Ginger Cookies
Recipe: Ginger Cookies
Ginger Cookies, ginger snaps or simply ginger nuts are made with ginger powder along with some golden syrup. These cookies tend to be slightly hard, making them ‘dunkable’ in milk, tea or coffee. They are quite different from the classic gingerbread cookies that are usually baked during Christmas time. Gingerbread cookies have a mixture of spices and tend to be soft and chewy. These ginger cookies are not chewy as they not contain eggs.
The recipe below is a small batch recipe. To bake more, simply double triple the recipe as per your need.
Memories
My mum was not into baking a variety of cookies but then who did bake so much back then. She would only make Kenyan Biscuits and that around Diwali. The rest of the year we bought boxes or rather tins of biscuits from the famous House Of Manji. When the cookies got over, mum would use the tins to store grains, lentils, flours, etc. That 3 kg tin back then contained a mixture of biscuits – Marie, Shortcake, Nice, Digestive, Gingersnaps. My favourite were Nice (coconut and sugar) and Gingersnaps.
Come weekend and we would sit at the table with my kaka (uncle) with Marie Biscuits and Butter. He would slather some butter on one and make butter sandwich biscuits. And they were sooo tasty. Occasionally my dad would allow us to dunk the gingernuts in his tea. As kids we were not allowed to drink tea or coffee, it was only milk.
House Of Manji
Over time the company changed hands and the quality of biscuits took a nosedive. Which is really sad as most of us have grown up enjoying the original House Of Manji Biscuits. This iconic company was started by Madatally Manji, an Indian immigrant during the British Rule. From a very young age he was an entrepreneur, hawking goods at the Karatina Market during his 2 hour lunch break from school.
As he grew up, he saw a need for baked bread and opened a bakery in 1941 in Ngara Area in Nairobi and called it House Of Manji. The onset of World War 2 resulted in the rationing of wheat and also there were more bread bakers that entered the market.
The founder saw a niche in the market for biscuits and set up HOM in the Industrial Area of Nairobi. His original bakery became a shop where people could buy the HOM products. The new industry was inaugurated by the Governor of Kenya back then, Sir Evelyn Baring. I think the shortbread were probably named after him… the shortbread had Baring stamped on it. (That’s my thought). The biscuits baked by HOM were different, they were dark brown in colour, quite different from the biscuits that the British were use to. He tried out recipes using jaggery brought back from Kisumu. The biscuits were a hit both locally and internationally.
In 2002 the company went under receivership and was acquired by House Of Dawda. That is when the quality of the biscuits changed.
(information from Google)
Baking And Me
I love baking especially cakes, muffins, scones and cookies. I am not much into icing but have done my fair share when I baked the kids birthdays cakes at home. As the quality of ready made biscuits fell, I started baking more at home. Back them imported cookies were expensive and with a large family a packet didn’t even last a day! One of the cookies that I baked often were the ginger nuts or ginger cookies. Remember baking almost 3 kgs at a time to fill those House Of Manji tins.
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Sharing This Recipe With Foodies_Redoing Old Posts
I’ve baked these Ginger Cookies several times, especially when the kids were young. Back them a small batch was never enough. I would bake using about 500g or 1 kg flour. Now that it is just hubby and me, I prefer small batch cookies. That way we get more variety.
I first posted this post on 03/08/2013. Republishing it on 01/12/2023
Ingredients Required For Ginger Cookies
All purpose flour – maida, plain flour. If you are using self raising flour then do not add the baking powder. Add only the baking soda or soda bicarbonate.
Brown Sugar – I have not tried baking these cookies with caster sugar. But am sure it would well with the recipe. Only thing is that they cookies or biscuits will not be dark brown.
Butter – have used salted butter. For vegan cookies, replace the dairy butter with vegan butter.
Baking Powder – as the leavening agent, have to add as I have used all purpose flour. Omit if you are using self raising flour.
Baking Soda – Soda Bicarbonate. As the leavening agent. Required as these cookies have no eggs.
Golden Syrup – I have not tried replacing the golden syrup with corn syrup. Most bakers suggest using 1:1 if you replace the golden syrup with honey or maple syrup. If you use corn syrup, you wouldn’t get lovely earthy flavour of golden syrup. Recently, I tried the ginger nuts with honey as I don’t get golden syrup in Canada. The cookies turned good. Make sure you use good quality honey. Check out the video below. For vegan version do not use honey.
Ginger Powder – add according to your taste. Also depends on how strong and fresh the ginger powder is.
Fresh Ginger – totally optional. Can add some fresh ginger as it imparts more flavour than the powder.
EGG FREE GINGER COOKIES | GINGER NUTS |GINGER SNAPS
Ingredients
- 40 g butter
- 2 tbsp golden syrup| honey | maple syrup
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- ¾ cup all purpose flour
- ½ tsp baking powder
- ½ tsp soda bicarbonate
- 1-2 tsp ginger powder
- ½ tsp fresh ginger paste
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180°C.
- Grease baking tray using some butter or line it with parchment paper.
- Sieve flour, baking powder, soda bicarbonate and ginger powder together in a large bowl.
- Cream butter and sugar together till it is soft and fluffy.
- Add golden syrup and ginger paste. Mix well.
- Add the flour mixture and form a dough. Do not knead the dough too much.
- Take about a tbsp of the dough and roll it into a ball. Flatten it slightly.
- Place it on the greased tray.
- Repeat with the remaining dough. Remember to place the cookies at least an inch apart.
- Bake the cookies for 12-15 or until they are golden brown. For me 12 minutes is perfect.
- Remove the tray from the oven and let the cookies rest on the tray for 1 minute.
- Remove the cookies from the tray and let them cool down completely on a wire rack.
- Store in an airtight container.
Notes
- If you don't like the cookies too gingery, then do not add the fresh ginger.
- Remove the cookies a bit early if you like soft middles.
- If the dough sticks to your hand while rolling, wet your hands and roll.
- I have easily replaced golden syrup with honey and maple syrup and it works well. They each add their own flavour to the cookies.
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11 Comments
Manjula Bharath
August 3, 2013 at 3:40 pm
wow thats an delicious looking cookies 🙂 perfectly made dear 🙂 thank you for linking this to my event 🙂
Priya Srinivasan
December 5, 2023 at 12:33 pm
It was lovely to read about HOM bakery and biscuits. Good food always has some great memories! Ginger cookies look lovely mayuri ji, love that gorgeous deep color on them. A great accompaniment with evening tea and a wonderful gift this festive season!
mayurisjikoni
December 8, 2023 at 4:50 pm
Thank you so much Priya. I love to dunk them in my tea.
Veena Krishnakumar
December 6, 2023 at 9:44 pm
These eggless cookies look delish. I am sure the addition of the fresh ginger in this recipe takes it to another level. Perfectly bakes:)
mayurisjikoni
December 8, 2023 at 4:42 pm
Thanks Veena, adding fresh ginger is the game changer.. we love it.
Kalyani
December 7, 2023 at 10:58 pm
OMG ! these ginger cookies took me right back to bangalore days where an aunt would send a tin box of this at X mas time ! the whole house would smell like a ginger bread house when she baked those.. and now I have a great eggless recipe for this ! yum !
mayurisjikoni
December 8, 2023 at 4:39 pm
Thanks Kalyani, as I mentioned they are not like the gingerbread cookies but still very flavourful. Reminds me the ginger nuts we use to buy when we were kids.
Sandhya Ramakrishnan
December 15, 2023 at 10:19 am
What a beautiful history behind the cookies and enjoyed reading though all your memories. I will have a story to say in couple of decades as I bake ginger cookies with my boys every holiday season. It is my sons favorite. My recipe has eggs though and I will be making these eggless ones this year.
mayurisjikoni
December 18, 2023 at 7:41 pm
Thanks Sandhya, I will check out the egg version of ginger cookies as they will turn out more chewy and soft compared to the eggless version. Enjoy baking them with your boys.
Archana
January 2, 2024 at 8:02 am
I loved to read about HOM bakery and biscuits. The man was definitely a great person and an entrepreneur! These ginger cookies are something I am going to bake now after the Christmas goodies are over. We will appreciate them more now. 😀
mayurisjikoni
January 2, 2024 at 4:55 pm
Thank you so much Archana. I think the way many Indians have grown up with Parle Biscuits, HOM was that for us Kenyans. I too love ginger cookies any time of the year.