A few weeks ago, I made gingerbread; the soft kind, that is amazing warm with butter. The guys really enjoyed it, and my husband mentioned that it reminded him of Ivin's Spice Wafers he had as a kid. This, of course, made me curious, and sent me on an Internet search for these cookies.

I was not disappointed. In fact, I found two different recipes that referenced Ivin's, and I saved them to try. And, yesterday, I made them (plus an extra recipe that came up in search). While we enjoyed them all, this is what we found:

The favourite texture-wise is by Yankee Kitchen Ninja: Ginger-Molasses Spice Cookies (copycat Ivins' Famous Spice Wafers) - the cookies have the crispness my husband remembers. The flavour isn't quite as intense, though.

The favourite flavour-wise is The Spicy-Sweet Treat: Chewy Molasses-Ginger Cookies by Burning Pasta - these cookies won flavour-wise, and would have been the first choice, had they had the crispness of Ivins' Spice Wafers (which I realized from the recipe title they would not). These cookies have a warming feeling from the fresh ginger, and the aftertaste still packs a little heat. Delicious.

The least like Ivins' Spice Wafers, with more delicate flavour, is Farmgirl Susan's Molasses Ginger Spice Snap Cookies - these cookies have a much lighter flavour, and a softness connected to chilling before baking, making them perfect to use for ice cream cookies (see the top photo)! In all fairness to Farmgirl Fare, there was no mention of Ivins' on the page; the recipe came up in my search, so I decided to try them.

All in all, we would enjoy any of these again. I'm going to try making The Chewy Molasses-Ginger Cookies again, following the baking directions for the Ginger-Molasses Spice Cookies, to see if I can reproduce the Ivins' Spice Wafer experience. I'm also thinking about adding black pepper to them...hmmm.

And, no, I have not forgotten about The Great British Baking Show challenge. I tried a couple of the newer recipes, and realized I would need to perfect them before posting. Perfecting the recipes doesn't fit well in my schedule right now, but I still want to do them. The Egg Custard Tarts came out miserably. Oh, my goodness.

Music for Baking: Mika

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