Irish Ginger Cookies

A soft, chewy, moist center with a sugary, crunchy coating; Irish Ginger Cookies are golden nuggets of cookie perfection with the deep ginger flavour we all love.

Well, Dear Reader, here we are at Day 17 and today is all about these Irish Ginger Cookies!  Have you been keeping up with this crazy idea of mine?  I’m still enjoying all of the work it takes to make a project of this magnitude come to life, but at the same time, I am looking forward to finishing the 24 Cookies of Christmas series.

It will be nice to see all 24 of these recipes written up, polished, and published.  I’m sure I’ll feel like the month of December passed by too quickly, but I’ll certainly feel like I accomplished what I had set out to do.

CHRISTMAS BAKING IS MEANT TO BE STARTED EARLY

Truth be told, I made this cookie back in September.  I always like to get a head start on baked items that are going to be considered seasonal posts.  Oh yes, Dear Reader, oftentimes you can find me making Halloween cookies in August and Christmas cookies in September.  I can only imagine what McKenna’s friends think when I pack those cookies in her lunch for school.  Ha!

I remade this Irish Ginger Cookies recipe, because I wasn’t satisfied with the photographs.  If you are so inclined, you can scroll waaaaaaayyyyyy back through my Instagram posts to find the earlier edition.  In the meantime, I’m going to get on with this recipe write up, and of course, brand new photos!

MORE CHRISTMAS COOKIE RECIPES!

Did you know that I’ve been posting a 24 Cookies of Christmas series for a few years now? There are over 100 Christmas cookie recipes that you can find right here at Lord Byron’s Kitchen! To make it easier to find, I have created a page for each series. Just click on the image below and you’ll find the full series for that volume all one page!

BREAK INTO YOUR SPICE RACK AND PUT THAT GINGER TO WORK!

I never grew up with ginger cookies like the ones you see here, or the cookies that are typically found today.  Although ginger was a common ingredient in my mother’s baking, I can’t recall her ever baking ginger cookies.  Ground ginger was found in many of the things she made, like sweet raisin bread, molasses tea biscuits, or in fruitcake.  The only other time we tasted ground ginger was in the form of a ginger snap.

Ginger snaps were not hand-made by my mother.  She believed that if you could buy something already made for you, and if it was just as good as hand-made, then why bother with going through the trouble of dirtying up your kitchen!

I don’t want to imply that my mom wasn’t a good cook, or that she didn’t care for spending time in the kitchen.  She wasn’t extremely educated, but she had great common sense.  I think that’s what being a good home cook is all about, and I try to do the same.

THERE’S NOTHING WRONG WITH A SHORTCUT

For example, there are times when I’ll buy items that are already prepared.  Sometimes, it’s because I’m lazy, and oftentimes, it’s because I know the store-bought kind is as good as it’s going to get.  A baguette, for example; I’m probably never going to try to top that!

The same goes for ginger cookies.  In Newfoundland, there’s a company called Purity.  My parents purchased many Purity products over the years, and there were some things that were purchased regularly, either because they were the best they could get, or there was no use trying to make it better.

I’m telling you all of this to set the scene for my introduction to ground ginger.  Purity made a great ginger snap cookie.  So good, in fact, that my dad will still buy them.  And, if we go to visit, he’s bound to place the entire package on the table with some butter.

MORE CHRISTMAS CONFECTIONS!

In some cases, we want more than a cookie. That’s why I have two more Christmas-themed collections you might want to consider. The first, is my 12 Bundt Cakes of Christmas, and the second is my 12 Biscotti of Christmas. Click on the image below to see each collection all on one page with links to each recipe!

There seems to be a theme in my blog post stories lately with talks of Newfoundland, some of their traditional foods, and butter.  Honestly, Dear Reader, times have changed, but back in the day, we put butter on everything!  Like, way before it became trendy!

I cannot recreate Purity’s ginger snap recipe. But, I have found a way to make Irish Ginger Cookies, which are delightfully ginger-y, super soft and moist, and a great substitute (for me at least!) until I get to my dad’s for the real Purity ginger snaps with butter!

Irish Ginger Cookies are a great fall cookie.  It’s one of those cookies that has warmth and coziness all packed tightly into it.  It’s the ginger, the cinnamon, and the cloves that give it that perfect fall taste.  There’s enough coziness in this cookie to take you right through to Christmas!

STORING, PACKAGING, AND FREEZING

These cookies will stay fresh for about 3-5 days in a covered container and in a cool place. But, if you plan to freeze these cookies, use a food-safe container that can be frozen. You’ll want to ensure a very tight fitting lid too. (I use these quite often when freezing baked goods.) I like to place a sheet of plastic wrap over the top of the container before pushing the lid on. This helps to create a better seal. The goal is to keep all of that cookie freshness locked in!

You can freeze these cookies for up to three months. They will come out of the freezer looking just like they did when you put them in there. Once you thaw them, they will taste just as fresh, and be just as soft, as the day you first baked them.