heat the butter and corn syrup together in a saucepan over very low heat until the butter has melted.  Let cool slightly, then pour it onto the dry ingredients.  Add the egg and orange rind and mix thoroughly to form dough.  (this is where it gets tricky).  Chill the dough for about 30 minutes and then shape small pieces of dough into balls.  Place the balls on the cookie sheet and flatten them with your fingers (if the dough has been chilled this step is doable).  Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool.