For decades I have been annotating my cookbooks, recipe by recipe.   For each recipe I attempt, I then write a recipe review. In each cookbook recipe the recipe is rated from one to 5 stars with some accompanying descriptive text.   For recipes I save from the internet (and these are few and far between since I’m a bit old fashioned) the title of the recipe saved on my computer has an asterisk rating from “*” to “*****”. Ditto for all of those beloved recipes my friends and families send me.   I hardly every look back on one to three star recipes.   Those 4 and 5 star recipes are really the keepers.   From time to time I’ll post a few 4 star cookie recipes.

Ginger Crisps

I packed myself off to college with some of my favorite recipes handwritten in a binder which I’ll just call “Roberts Heritage Recipes”. This easy and delicious recipe was one of the first I hand wrote for that binder. It was a great lure to get my friends to come on over to study for calculus finals.   Recently it has entered the curriculum of my Cookie Camp and sometimes in Easy Peasy Meals for Younger Kids. It’s still a great lure and a treat I promise to my younger campers for good behavior.

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour (8.8 oz, 250g)
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 tsp. ground cloves
• 1 ¼ tsp. ginger
• ½ tsp. salt
• 2/3 cup lard or shortening (4.8 oz, 130g)
• 1 cup sugar (8.1 oz, 230g)
• 1 egg (2 oz, 57g)
• ¼ cup molasses (3 oz, 85 g)
• ½ cup finely chopped walnuts (2.1 oz, 60g)
• 1/3 cup sugar (2,7 oz, 77g)

Instructions

Preheat to 350. Sift together flour, soda, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and salt. Cream lard and 1 cup sugar. Add eggs and molasses. Add sifted dry ingredients to creamed mixture. Add nuts. Mix well. Shape dough into balls the size of a small walnut and roll in the remaining sugar. Place 2 in. apart. Cook for 10 min.