I have no idea who Jane is but she makes mighty good cookies.
This month Treat Petite, a food blogging challenge co-hosted by Stuart over at Cakeyboi and Kat The Baking Explorer, is all about childhood memories. The Biscuit Barrel, hosted by Laura over at I’d Much Rather Bake Than… is all about summer. So I’ve combined the two challenges in this one recipe, a nostalgic biscuit recipe from my rural Canadian childhood.
I used to attend a summer camp for one or two weeks every summer. It was your stereotypical North American children’s summer camp: groups of children age 7-15 bunking in wooden cabins, outdoor toilets and showers, swimming, canoeing, camping, ziplining, fishing, camp fires – it had it all. The things I learned on those fantastic weeks helped shape who I am; self-sufficient and stubborn with an appetite for adventure.
This week my eldest is on his own summer camping trip at the Scottish equivalent in the Cairngorms. I can’t wait to hear the adventure stories he has to share when he returns.
One of my favourite parts of summer camp was the evening camp fire singsong. We’d all gather at the fire pit in the forest and sit on a circle of felled logs, singing our hearts out with new found friends while we watched the embers drift into the starry sky.
After the camp fire we’d head back to the dining hall for milk and cookies. They were the best cookies, I know, because when I hit age 16 I worked at that summer camp as an assistant cook and I made those cookies for the camping children on giant baking trays in an industrial sized oven.
One of the recipes was for Jane’s Ginger Cookies and the original recipe I used to make for 100 camping children is barely legible in my old notebook. I’ve scaled down the recipe (the original made 16 dozen cookies!), converted it to UK measures and used UK ingredients (ie: a combination of treacle and golden syrup to replace the molasses). I can’t get the same type of molasses here in Shetland as I used to buy in Canada – blackstrap molasses is too dark. Oh what I would give for some Crosby’s old-fashioned molasses!
Flavoured with ground cloves, ginger and cinnamon these biscuits are quite reminiscent of pepperkaker, or ginger snaps. They’re a hard biscuit ideal for dunking into a glass of ice cold milk or a hot cup of tea.
This reminds me of Len Fischer’s How to Dunk a Doughnut: The Science of Everyday Life (2002). The first chapter in this quirky book details The Art and Science of Dunking. True story! Fischer was commissioned by a leading biscuit manufacturer to investigate the best way to dunk a biscuit in order to avoid fishing around the bottom of the teacup for soggy remains.
The results concluded that the best way, in the absence of a chocolate topped biscuit (which holds everything together for longer), was to dunk the biscuit side on (see Figure 1.1) preventing the top from getting soaked. The science behind this involves capillary rise and the Washburn equation, but you really should read the whole chapter to be properly educated on the art and science of dunking. It is rather amusing.
Figures from Len Fischer’s How to Dunk a Doughnut (pages 7 and 8)
So there you have it. The scientific method for dunking a biscuit, plus a perfect dunking biscuit recipe. Go and dunk, my dear readers, and be merry! 🙂
Jane's Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
- 480 grams granulated sugar
- 285 grams butter
- 95 grams treacle
- 95 grams golden syrup
- 1 large egg
- 670 grams plain flour
- 1 tsp sea salt
- 2 tsp ground cloves
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
- extra granulated sugar for rolling
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Instructions
- Preheat oven to 180 C.
- Cream butter and sugar together in a large bowl until light and fluffy.
- Add treacle, golden syrup and egg and mix together well.
- Sift flour, salt, spices and bicarbonate of soda together in a separate bowl.
- Add dry ingredients to the wet and combine thoroughly.
- Pinch off pieces of dough the size of a walnut and roll into a ball.
- Roll the dough ball into granulated sugar to coat and place on an ungreased baking tray. Press down lightly with the palm of your hand to flatten.
- Bake for 12-14 minutes until lightly browned. Allow to cool a few minutes on the baking tray before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.
Daydream adventurer. Expat Canadian. Foodie. Calls Shetland home, for now. One eye is always on the horizon.
Cindy @ Hun... What's for Dinner? says
I love this type of cookie on a cold winter night with a cup of hot chocolate. There is just something about ginger cookies that make you want to curl up in front of a fire.
bev says
look delicious
kayleigh white says
I used to hate ginger – detest it! But since maturing into late twenties, I find I love it more than chocolate!
Debbie Skerten says
Brilliant blog. You learn something new everyday x
Farhana says
I love subtle smell of ginger!
bev says
Look yum!
Pam Francis Gregory says
These look gorgeous! Defo going to give these a try.
Heather Haigh says
An education and a recipe for ginger bikkies. What’s not to love?
Choclette says
Maybe Jane was Cornish as these look just like Cornish Fairings (ginger biscuits). Singing around the camp fire was my favourite part of school camp too – oh happy days! Don’t think we got to eat yummy biscuits like these though.
glenn hutton says
Love the dunking guide ;0)
Love the recipe, thank you!
Funny thing how your taste changes over the years, when I was a child/teenager I detested ginger biscuits/cookies, in fact I hated ginger full stop. Don’t remember when this changed but I cannot get enough of the stuff in food and drinks.
All I can say is never give up on something that you detested when you were younger as your palate changes as you you get older.
Elizabeth says
I absolutely agree! I was the same with olives, as I wrote recently 🙂
Kat (The Baking Explorer) says
These look perfectly baked and deliciously crunchy. Thanks for entering them into Treat Petite!
Heather Haigh says
Treacle, golden syrup, ginger – oh yesssssssssssss.
Stuart Vettese says
Lovely Elizabeth. I always enjoy reading about your Canadian childhood.
Elizabeth says
Thanks Stuart 🙂
Paul Wilson says
I love ginger biscuits. The problem I usually have when baking my own is that they either come out too hard or too soft – what’s the secret?
Elizabeth says
This particular recipe makes very hard biscuits. I do have an old fashioned spice cookie recipe including ginger which is quite lovely and softer (I make them into bear paw shapes!) 🙂
Paul Wilson says
Is there a knack with biscuits to getting the “hardness” just how you want it?
sustainablemum says
Wow these look amazing, I might just have to give them a try 🙂
Tracy Nixon says
Oh my favourite type of biscuit! I shall attempt this recipe!
Honey says
These look yummy! x
Elizabeth says
Thanks 🙂 They are pretty scrummy, for sure!
Sally - My Custard Pie says
The dilemma of whether to dunk or not. You might be rewarded by a softly, melting mouthful or a cup full of mush. Lovely recipe – addicted to ginger biscuits.
Elizabeth says
I’m not a dunker, really. I prefer a big mouthful of biscuit followed by a drink of milk, myself. Takes the risk out of dunking 🙂
Vohn McGuinness says
Those biccies look delicious. I so love that you have scientific graph on your page! Loved this post. 😀
Elizabeth says
Thanks Vohn :)It was a really entertaining book so I felt I had to share a snippet from it. 🙂
Kate - gluten free alchemist says
What perfectly crisp round ginger cookies. I love the crackly top and sparkly sugar grains. They look amazing! Jane was definitely in the know when it came to cookies! And as for the science of dunking? Brilliant!!!!
Stuart Vettese says
The science of dunking – love it!!
Thank you for entering Treat Petite with these edible memories 🙂
Laura says
I never knew there was a science to dunking biscuits – clearly my chemistry education has been wasted up to this point! These are gorgeous examples of ginger biscuits and I love those crackly tops =)
Elizabeth says
Everything is science; that’s the awesomeness of science 😀