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Ginger-Snaps (One pound and six ounces flour)
One pound and six ounces flour, four of sugar, eight of butter, six of preserved orange peel, half pint of molasses, one tea-spoon soda dissolved in two table-spoons boiling water, one tea-spoon cloves, two of ginger. Soften the butter and mix it with the sugar and molasses, add the spices, orange peel and soda, beat well and stir in the flour, flour the board and roll the paste as thin as possible, cut in circles and bake in a very quick oven. This quantity makes one hundred and twenty-nine snaps, about three inches across. - In the Kitchen.
A weight-based cookie dough of the sort that assumed a kitchen scale and a big rolling surface. The proportions are sound; only the units, the oven and the scale of the batch need translating.
- The weights, in cups1 lb 6 oz flour is 22 oz, roughly 5 cups spooned and levelled; 4 oz sugar is a scant 2/3 cup; 8 oz butter is two sticks. Weigh if you can, since the dough's stiffness is the whole point.
- Half pint of molassesAn American half-pint is 1 cup. Use unsulphured cooking molasses, not blackstrap, which is far more bitter than the molasses this recipe would have assumed.
- Preserved orange peelSix ounces is a substantial amount, about a cup and a quarter chopped fine. Candied peel from a jar works; mince it small or it will tear the thin sheets of dough.
- Soda, not baking powderOne teaspoon of soda dissolved in boiling water is the only leavening, and it is there to react with the acidic molasses. The recipe adds it with the spices and peel, before the flour goes in; mix quickly once it is in.
- A very quick ovenPeriod oven terms were not standardised, but this points to a hot oven, roughly 400-450F. At the thinness called for, snaps may need only 5 to 7 minutes, and they turn from set to scorched quickly. Bake one test tray before committing.
- Roll it thinner than feels reasonableThis is the hinge. Snap means brittle, and a snap is brittle only if it is rolled to about 1/8 inch or less. Chill the dough first and roll a small piece at a time; the butter content makes it slack at room temperature.
- YieldThe stated 129 three-inch rounds is not an exaggeration for this quantity, but it is a great many cookies. Halving or quartering the recipe scales cleanly.
- Cooling and keepingLet them firm on the sheet for a minute, then move to a rack; they crisp as they cool. Store airtight, since they soften fast in humid air.
Ginger-snaps are generally understood to take their name from their texture rather than their spice: snap suggests the sound of a thin, brittle biscuit breaking, though the derivation is not settled. Molasses was widely used for sweetening in nineteenth-century American baking because it was cheaper than refined sugar, and its acidity works with saleratus or soda for lift. The credit line "In the Kitchen" appears to point to another printed cookbook rather than a neighbour, which would be characteristic of a compilation drawing on both household contributors and books already in circulation.