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Swedish Ginger Cookies
Updated June 6, 2024
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- Total Time
- About 30 minutes, after several hours' refrigeration
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ¾cup bacon fat, cooled (from 1½ to 2 pounds Oscar Mayer bacon)
- 1cup sugar, plus ¼ cup for dusting the cookies
- 4tablespoons dark molasses
- 1large egg
- 2cups all-purpose flour
- 1½teaspoons kosher salt
- 2teaspoons baking soda
- 1teaspoon ground ginger
- 1teaspoon ground cloves
- 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
Preparation
- Step 1
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line two cookie sheets with parchment paper.
- Step 2
In a food processor fitted with a metal blade, combine all ingredients. Spin until dough forms.
- Step 3
Chill the dough in the refrigerator for a few hours. Drop the dough in 1-tablespoon lumps on a cookie sheet, form into balls, roll in sugar, space 2 inches apart and press flat with fingers. Bake in the oven for about 10-12 minutes until dark brown. Let cool on baking sheet for a few minutes, then transfer to a baking rack to finish cooling.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
This recope is virtually identical to one I got from my aunt and have given it to many friends. She used butter, no bacon fat. They're wonderful!
Why wouldn't you want to cook two pounds of bacon? Could be the best part of this recipe!
Question: Could lard be substituted for bacon fat? then you wouldn't have to cook 2 lbs. of bacon.
I’m very surprised to see that these cookies are called “Swedish”. I’m Swedish and come from a family with several generations of avid bakers. I’m sure these cookies taste great and I wish everyone trying this recipe lots of joy, but of the many different versions of ginger cookies I have baked (using Swedish recipes), non of them suggest using bacon fat. Maybe the recipe is from times when butter was hard to get by.
Interesting, delicious ginger cookie that will henceforth replace my traditional Finnish recipe! I used the ingredients exactly as cited in the recipe. Refrigerated the dough overnight, scooped balls with 1 TBSP melon baller, flattened to 1/4” with the bottom of a drinking glass. Spaced 2” apart, cookies did not spread excessively. Yield 60 2” diam cookies.
made this with butter and did add butter spices and sugar to food processor before adding the flour. Then rolled into a log wrapped in parchment paper and kept it in the fridge. when ready to bake I sliced the dough very thin 1/8” and baked. otherwise followed directions exactly and they are fantastic! if you use salted butter you do need to reduce the salt or they are pretty salty, but still incredibly delicious.
Two teaspoons of baking soda make these cookies taste mostly of baking soda. I recommend one tsp instead. If you'd like to spice it up a bit, add a little cayenne and/or black pepper and/or cardamom.
chilled dough is important or cookies spread too much.
When I was a child my mother kept a coffee can on the stove into which she poured the bacon drippings. Nothing else was poured the can. She would use it for frying eggs, greasing pans, and making a hot spinach salad. She and my Dad lived into their 70'a so I guess it wasn't too unhealthy.
Update—if you like these thin and crispy (I do), do not sub in any butter, and be sure to press them flat after rolling in sugar. I didn’t press our first batch and they are delightful but the result is crispy edges and chewy middles. The second batch produced a nice snappy cookie.
It's not necessary to pre-heat the oven for a few hours. I suggest pre-heating after chilling the dough, not before.
I agree with 1 commenter that it’s too salty if you use salted butter. But I’m confused about this because I used half salted and half unsalted and adjusted the salt down and they still came out too salty. Also the recipe actually calls for bacon fat and oat bacon fat famously salty?? Also they spread much more than expected and I should have used twice as many baking trays but the end cookies were probably the right thickness so again I’m confused. But good cookies!
Wonderful cookie! Made the dough with roughly half bacon fat, half butter. Chilled in fridge overnight (ran out of time to bake). Baked them in 3 different ways over a few days; flattened balls (came out thin and crisp), thick lumps/spoonfuls (came out thick and a bit chewy), and last-added chocolate chips to the lumps (favorite way- came out delicious!!!) I love how versatile the dough is- so try it and get creative!
Used mostly bacon fat, but made up the difference with shortening. I would say the Step 1 “Preheat the oven” should be done until closer to baking time, lol
Haven't yet tried this recipe, but have a similar one. I'm wondering if anyone added a little mustard powder ?
So good! I substituted the bacon fat with 1.5 sticks of butter and ground ginger with fresh ginger from the freezer. I skipped dipping the cookies in sugar and they were perfect otherwise.
To anyone who successfully made these with butter - was it a 1:1 substitution? I suspect not, because butter has a bit of water in it. Thanks!
made these last week with my two year old. We used butter instead of bacon fat, but no other adjustments. They were fantastic! Easy recipe, great flavour & texture
Did anyone freeze these cookies? If so, how did they do?
Wow! This is a great cookie! I used 1/2 cup bacon grease and 1/4 cup butter, and half the amount of cloves (not a fan) and they turned out GREAT! Crispy and delicious. I might use less salt the next time.
Added chopped up candied ginger to the food processor. Didn’t find them to be gingery enough with just the powder. Turned out great. Recipe works beautifully with 1:1 gluten free flour.
Years ago I printed this recipe from the NYT and use my ingredient splattered copy every year. It makes a perfect cookie. Written in my hand on the paper is, “Always double this”, which I highly recommend. Whenever I cook bacon I save the fat in the fridge or freezer, no need to cook the bacon at the last minute.
It's not necessary to pre-heat the oven for a few hours. I suggest pre-heating after chilling the dough, not before.
Not impressed. #1 - why do the instructions say to preheat the oven before any other steps when the dough has to chill for several hours? #2 - I reduced the bacon fat to 1/4 cup and used butter for the remainder. Even so, I don’t enjoy the tinge of bacon flavor.
Update—if you like these thin and crispy (I do), do not sub in any butter, and be sure to press them flat after rolling in sugar. I didn’t press our first batch and they are delightful but the result is crispy edges and chewy middles. The second batch produced a nice snappy cookie.
Used half bacon fat and half butter. It really all does just ‘come together’ in the food processor. I’ve never made an easier cookie. I used a cookie scoop which is felt was a necessity- the dough is very soft even after chilling overnight. I scooped, rolled in sugar, pressed flat w a glass (dipped in sugar). These puffed and spread quite a bit in the over (unlike another users results).
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