Perfect Hat Trick Triple Ginger Snaps

Ginger's perfect hat trick- fresh, dried, and candied- make cookies with a bite that ebbs into lingering warmth. Sensation and excitement are not words we usually associate with a tea-time snack, but these really are surprisingly spicy. And all that heat is just the thing when you are out skating, hiking, or just enjoying the urban pleasures of winter's chilly festive streets. These cookies also have a warm endorsement- my Swedish cousin, Bodil, liked these as much as the excellent but laborious rolled ginger cookies that are so popular in Sweden during the holidays.

These come together very easily- one bowl, oil instead of butter, just a spoon to mix. Use some of the ginger and syrup from this simple recipe, or just make up a fresh batch and use the candied ginger straight form the syrup, still wet and sticky. It's really no more trouble than making a pot of coffee.

We will need:

a ginger root the size of your hand

200 g/ 1 C sugar (if you are making candied ginger now from scratch)

240 ml/ 1 C water (same)

250 g/ 2 C flour

2 tsp. baking soda (don't worry- all the ginger will mask its taste)

1 tsp. cinnamon

1 pinch ground cloves

2 tsp. powdered ginger

dark brown sugar

1/2 C oil

1 egg

Peel the ginger root. On the small holes of a box grater, shred two tablespoons. Slice the rest into thin sheets, stack them, and then slice into matchsticks. Put the sugar and water in a pot, add the ginger, and boil gently until the ginger is translucent and the syrup has thickened. Cool a little. Take about a half cup of the ginger matchsticks and chop them into smaller pieces, setting the rest aside to coat in sugar later.  Blend all the dry ingredients in a bowl. Add the sugar, egg, oil,1/3 C of the ginger syrup (or a 1/3 C honey if you have candied ginger but you already used the syrup up for cocktails), fresh ginger, and chopped candied ginger.

It will be a soft dough that you can just form into balls. Take a piece the size of a walnut, roll in the coarse demerara sugar, and place it on a baking sheet lined with non-stick paper. Leave plenty of room for them to spread- we did a dozen to a sheet, and it made two sheets.

The cookie is called snap- so you expect some crunch. We like ours soft and chewy. The difference is only the baking time- 12 minutes at 170 C/ 350 F gives you soft cookies, and 15 minutes will give you crisper ones. They will puff, then fall when they come out of the oven, making a rustic crackled surface. Let them sit before removing them from the baking sheet- they are fragile.

Most prefer their cookies hot from the oven. Not these though- all the spice and soda are still agitated from the oven's heat. They taste much better after a half an hour to let the flavors settle and the aroma deepen.