Spicy and Soft Ginger Cookies

Final Day of Cookie Bookie Week

(Click here to see Monday's cookie on Serious Eats...)

With the cooling weather, there's just nothing better than a comfortable chair, a glowing fireplace, a cookie and a spooky story. Every day this week, I'm sharing a cookie and a few of my favorite October reads.... Today's Book: To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee You probably didn't make it out of high school without reading this Pulitzer Prize winner, the only novel by the gifted Harper Lee. Since it is told from the perspective of a six year old girl, it has the warmth and innocent humor of a child's story, although it is rife with adult themes like racial inequality, rape, class issues, and child abuse. Like Washington Irving, Lee plucked true details from her southern upbringing. Lee had a protective brother four years elder, like Jem, and a summertime friend, like Dill, with a flair for exaggeration and story telling. It was none other than Truman Capote. A family near her home, ashamed of their son's legal troubles, kept him shut up in the house for decades, lending inspiration for the unlikely savior of the novel, Boo Radley. (When I was a girl, we had a gray horse in the backyard that we named Boo Radley. He was kind and gentle most of the time, but if you got in his way when he wanted out, he'd run you down. I'll tell you a story about the time he crossed paths with my mother some time.) Atticus, the story's gentle moral hero, is based on her lawyer father, who retired after defending two black men that were convicted of murder and hung. What makes this book especially delightful to read in October is the climax that occurs on Halloween night when Jem and Scout are walking home from the Maycomb County Carnival. I defy anyone not to shake and tremble a little when they read-from the perspective of a child in a ham costume-the rustling of leaves, a quiet but intense pursuit by a shamed killer. I can almost hear my heart pounding just thinking about it....

To Kill A Mockingbird is no casual spooky read; the inhumanity of Bob Ewell and the ignorance of the jury draw the reader into a dizzying moral outrage. Yet it is counterbalanced by the graceful dignity of Tom Robinson and the integrity and forbearance of Atticus, leaving the reader with an inspired sense of what mankind can be. This is an important one, so don't skip reading it. Even if you know it well, it's worth reading again and again. And in this rare case, the movie is just about as good as the book. Thanks for coming to Cookie Bookie Week. I've only scratched the surface her on my favorite October reads; I didn't even get started on Sherlock Holmes. There's always next year for more. And please don't forget October poetry, too. My favorite spooky reads are "Ode to the West Wind," by Percy Shelly, a portion of Shakespeare's witches lines from Macbeth (Double, double, toil and trouble), Alfred Noyes' "Highway Man," Service's "Cremation of Sam McGee,and "Edgar Allen Poe's "The Raven." Our treat to eat while reading today is a crackly soft ginger cookie. I've tinkered and toyed with this recipe for years, until finally creating this spicy and sweet gem. Most ginger cookies call for shortening to get the characteristic crackles, but I use canola oil with a little bit of sour cream in mine. You get a fabulous soft texture and pretty crinkly outside, with a taste that I prefer to shortening. In addition to the usual round up of spices, I've added some black pepper. It gives the cookies just a little kick, not to hot, not to peppery, just enough to wake up your taste buds. Thanks for enjoying cookie bookie week; now go read!

Money Saving Tips: Since this cookie relies on oil instead of butter, it's one of the most economical you can make. This is my first pick whenever I have to make enormous amounts of cookies for bake sales, church parties, Italian family gatherings or other crowded events. If you don't have sour cream, use yogurt.

Spicy and Soft Ginger Cookies

$2.00 for 40 cookies

1/2 cup canola oil (or vegetable oil)

1/4 cup sour cream

1 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

1/2 to 1 teaspoon black pepper

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon ginger

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 and 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

2 cups plus 2 tablespoons flour (I used half whole wheat)

cinnamon sugar for rolling the cookies (about 1/2 cup granulated sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a medium bowl, cream together the oil, sour cream, sugar, and molasses. Stir in the egg. Add pepper, cinnamon, ginger, salt, and soda. Stir in flour. The dough will be soft and only slightly sticky. Form dough into 1 inch balls. Roll in cinnamon sugar and place on cookie sheets about two inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes, or until cookies are spread and beginning to look crackly. For softer cookies, underbake slightly and for crispier ones, let them go a minute or two longer. Let cool on cookie sheets for two minutes. Transfer to rack.

****These sturdy cookies are great for packaging and mailing.

Next Up:

Garlic and Rosemary Butternut Squash Lasagna