Maple Olive Oil Gingersnaps

These cookies were in response to a special request from my mom, who, upon reading about my Ginger Honey Cookies, suddenly realized that it had been years since she has had homemade gingersnaps. She requested actual gingersnaps, but, even though I'm a wonderful daughter (of course!!) I had to go and mess with a good thing. Once again, I took up the Kitchenaid at the very last minute, so when I discovered (yet again) the lack of molasses I shrugged my shoulders and reached for the honey. But when I found that I only had a measly 1/4 cup of butter left over in the fridge, I figured - what the heck, let's throw the ol' honey gingersnaps into the wind and just go all out in trying something totally different.

To replace the dark syrupy sweetness of molasses I reached for maple syrup - this was going to be a strong, powerful cookie. A little richer than the ginger honey cookies. If you make these, be sure to use the good stuff - that cornstarchy nonsense that passes for syrup won't do you any favors. And instead of butter, I've used olive oil in the past for cakes with excellent results, so olive oil it was. Nudge the ginger honey cookies here and there, and this is what you get:

The result? Rich flavors from the maple syrup and ginger, more crispness because of the olive oil, and still a bit of nice chew and bite. Delish.

Ginger Honey Cookies

As you know, recently there's been a lot of ginger going around these parts. Apart from making tea and using this root in savory dishes, I started thinking about what else I could do with it. A gingerbread house? Ooh that would be fun! Or gingerbread men! But a little beyond my current prowess. Also, not exactly the right season for it, because those definitely seem to be wintery sweets. And although the evenings have been a little cool recently, we're not exactly at X'mas time just yet (thankfully! Ouf this summer has just flown by!).