Spice Up Your Life

A while back, about a month ago, my housemates and I threw a 90s party. We compiled a play list of over ten hours of awesome 90s music, gathered a bunch of friends dressed to the occasion, and had a backdrop of Clueless and Wayne's World looping on the muted TV. It was, I might say, a fantastic success. Of course, there needed to be some food for the occasion. I made "RED HOT CHILI PEPPER salsa" (which was just salsa from a jar put into a bowl and labeled), "REALITY two-BITE brownies" (which was nothing new or fancy), and "SPICE GIRL cookies", which were incredible. The recipe called for crystallized ginger, and that intrigued me. I was not wrong - were these ever delicious. I only wish I'd thought to make two batches and save one for the next day.

1/2 cup white sugar

3/4 cup unsalted butter

1 egg white

2 tablespoons dark corn syrup

3 tablespoons chopped crystallized ginger

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground ginger

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1/3 cup granulated sugar for decoration

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease 2 large cookie sheets. Cream the butter and sugar. Add egg white and corn syrup, mix until fluffy. Stir in the crystallized ginger. Sift together the flour, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ground ginger and cloves. Stir this into the egg mixture. When dough starts to come together, mix with your hands to form a smooth dough. Form dough into 1-inch balls and roll in white sugar. Place 2-inches apart on a cookie sheet, and press down with the bottom of a glass. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes.