One of the best moments of thanksgiving is eating all the leftover ginger snaps from my mom’s perfect sweet potato casserole. This year, I replaced that with making my own for our 12 Days of Cookies – these ginger crisps.

Only problem was, they weren’t really crispy.

The thin discs of chopped crystallized ginger and brown sugar stayed moist and pliable, even days after.  Maybe it was cutting the recipe in half, using dark brown sugar instead of light, or something else entirely. Not that it was a bad thing, necessarily. There was a sparkle to the cookies from the sugary ginger that I adored…but they would have been nice a bit crispier.

So I report my version, and dub them Dark Brown Ginger Cookies! (Recipe after the break)

Dark Brown Ginger Cookies

adapted from Gourmet, November 1989

Makes about 25 cookies

1 stick unsalted butter
1/2 cup firmly backed dark brown sugar
1/2 an egg yolk (separate the egg, then divide beaten yolk in half)
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup finely chopped crystallized ginger
1/4 teaspoon allspice
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream together butter and sugar. Beat in the egg yolk, vanilla, ginger and allspice.

2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add the dry ingredients to the mixer in 2 batches, and mix until the dough is well combined.

3.  Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Drop teaspoon-sized balls of dough onto the cookie sheets about 3 inches apart. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, and let cool on the cookie sheets for 5 minutes.

Be sure to see which cookies my cookie compatriots chose as well: Jerry at Cooking by the Seat of my Pants, Judy at No Fear Entertaining, Sandy at At the Baker’s Bench, Courtney at Coco Cooks, Kelly at Sass and Veracity, and Andrea at Andrea’s Recipes.