Clove Snaps

I hope you had a fantastic Thanksgiving!  Lynn outdid herself this year with her Thanksgiving dinner, so I couldn’t help but stuff myself.  On Friday, I woke up determined to make Christmas cookies, and I succeeded in making the dough.  I was sluggish from the big meal the night before, so I didn’t manage to actually bake any cookies (that’s my story anyway).  My son and I managed to bake cookies on Sunday afternoon.  That’s my kind of afternoon!

I know I’ve told you I’m a cookbook collector, but have I told you I have to buy any magazine with a Christmas theme?  Well, I do, and I’m not content to read the magazines and throw them away.  No, I have to keep them (which entails finding somewhere to store them).  I pulled last year’s Fine Cooking Cookies magazine from the top of my pile.  It has my favorite rolled cookie recipe, and I found this recipe for Clove Snaps while I was flipping through and drooling over all the pictures of cookies.  These Clove Snaps intrigued me. 

I’m a sucker for spice cookies, and Clove Snaps looked like a recipe I would enjoy. When you bake these cookies, don’t let the smell emanating from your oven fool you into thinking these cookies are overly spiced.   The kitchen smelled like I was cooking my Easter ham, but when I tasted the cookies, the clove and pepper was a spicy aftertaste, and not over powering at all especially with the orange rounding out the flavors! I’m not sure this recipe replaces ginger snaps or these cookies, but the Clove Snaps are nicely sweet with a subtle flavor of orange and spice, and they are a fun addition to your Christmas cookie line-up.

Clove Snaps
Adapted from Fine Cooking Cookies 2009
Printable Recipe
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
3 teaspoons ground cloves
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground black pepper
¼ teaspoon table salt
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 ½ cups granulated sugar
 2 large eggs
2 teaspoons finely grated orange zest

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, and salt.  Set aside.  In the bowl of a stand mixer, cream together butter sugar and orange zest until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time and blend well.  Add the dry ingredients all at once and mix on low speed just until the flour is absorbed.  Turn the dough out on a lightly floured surface and knead until the dough is smooth.  Split the dough in half and flatten the halves into disks.  Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.  On a lightly floured surface, roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thick.  Cut out shapes with a two inch round cutter (re-rolling scraps as needed).  Bake until the cookies are golden around the edges and on the bottoms, about 12 minutes (rotate the baking sheets half way through for even baking).  Let the cookies cool completely on the baking sheets on wire racks.  Makes about six dozen cookies.