Pre-heat oven to 350F. Procedure will be familiar to anyone who does a lot of baking. Measure out the shortening (protip: put 1/4 cup water in a 1-cup measure, then add shortening until the measure is filled. Drain, and you have your 3/4 cup shortening)

Cream the shortening and sugar.

Add the egg and molasses.

Combine.

Sift together all dry ingredients.

Then add to the blender. We generally just put it all in at once, some prefer to add in thirds. Mix until combined, do not over mix.

Set up your cookie making station like so:

That little bowl in the middle has some sugar in it. Spoon up some dough, roll it in your hands until round, then dip a third of it in sugar.

Fill a cookie sheet with the sugary balls.

I generally use a two-tier setup when baking these. Start on the bottom rack, rotate to the top (middle of the oven) rack when ready, start new sheet on bottom rack again.

Cookies are ready to move to the top shelf when they've started to crack slightly.

Remove from oven before they are really "done." If you wait until their tops start to fall in, you've over baked and they won't be as good. Ready cookies have well-set cracks and are still slightly domed. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack.

Enjoy your Ginger Snap cookies. And be sure to share your ginger snaps and the recipe.

Now that you have learned how to make ginger snaps, please be sure to view these other cookies recipes.