• In a medium bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients; flour, baking soda, salt, ginger, & cinnamon. Set aside
• Using a stand mixer or handheld electric mixer, beat the shortening and sugar together until light and fluffy, scraping down the sides of the bowl as needed. Add the egg and beat for about 20-30 seconds, making sure the egg is fully incorporated, and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the molasses, mix well, and scrape down the bowl again.
• Add the dry ingredients to the wet, and mix until just incorporated. Don't overmix, but make sure there are no dry, floury sections.

Preheat Oven to 350° & Line Cookie Sheet with Parchment Paper

Form the Dough Balls

• Roll the dough into 1 ½ inch (50g) balls. Yes, they are quite big. I highly recommend using a kitchen scale (if you have one) to measure the weight of each cookie ball. It really doesn't take any extra time and the benefit is that you get wonderfully consistent cookies.
• Roll each dough ball in the bowl of sugar to fully coat it, and place them 1 ½ inches apart on a parchment-lined cookie sheet. With the palm of your hand, press down very slightly on each dough ball. You don't want to flatten them completely, you just want each ball to have a slightly flat top.
  

Bake

• Bake cookies for 10-12 minutes. It's important that the cookies puff up and crackle on their tops. Check the cookies at 10 minutes, and if they still have fairly smooth tops, leave them in the oven until you see cracks form, about 2 minutes more.
• Remove the cookies sheet from the oven to a cooling rack. Let them cool for 5 minutes on the sheet before removing them with a spatula to finish cooling.