Cookies hold a special place in my heart (and my tummy, I call it the “cookie compartment”) so I want to share one of my favorite recipes. It’s actually a recipe I ripped off from the Stone’s Throw coffee house so these ginger snaps still remind me of my days as a barista. That place was truly a “third place” to me. Anyway, my ear hurts so let’s begin.


Start with 1 & 1/3 cup of oil, 2 & 1/2 cups of white sugar, 2 eggs, and 1/2 cup of molasses. I used “cooking molasses” but did have a big debate in Safeway with myself over whether I should choose that or “fancy molasses” or “blackstrap molasses”. I still don’t know how they differ but did find an interesting article on the Boston molasses disaster.


Put the 4 ingredients above in a bowl and mix. I guess the more appropriate word is cream. You usually mix the dry ingredients into wet ones. While mixing wet ingredients the word cream is used because mixing would just be wrong. Baking is a scientific process people! Cooking is art, but baking is science, therefore art as well.




After creaming the above ingredients, measure out the following: 3 & 1/2 cups of flour, 2 teaspoons of cinnamon, 2 teaspoons of baking powder, 2 teaspoons of baking soda, and 1 teaspoon of salt. Then we need to shred that ginger. Haha just kidding. That would mean putting something not processed into our cookies!


Add 6 teaspoons of ginger powder.


Now mix the dry ingredients into our previously creamed ones. This is our cookie dough. It’s quite greasy and easier to work with chilled.


At this point you can go do something else for half an hour or so. After looking at the contents of my fridge I decided I very much needed some vegetables so went to the New Apple Farm Market on 4th. Man I really need to avoid that street around this time of year. Too many people buying too many things.
I won’t go on too much of a tangent but funny thing - a guy and girl were walking towards me and at the very last moment I realized the guy was someone I went on a few dates with about 2 years ago around this time. Unfortunately he actually had an out of province girlfriend. Tsk tsk…in my books that’s not very good form. Seeing him brought this rush of “holy crap it’s been two years” because in some ways my first fall in Vancouver feels like yesterday. In other ways, it seems soooo long ago.
This incident raised another interesting thought in my head. More to do with this site than with him. I had what I call “the blogger bell” go off. “The blogger bell” rings whenever you think something is witty or interesting or fun enough to write about. I also have a “text Jemma bell”, a “leave a voice mail for Ali bell”, an “email Kim bell”, a “phone mom bell” and a few others including a “thesis bell” but that one is not very loud. The thing is I was thinking that maybe I shouldn’t write about it here. Looking back at past posts, I never ever talk about relationships or men or dating. Not at all, I completely skirt around the topic, possibly because a) a potential employer might read this and judge me, b) a potential romantic interest might read this and judge me, or c) that a few guys I have dated do read this and well…hehe…I guess I’m scared they might judge me. My resolution, starting now, is to STOP THIS type of thinking. This same fear of being judged also stops me from posting many opinions including ones around my own research. So while Mr. Potential Employer doesn’t have any dirt on my past relationships and stupid things I’ve done he also might think that my life is dribble and my ideas are sterile.
So…yeah I saw this guy and I wonder if he saw me. I think he did. On the same note, I wonder if he has ever come across this site. See, I’m a total google-stalker. I am way to interested in people not to google-stalk and I google everybody. If you’ve talked to me before and I know your last name, I’ve probably googled you. A broader question - I wonder who else google-stalks. I know some people who do. Part of me assumes that everyone does but to what extent? Like, I might go on a date with someone and be completely uninterested in pursuing anything further than that date but I will still google-stalk him. I’m curious, and there’s information out there…about people…I find people fascinating. So I wonder, even though I was only briefly graced with his company, company due to a lonely bout of long-distance blues, does he still occasionally remember who I am and google me? Will he google me after seeing me in the street? Is it egotistical of me to think he might? Do guys google-stalk at all? That I actually don’t totally know. They’re always so good at giving off the appearance of “forgetting”.
Oh boy, I could open a whole can-o-worms here and I think the cookie dough has been properly chilled by now. Finish up whatever you were doing during your break and then turn the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.


The cookies resulting from today will end up coming to the lab with me on Tuesday. Because of this, presentation is of the utmost importance. Where I might usually guess the size of these cookie dough balls, today I measured. Each ball is 1/8 cup of dough. If you use the same amount, the recipe should yield about 42 cookies. That’s a lot, but okay because they freeze very well and because you will share with everyone.


Place the balls on an ungreased cookie sheet (or substitute) with plenty of personal space for each ball. They grow! Take a knife and flatten each ball. For the first few batches (seen in these two pictures) I actually flattened a litte too much. The cookies expand a lot in the oven and if they are too thin they become too crispy. You don’t want this to happen. Just apply some light pressure to indent the top of each cookie with the knife.


Then sprinkle more sugar on top (and take note that the above is too flat)…


…and put in the oven. Set a timer for 8 minutes. This is where you need to be careful. There is a very fine line between yummy, chewy cookies and yucky, crunchy, dry ones. That line can be crossed with even half a minute too much time in the oven. For the first few batches you are “training” so give them 8 minutes and if that’s not enough watch them until they are done. This may be 10 minutes, it could be 12. KNOW YOUR OVEN. Ginger snaps are extra tricky because of their dark colour. There is no “bake until golden brown”. A good check is to lift one with a knife and look at the underside. When done, it should be only be slightly darker.


Voila! You know who these remind me of…


Do you see the resemblance?


Wow I don’t know how I made these simple instructions so long. The recipe is quite easy. I hope you were entertained, and that you try baking them yourself. If you live in Vancouver and need some molasses I have some leftover here. I don’t imagine I will use it again before Dec 2006. Unless you’re one of those fancy molasses people, then I can’t help you.