Do yourself a favor and follow this link to Feeding Dexygus Seconds’s recipe post featuring Chez Panisse Gingersnaps (featured a few days ago on kottke.org.) I made them for school yesterday and EVERYONE loved them. Two camps developed, however. One batch came out chewier than the other batch. According to the link, the cookies should come out crisp and brown around the edges. Hence the chewy batch was the failure batch, but not according to some. “The chewier batch is superior,” said these some. I disagreed. “The crispy batch is the superior cookie!” But the chewys did the crispys all a favor by getting rid of the bad stuff. The good stuff that remained was da bomb.
[Note: the superior batch was made, as pictured above, on the Silpat sheet. The inferior batch was made on parchment. And make sure to follow the direction to cook until brown around the edges–that really pays off. And don’t skimp on the pepper–it gives the cookies a freaky edge that everyone loves.]
I bookmarked that as soon as Kottke posted it. But I haven’t made them yet…
….COOKIES! AHH GIMMEEEEE!
Whoops, went nuts. I love cookies.
I made these today. They’re totally great. I used a quarter teaspoon of white pepper, because the original poster said she would probably go spicier than 1/8th next time. Plus I think white pepper is “weaker” than black so it would need more.
I did mine on parchment and they were excellently crispy (I just got some nice, heavy cookie sheets, which could be the difference as to why your parchment-baked cookies were chewy?). Great crunch, but they don’t make a crumby mess. And you can dunk them in tea without them dissolving.
I think I will be making these every year from now on, especially since the block of dough freezes so well. I cooked 30 cookies and there’s still tons of dough left. Awesome.
Thanks so much for posting the link to the recipe.
Great recipes!