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I love cookies. I love to make them, I love to eat them, and I love the way the scent of baking cookies fills the boat. Often, Jeffrey will excitedly radio to me from the wheelhouse to ask if I’m baking cookies just moments after I’ve opened the oven door. Then guests will start drifting into the galley, scanning for the cookies. If I turn my back, cooling cookies will mysteriously disappear off the baking sheet. Cookie thieves are everywhere.

I make a lot of cookies on the David B. After the breakfast dishes have been finished, I start to think about what variety of cookies I’m going to make. Triple Ginger cookies are almost always near the top of the list and are often requested by returning guests. I think it’s because they are spicy and buttery.

I first learned to make these cookies when I was in a culinary program. The cookie section was two weeks long. During that section I learned about the Cookie Method. When making cookies you start out by creaming the fat with the sugar, then adding eggs and a flavor like vanilla. From there you add the dry ingredients, and then extra ingredients. I don’t always follow the method to the “T.” I often add the extras, such as the candied ginger in the recipe after the eggs and before the baking soda.

On a side note – I did just look up the expression “to the T” because I wondered where it came from. Apparently, there are several theories about where it came from. The first is that it comes from the use of a T-square in construction to accurately make right angles and straight lines, but it could also come from “to a tittle” which is a small point over an “i” or the stroke that crosses a “t.” Both of these theories describe an act of precision, which is something that I’ve never been very good at when it comes to baking. I often eyeball ingredients and will occasionally switch up the order that I put ingredients into the dough. I do, however, always start by creaming the butter, which for anyone who has ever been on the David B knows, I use for all my cookie recipes.

I’ve made a couple changes to this recipe over the years. I think the original one called for 9 oz of butter, but it was a pain to unwrap a third stick of butter for the last tablespoon of butter. I also recently started adding roughly a 1/8th of a teaspoon of black pepper to give the cookies a little more spiciness.

 

Triple Ginger Cookies 

What you need:

• Large mixing bowl or Stand mixer with the paddle attachment.
• Wooden Spoon for hand mixing or scraping down the edges in your stand mixer’s bowl.
• Small bowl filled with sugar for rolling the cookie dough balls in
• Sheet Pan or cookie sheet. I like to use parchment on my sheet pans.

 

Ingredients:

• Butter – Soft 2 sticks (8oz)
• Brown Sugar 2 Cups
• Molasses 1/2 Cup
• Eggs 2 large
• Candied Ginger Chopped 1 Cup
• Ginger Root Grated 1 Tablespoon
• Powdered Ginger 1 Tablespoon
• Baking Soda 2 ½ teaspoons
• Black Pepper 1/8 teaspoon or to taste
• Salt 1 Teaspoon
• Flour All Purpose 4 1/2 Cups
• Granulated Sugar to coat the dough balls.

 

Directions:

• Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
• In a mixing bowl or in your stand mixer with the paddle cream together the butter and brown sugar
• Add the molasses, then eggs. Mix.
• Next add in the candied ginger and ginger powder, followed by the baking soda, pepper, and salt.
• Next mix in the flour one cup at a time until you have a stiff dough.
• Make cookie dough balls that are a bit smaller than a golf ball and roll them in the small bowl and set on a parchment lined sheet pan.
• Bake for about 10-12 minutes. The cookies will flatten and become cracked. You can experiment with how long to cook them depending on how moist or crunchy you like your ginger cookies.

One more note on cookies:

Even though I know you’re not supposed to eat raw cookie dough, I absolutely cannot help myself. This dough is delicious. It turns out the whole crew loves cookie dough so much we’ve had to institute a cookie dough ration. Each day when I bake cookies, I have three small ramekins that can fit two cookie dough balls each. One ramekin for me, one for Jeffrey, and one for Matt. If you too like cookie dough, swing by the galley anytime you see me making cookies and ask for your ration.

I hope you enjoy these cookies as much as I do. They are a joy to make and a joy to watch disappear.

Christine Smith

P.S.
If you want to enjoy triple ginger cookies and other amazing things this summer, be sure to contact Sarah about our upcoming trips to Alaska, the Canadian Inside Passage and the San Juan Islands. Here you can see our current 2024 and 2025 schedules: https://northwestnavigation.com/schedule-and-rates

We like to think that being on the David B makes people happy. We’re not saying that passengers will break into song or anything…. or are we? Sometimes our guests say it better than we ever could. This summer we had a whole boat charter with a family group that was inspired to write this song set to the Julie Andrews “My Favorite Things” tune.

Waterfalls and kayaks 
And journals for noting
Bear cubs and mamas
And bergie bits floating
Silvery salmon
All covered with bling.
These are a few of our favorite things.

Layers of mountains
With moments of hushing.
Pistons and anchors
and green lights for flushing
Pavlov’s response
When the dinner bell rings,
These are a few of our favorite things.

When the whale spouts
There is no doubt
On this we agree
That we are the luckiest
Folks in the world
To be on the David B.

Guillemot, kingfisher,
Eagle and raven
Matt in the galley
A dishwashing maven
Watching Christine down the hatch vanishing
These are a few of our favorite things

Fathoms in oceans and
Snow covered peaks
Caramelized onions
On halibut cheeks
Trying the seaweed dip
That Jeffrey brings
These are a few of our favorite things

When the boat stops
And hook drops
In the emerald sea
We put chips of glacier
Into our mixed drinks
And toast to the David B

Come on a trip with us, and you can write your own tune.

After a long, full day of photographing ornately sculpted beached icebergs, the luminous blue serac towers of a glacier, a wide assortment of birds, the towering peaks of the Fairweather Range, lushly forested green islands, epic waterfalls, and too many whales to count, the M/V David B finally pulled into South Sandy Cove in Glacier Bay and dropped anchor for the evening around 6 pm.

“Should we take the skiff out?”, Captain Jeffrey Smith asks me.

This is typical of Jeffrey. And this is why leading photography workshops on the David B is supremely satisfying. Jeffrey and Christine are always up for more adventure, ready for new discoveries, and passionate about what they see as their mission in life: inspiring folks to connect in a deep and genuine way to the amazing natural beauty and wonder of Alaska.

As a photographer (and a photography instructor), for me, this is a dream come true. The folks who join us on one of our Adventures Northwest Photography Workshops experience these world-class destinations in a way that always exceeds expectations, yields amazing once-in-a-lifetime photography opportunities, and touches them in a deep and potentially life-changing way (many describe it as the best trip of their life).To fully experience this powerful place (and capture memorable images that reflect its grandeur), an approach like Jeffrey and Christine’s is perfect. Cruise ships offer little more than a glimpse of this northern Eden, diluted to near-meaninglessness by on-board “activities” and their focus on commerce. Even most of the smaller vessels tend to dole out a prescribed and schedule-driven experience, operated with a focus on ticking off a standardized list of “attractions.”

The David B is a different situation completely. Jeffrey and Christine have spent their last 18 summers running trips in Alaska because they can’t get enough. They genuinely love this place, and it makes them very, very happy when their guests fall in love too. They are driven by a deep and abiding appreciation for authentic experience and profound connection.So, “definitely”, I tell Jeffrey and a few minutes later we’re tracing the shoreline of South Sandy Cove in the David B’s excellent skiff. The light is golden, and the surface of the water is like glass, mirroring the surrounding peaks. Whales pass by and a curious sea lion sidles up to the skiff to have a look at us.

Dinner can wait.
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John D’Onofrio is a photographer and multimedia artist who serves as publisher and editor of Adventures Northwest Magazine. He has co-led photography workshops (with Alan Sanders) on the M/V David B since 2017.