My ode to Red Fife comes in the form of a cookie.
This recipe starts like so many of its cookie counterparts with sugar and butter. (Sorry vegans.) Butter not only makes cookies exceptionally rich in flavour but it creates a luxurious mouthfeel, too.
Recipes ask bakers to cream these two foundational pillars of Cookiedom. That won’t happen if your butter is cold. Pull out an unsalted stick or two at least two hours before you plan to bake.
A KitchenAid mixer is a must if you bake as regularly as I do. Drop butter and sugar into the mixing bowl, attach the whisk, press “Go” and watch these two ingredients intermingle and transform into a light, magical creamy mass.
Next, crack an egg into the mix and lightly oil a measuring cup to ensure easy lift-off for the half cup of molasses needed.
That’s a little trick I share with my daughter Krystal as we bake up a batch. She has never baked with molasses before and feels less than patient as it endlessly pours in a feathery stream out of our almost empty Crosby’s Fancy Molasses container. Likewise, she’s wholly unimpressed with this sweetener’s slightly metallic, smoky taste.
But she complies with my teaching suggestions today, knowing I insist on constant tasting, sniffing and touching to learn baking’s alchemy.
She also knows there are white chocolate chips in the mix.
Ah, white chocolate chips. These are forefront on Krystal’s mind as we search the kitchen cupboards and drawers for this cookie’s ingredients. Unlike cloves, which we grind, sniff and sift fresh, or candied ginger, instantly proclaimed “yuck” when sampled, Krystal needs little encouragement to gobble a handful of chips after she measures a very generous half-cup.
It’s the Red Fife that excites this baker. Canada’s heirloom wheat varietal adds incredible flavour to these cookies, especially if it’s locally sourced and freshly milled.
Luckily, that’s what 1847 Stone Milled Flour is all about. They’re very busy filling orders in the midst of this pandemic, but if ever there was an essential ingredient needed for baking security, it’s flour. Check it out.
Red Fife Ginger Molasses Cookies
Red Fife Ginger Molasses Cookies
These are thin, saucer shaped cookies with gingery buttery goodness. Makes 30
3 cups Red Fife
1 ½ tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
1 tbsp ground ginger
¼ tsp cloves (freshly ground if possible)
¾ cup room temp butter (1½ sticks)
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup organic white sugar
½ cup molasses
1 large egg
1 cup white chocolate chips
Rolling Mixture
1/3 cup granulated sugar
¼ cup finely chopped candied ginger
Preheat oven to 350 F
In a medium bowl, whisk together flours, baking soda, salt, ginger and cloves.
In mixing bowl cream butter, brown sugar and ¼ cup granulated organic sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in molasses and egg.
In thirds, add in flour mixture and continue mixing until just combined. Sprinkle over with white chocolate chips. It’s a heavy dough that’s not easy to mix.
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Scoop tablespoons of dough arranging 2 inches apart on baking sheet. Put sugar in small bowl. Form each cookie into a ball and lightly roll in sugar to coat. 
Place a chopped piece of candied ginger on each sugared ball. Using the bottom of a glass, flatten into 3 inch rounds.
Bake until golden brown 12-14 min
Cool on a wire rack
Mado Food 
sounds divine!
Wonderful recipe, Madeline! I pressed them with the bottom of a beer glass and made large rounds specifically for icecream sandwiches. They are stored in my a cookie tin in the freezer for those well deserved days of working outside on the property. Nothing like sitting in your law chair gazing over the days work and munching down on these ginger, icecream delights!
Kathy O’D.
Amazing concept, Kathy! Thanks for your comment. Send photos!! Yum