My favorite is the old Betty Crocker Moravian Ginger Cookies recipe. I always put extra spices in, but never to the point of being hot. It's a molasses cookie, however, not really a ginger snap. Maybe that's the secret, though?

Also, try some dry mustard, maybe 1/4 - 1/2 tsp. That's another old secret for ginger cookies.

Thanks pillog. When I posted I wondered if there is much difference between ginger cookie and ginger snap. Maybe a touch of mustard? At any rate, will try your recipe as soon as cookie tin empties from last trial.

Were they crispy, and were they refrigerated and the dough sliced?

Will have to do some serious digging for the recipe....but the secret is lots of butter and light molasses....and a cut out cookie....or I believe the recipe said you could use less flour and roll into balls and flatten before baking....ground ginger, a bit of cinnamon....and that's all I remember....seems to me the recipe came from Colonial Williamsburg....and it came with a bag of cookies.

I just found the Colonial Williamsburg gingerbread cookies recipe on the net:

18th Century

Take three pounds of flour, one pound of sugar, one pound of butter rubbed in very fine, two ounces of ginger beat fine, one large nutmeg grated, then take a pound of treacle, a quarter of a pint of cream, make them warm together, and make up the bread stiff; roll it out, and make it up into thin cakes, cut them out with a teacup, or small glass; or roll them out like nuts, and bake them on tin plates in a slack oven.

— Glasse, Hannah, “The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Simple,” 1796.

21st Century

• 1 ½ lbs. all purpose unbleached flour
• ½ lb. sugar
• ½ lb. butter softened to room temperature
• 2 tbsp. ground ginger
• 1 tbsp. ground nutmeg
• 1 cup molasses
• ¼ cup cream

Note: This recipe can be halved to make it workable in most kitchens.

1. Preheat oven to 375°
2. In a large mixing bowl, blend the flour, sugar and spices thoroughly with your hands.
3. Warm the molasses and cream together in a small saucepan, stirring to blend. This is not to be hot but warm so that they blend together, not cook.
4. Work the butter into the flour mixture with your hands until it has a sort of grated bread look.
5. Add the molasses and cream mixture and work it up into a stiff dough with your hands. If it seems dry, add a little more cream to it. The dough should be stiff but not dry.
6. Roll out the dough on a floured surface about ¼ inch thick and cut cookies into whatever shapes please you. If you wish to form them into nut shapes as the recipe states they will look sort of button shaped when they bake.
7. Bake these in a 375° oven for about 8 to 10 minutes. They should still be soft to the touch before they come from the oven, not hard.

Here's the link:

http://recipes.history.org/2013/04/to-make-gingerbread-cakes/

Almost my favorite cookie. Here's two versions. The first one is my grandma's, it makes a ton but can be cut down by 1/3. You can do the math. These are dark brown, molasses rich and the original recipie calls for "shortening" which with grandma was probably Crisco. I either use all butter or half organic margarine.

Tillie Grieve's Molasses Cookies

3 eggs

1 1/2 cup shortening

2 1/4 cup sugar (white)

1 1/2 cup dark molasses

1 TBLSP cider vinegar

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp salt

1 TBLSP baking soda in 2 cups flour

Add gradually 3 more cups of flour. Chill and then roll into balls, flatten with sugar dipped glass bottom or dust with sugar and flatten. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 min.

The second recipe comes from my college apartment mate.

Molasses cookies from Carrie Billings

3/4 cup shortening

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup molasses

1 egg

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp cloves (I am not a clove fan so I would probably halve this)

1/2 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup chopped raisins (optional, I don't add)

Melt shortening in saucepan, cool. Add sugar. molasses, and egg. Beat well. Sift flour, baking soda, salt and spices. Add creamed mixture to flour along with raisins if using. Chill dough. Form into one inch balls. Roll in white sugar. Place on greased cookie sheets, 2 inches apart. Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 min.

I have one more apparently for molasses refigerator cookies but it's late and I am falling asleep. Will post Later this weekend when I can. Busy couple of days coming up!

Pink, I don't have an authoritative definition of gingersnaps for you. There are other kinds of snap cookies as well, like cocoasnaps. So, in general, snaps are hard, and a bit dry. They're not just crisp, like the Moravian Ginger Cookies are, but you have to use extra pressure to break them. They're fairly small, probably because more edge to middle ratio makes them harder. They're also usually drop cookies, rather than cut.

This may not be universal, but the gingersnaps I've seen (which is many) are distinctly caramelized on the outside--toast brown--but paler on the inside. Therefore, if there's molasses, it'll be golden treacle, rather than blackstrap.

Gingerbread cookies, on the other hand, are generally cut, a bit thick, and they have a soft, almost cakey crumb, although they keep a very long time and will firm up as they dry out a bit.

Other kinds of ginger cookies can be just about anything. The Moravians are rolled very thin and are good and crisp and have lots of blackstrap molasses, which is a dominant flavor, along with the ginger and other spices. There are gingermen which are also rolled thin and crisp, but are the same color and flavor as the thicker gingerbread cookies. And there are a ton of other kinds of ginger cookies of all descriptions. :)

grainlady, they were crisp, but that's all I know as far as how they were made.

Were they flat? Or were they taller in the middle than the edges?

Flat.

In that case, they were probably rolled, and not gingersnaps which I've always seen as a drop cookie (though different people use words differently and that's not an absolute).

Were they dark or medium brown? Tan? The color will tell you about the color/flavor of the molasses.

This from the 1918 Boston Cookbook....which I think is the end source for all american recipes...this is what I know as ginger snaps...not a dropped thing....but rolled, short and crisp.
Ginger Snaps1 cup molasses1/2 teaspoon soda1/2 cup shortening1 tablespoon ginger31/4 cups flour11/2 teaspoons saltHeat molasses to boiling-point and pour over shortening. Add dry ingredients mixed and sifted. Chill thoroughly. Toss one-fourth of mixture on a floured board and roll as thinly as possible; shape with a small round cutter, first dipped in flour. Place near together on a buttered sheet and bake in a moderate oven. Gather up the trimmings and roll with another portion of dough. During rolling, the bowl containing mixture should be kept in a cool place, or it will be necessary to add more flour to dough, which makes cookies hard rather than crisp and short.

LindaC's recipe seems more to me like gingersnaps than dropped cookies, but I don't have a gingersnap recipe. I've only got Grandma's Chewy Molasses Cookies, which do get crisp if baked a bit longer, and are delicious, but are definitely not gingersnaps.

Annie

Add ginger to them Annie.....bet they will become ginger snaps!

annie - would like to try your molasses cookies with ginger added as Linda has suggested. My mother's cookies were thin and crisp, but whether they are snaps or drops is not important - just the flavor. Appreciate all posts.

Absolutely the words are unimportant. Words change as they move. I was just trying to narrow the field for finding the kind of recipe you were looking for.

Pink do report back on Annie's gingerfied antique cookies!

Annie would you share Grandma's Chewy Molasses Cookie recipe with us? Thank you.