Possible Allergy warning – please read all recipes carefully
and be aware of any allergies or sensitivities that may affect your health and well-being

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Definitely an interesting name for a holiday cookie from :B

Please Fave the original Here

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Okay, I know the name is a little odd, but sadly, I've forgotten the reasoning for it.

I believe I got the recipe from https://gallusrostromegalus.tumblr.com/

Sadly, the post containing the original recipe seems to have gotten swept up in the Great Smut Purge over on Tumblr because of the name.

Anyway, these are delightful, crisp cookies with a slight, decadent chew near the center and just EXPLODE with flavor, both from the cookie itself and the little chunks of crystallized ginger.

Imagine the best ginger snap you've had and multiply that by ten!

Also, I did add an optional 1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper to give it an extra kick. Just wonderful!

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Naamah's Ginger Spice Cookies / Ginger Sluts

Ingredients:

3/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg, beaten lightly
1/4 cup unsulfured full-flavored dark molasses
2-5 tablespoons crystallized ginger, chopped to size of chocolate chips ("optional" but without it they are not ginger sluts)
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon dried ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
granulated sugar (or turbinado sugar) for dipping the balls of dough
optional: black or cayenne pepper
optional: for raw-dough safe cookies, or vegan cookies, substitute 1/4 cup pumpkin and 1 teaspoon of baking powder
optional decoration: red and green sugar sprinkles

Preparation:

In a great big bowl, cream the shortening, brown sugar, molasses, and egg together until smooth. If you are adding pumpkin, do it now. If you are adding the crystallized ginger, add it when you are done with this step.

In a second bowl, mix the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt. Add any pepper or cayenne at this time. If you're substituting pumpkin for egg, don't forget your baking powder. When you measure the flour, use a tablespoon to add it to a measuring cup to be sure it has the proper loft, then level with a knife.

Add the flour mixture into the shortening mixture in several batches, stirring well. The finished cookie dough may be soft and may be stiff, depending on whether you used shortening in a stick (recommended, IMO) or shortening from a can (harder to stir). Either way, cover it and chill it for at least one hour.

Roll even tablespoons of the dough into balls and press one side of each ball into the turbinado or granulated sugar. Around Christmas I like to mix red and green sugar crystals with the dipping sugar, but these cookies look great with plain granulated sugar and best of all with coarse, caramel-colored turbinado sugar.

Arrange the balls well-spaced with the sugar sides up on greased baking sheets. They spread a lot! Bake them on the middle rack of a preheated 375°F oven for 10 or 12 minutes, or until the surface puffs up and then flattens way out. Keep an eye on them the first time you make them. Some oven configurations will produce a done cookie in only 8 minutes. When ready they will be gingery-colored and cracked, like Mars. They'll be a little poofy and soft but not gooey in the middle. Let them cool for a minute on the sheet (they will deflate a bit), then transfer to cooling racks with a metal spatula.

Take them out on the early side if you like chewy, soft cookies, on the late side if you want them a little crispier.

If you use strictly level tablespoons of dough, this recipe makes around 40 cookies. They will disappear much faster than you think. Don't make them too big; as I said, they spread.
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