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