His Biblical Beauty: Dipped Gingersnaps

This month, we celebrated my Grandma Peirce's 80th birthday! While scattering old pictures of grandma and I on the tables, it reminded me of a little adventure she and I had a few years ago.

It was Christmas time and I was probably nine years old. Since we had the whole day to spend together and I had never tried gingerbread before, we decided to bake and decorate gingerbread cookies from scratch! Five hours and over 100 gingerbread men later, I took my first bite-- and concluded that they tasted awful. I'm pretty sure she and I just sat there for ten minutes and surveyed the mess we had gotten ourselves into.....but ended up laughing and realized we had a blast making memories, even if the situation wasn't ideal.

I'm certainly no food blogger and will willingly admit I'm not at the point in my culinary career where I can whip up my own recipes. That's why I turned to my mom for help when choosing which family Christmas recipe to share this year!! These gingersnaps had a much better impression on me than the gingerbread men from years ago, and they're a lot softer than what you would traditionally imagine.

This recipe is adapted from a Taste of Home Dec/Jan 1997 issue. Enjoy!

Cookie Ingredients:
2 cups sugar
1-1/2 cups vegetable oil
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon salt
Additional sugar for rolling

Frosting Ingredients:
2 (12 oz.) Ghirardelli white chocolate chips
1/4 cup shortening

Begin by combining sugar and oil in a mixing bowl.

Add eggs one at a time and beat until well incorporated. Stir in molasses.

In a large separate bowl, combine flour, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and baking soda. Gradually add dry ingredients to creamed and mix well.

Set aside a small bowl of sugar. Take out a ball of dough using a medium cookie scoop. Mold the dough in your hands and roll in extra sugar. Place on baking sheets and bake at 350º for 9-11 minutes (the less you bake them, the softer they are!) Let cool on a wire rack.