{recipe} Chewy Gingersnaps with Cream Cheese Frosting

These cookies are the result of a happy accident. My nephew and I made some cream cheese frosting for a banana cake, and we had quite a bit left over. So we did the only thing we could possibly do. We made chewy gingersnaps, frosted them, and topped them with a little bit of candied ginger. What would you have done?

I’m so happy I made these, because not only will I now never waste time eating a cookie that lacks frosting, but I have now found the best ginger cookie recipe on the planet, from Simply Recipes. They’re thin but not crispy, chewy but not thick, perfectly spiced and buttery and delicious. For this recipe, I made cookies that were about 2 teaspoons worth of batter, rolled them into balls and flattened them before baking. I didn’t roll them in sugar since I was planning to add frosting. When you take them out of the oven, they look a little puffy, but they flatten after a few minutes.

When the cookies are cooled, frost them with some cream cheese frosting and stick a little candied ginger on top. I usually don’t use a recipe for cream cheese frosting – I put equal parts cream cheese and butter, a little vanilla, a little milk, and some powdered sugar until it’s the right texture. If you’re just using these for the cookies, you only need to make a little bit – starting with 1 1/2 tablespoons each of butter and cream cheese. If you want a recipe, you can try this one, but just make a fourth of a recipe.

And good luck trying to eat an unfrosted cookie after you’ve tried one of these.