Recreating Recipes: Gimme Coffee!'s Orange Ginger Molasses Cookie Edition

If you haven't heard of Gimme Coffee!, don't fret, most people haven't. Gimme Coffee! is a small cafe chain that claims its roots in Ithaca, NY and has slowly trickled down to NYC.  Ithacans are extremely proud of their Gimme Coffee! digs and if you have ever been to Ithaca, you may have noticed a Subaru wagon or Volvo 240 with Gimme Coffee!'s red exclamation point sticker on its backside. Gimme Coffee! is a really great place. Pretentious? Absolutely. You may not get a smile from one of their employees, but you will get outstanding beverages and baked goods. I recommend the chai! Super spicy and not sickeningly sweet. I digress.

Anywho, I now come to the point of this post: cookies. Orange ginger molasses cookies to be more precise. A little more than a year ago, I was at the Trumansburg, NY location ordering my cup of fair trade coffee, when I saw a delicious looking cookie in a glass jar on the counter. I decided to give it a try. It looked like a large ginger snap, but to my astonishment, it was moist and soft. It also tasted as it ought to, strongly of ginger and orange (too many so called "ginger" cookies do NOT taste like ginger). I had a new obsession, but unfortunately, it was short lived. A few months after my discovery, Gimme Coffee! changed bakers, and I was left to lament my loss.

I had only one option to taste these perfect cookies again, so I started experimenting. I was (am) determined to crack this cookie recipe. I have attempted half a dozen recipes or more. The end result is always either too cakey or too crispy, and never flavorful enough. I don't attempt the OGMC's too often, because I get really down every time I fail. Here comes the happy (almost) ending. Yesterday, I took another stab at them, AND I GOT THE CONSISTENCY RIGHT! Woohoo! Turns out the missing puzzle piece was an exorbitant amount of oil. I know, I know, not the healthiest thing, but I am not done experimenting. I plan on trying coconut oil and seeing what the outcome is.

I still haven't figured out how to make them burst with ginger and orange. I have tried fresh orange juice, zest, and orange extract, but the orange is always too subtle. I have also used ridiculous amounts of fresh and powdered ginger with no success. I do have ideas. Orange liqueur is an option, but I cannot see it bringing high intensity flavor. I am hoping that essential oils will be my golden ticket. When I was sampling recipes for earl grey ice cream, I had similar difficulties. No matter how many tea bags I used, my outcome was an ice cream that could only be identified as earl grey once I told the person trying it that it was in fact, earl grey. After a few bland attempts, the light bulb went off and I added bergamot essential oil (bergamot is what makes earl grey taste like earl grey). Ta-da! I had delicious earl grey ice cream. Essential oils are very potent. Using them in cooking is not traditionally done in America, but I recommend it. I promise to post about cooking with EO's soon.

I will be attempting the OGMCs in the near future, and hopefully good news (and a recipe) will follow.

Best,
Elizabeth