Soft Ginger Cookies with Cloves and Brown Sugar – Pareve version

👨‍🍳 Method

1. 1
   Preheat the oven to 175°C (345°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

   ⚙ Preheating the OvenOven

   💡Put things in the oven only once it's reached temperature, after the heating light has gone off: an oven that hasn't reached temperature changes baking times, and the bake burns outside or stays underbaked.
2. 2
   Whisk the margarine in a bowl with the sugar, until the sugar dissolves into it.

   BowlWhisk

   💡Melted-butter dough is too soft and sticky to shape right away: chill it, and then it rolls into balls easily.
3. 3
   Add the egg, honey and vanilla and mix well.
4. 4
   Add the flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, baking soda and salt and mix just until a dough forms.

   💡Mix in the flour only until a dough forms: long kneading develops gluten, and the cookies come out hard instead of crumbly.
5. 5
   Wrap the dough in plastic wrap until it holds together and chill 30 minutes.

   ⚙ Wrapping and Chilling the DoughPlastic wrapRefrigerator
6. 6
   Roll into balls small, roll each one in Sugar and place on the baking sheet, spaced apart.

   Baking pan
7. 7
   Bake 10–12 minutes, until the edges are set but the center is still soft.

   ⚙ BakingOvenBaking pan

   💡Take the cookies out while they still look soft: they firm up as they cool, and long baking dries them out.

   💡Check by the cue (until…), not just the clock: every oven bakes a little differently.
8. 8
   Cool completely on the pan: the cookies firm up as they cool.