Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies Recipe
I made these for Lottie & Doof's 12 DAYS OF COOKIES. They are tiny, bite-sized holiday cookies made with two kinds of ginger and lots of shaved chocolate. The turbinado sugar crust gives them a bit of crunch which is a nice contrast to the ooey-goey chocolate.
Today I'm participating in the 12 Days of Cookies on one of the sites I love to visit most, Lottie + Doof. It's exciting (and a bit intimidating) to be following Dorie, and Avery Wittkamp from Marlow & Sons - each day L+D will feature a new cookie recipe (through December 12). My contribution is these Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies. They are tiny, bite-sized holiday cookies made with two kinds of ginger and lots of shaved chocolate. The turbinado sugar crust gives them a bit of crunch which is a nice contrast to the ooey-goey chocolate (when they're still warm). For the people who have been visiting my site for a while, think of them as the love child of the itsy bitsy chocolate chip cookies and the triple ginger cookies. That's what I had in mind as I set out to make them.
They are a breeze to mix up by hand, meaning there's no reason to dirty up your electric mixer. Said another way, you don't need to cream the butter into the sugar, which is where most of the effort is usually required. Instead you mix the sweeteners into barely-melted butter, add the egg, and pour that over the flour mixture. No sore arm muscles ;)
And while we're on the topic of holiday cookies, I thought I should point two favorites from last year. I loved these elegant, powder-kissed Swedish Rye Cookies, and my pal Sante's Hermit Cookies were great as well - they're full of nuts and spices and currants, topped with a snow-cap of icing. There's a more comprehensive list of Christmas Cookies here as well!
Thanks again to Tim at Lottie & Doof for inviting me to participate. Can't wait to see who is up next.
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Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies
If you can't locate whole wheat pastry flour, you can substitute spelt flour. Or feel free to use all-purpose flour if that is what you have on hand. As far as the unsulphured molasses goes, I use Wholesome Sweeteners or Plantation Organic Blackstrap Molasses. I used a Scharffen Berger Bittersweet 70% here. You can use light brown sugar, or light muscavado sugar in place of the natural cane sugar.
1/2 cup / 3.5 oz / 90 g turbinado sugar
6 ounces / 170 g bittersweet chocolate
2 cups / 8.5 oz / 245 g whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup / 4 oz / 113 g unsalted butter
1/4 cup / 2 oz / 60 ml unsulphured molasses2/3 cup / 3.75 oz / 100 g fine grain natural cane sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, peeled
1 large egg, well beaten
Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C degrees - racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Line a couple baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper or a Silpat mat, and place the large-grain sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
Finely chop the chocolate bar into 1/8-inch pieces, more like (mostly) shavings really.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, and salt.
Heat the butter in a saucepan until it is just barely melted. Remove from heat and stir in the molasses, sugar, and fresh ginger. The mixture should be warm, but not hot at this point, if it is hot to the touch let it cool a bit. Whisk in the egg. Now pour this over the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate.
I like these cookies tiny, barely bite-sized, so I scoop out the dough in exact, level tablespoons. I then tear those pieces of dough in two before rolling each 1/2 tablespoon of dough into a ball shape. From there, grab a small handful of the big sugar you set aside earlier and roll each ball between your palms to heavily coat the outside of each dough ball. Place dough a few inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies puff up, darken a bit, and get quite fragrant.
Makes roughly 4 dozen.
Prep time: 30 minutes - Cook time: 10 minutes
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Comments
These cookies look incredibly delicious. I love the Itsy Bitsy Chocolate Chip cookies, so these minis will be another great addition to my cookie recipe file! Thanks!
HEEEELP! There is no way of finding molasses in my country :-( Any ideas what could I use instead? Guidelines: Too Eastern Europe. Mostly available: lots of aspartam-based sweeteners, any type of sugar, lots of honey. Thanx a lot!
Heidi...these look marvelous...I'm going to make them tonight! Thank you for this fabulous recipe...I love baking Christmas Cookies!
Cute, cute, cute and easy - perfect for the holidays! I have to check out those Swedish Rye cookies you mentioned. I think rye is so under-appreciated! Cheers!
Heidi, how well do you think these would keep? I want to send my in-laws some cookies and they'd be a few days in transit.
I'm working on putting together a "finals week" package for college freshman daughter & was planning on including the Triple Ginger cookies...think maybe I'll switch to these...chocolate & ginger--yum. (maybe it's not such a bad thing that I'm getting things done late!) Daughter cooks lunch for her 50 hall mates twice each week & has used several of your recipes. She's getting loads of compliments in addition to thanks for cooking with health/nutrition in mind plus requests for the recipes. (one person's idea of lunch was ramen soup with egg-served with nothing else--she called it Ramen Egg Drop soup...suppose there are worse meals...at least she was trying) :) Thanks for helping to convince these college women that good, healthy & nutritious cooking doesn't have to be complicated.
Thanks Heidi - Chocolate and ginger together are divine. And I love the little size - reminds me of a tiny chocolate chip cookie that one of my former colleagues baked and shared at work every pay day. He would never give up his recipe, so I am grateful for yours. I think I might make these with some of children in my congregation.
Heidi, Those cookies look so beautiful--like little gems. I am going to have to try to adapt them and make them GF. They sound scrumptious!
Martha Stewart has a very similar cookie that she featured about 7 or 8 years ago. Its one of our favourites. I'm looking forward to trying this recipe to see how it differs.
These sound utterly delightful! While I'm a chocolate lover, I'll probably skip the chocolate since I'm also a ginger cookie lover and I want the ginger cookies pristine the first time!
These looks amazing- i'm wondering though, does the whole wheat flour need to be "pastry flour"? I recently bought a bag of "whole wheat flour" from Trader Joes- but it doesn't say pastry.....do I need to make any accomodations to use this?
Thank you Heidi for posting the recipe in both metric and avoirdupois...and volume. I'm slowly thinking in metric as it makes so much more sense! I'm making these cookies tomorrow, though I'm out of chocolate!
Ginger and chocolate ... 2 of my favorite things! And I was just about to make cookies with my girlies, too :) . Thanks so very, very much! Blessings, Catherine :)
lhm. (old fart speak for omg: lord have mercy.) the perfect trio: ginger, chocolate, and sparkles! thanks, HS: these may be the only Christmas cookie I make! -jw
So glad you're participating! And you made my FAVORITE Christmas cookie variety :)
These cookies look so great. I'm making cookies for teachers/crossing guards/after school help and I may just add these into the mix! Thanks for highlighting Lottie+Doof too, I hadn't been to their site and they are from Chicago too! Thanks!
thanks ma'am. i would love to try this cookies and other reciepies as i m a hotel mngmt. student d i think these r going to help me to puff up my skills.
Heidi, I visit your site regularly and think it is great! So many good ideas... This is the first time I leave a comment, though. A question regarding these yummi looking cookies - I cannot find any molasses where I lice (it is just not used here so the stores don't sell it). Is there any substitute I could use instead of it?
Oh, these look and sound wonderful! Chocolate encased in ginger and sugar crystals sounds like heaven to me. Thanks for that link to the cookie site!
I saw these come up in my blogroll and couldn't resist making them right away (but first had to take the gluten out). For the flour, I used 1/2 c. buckwheat flour, 3/4 c. brown rice flour, 1/4 c. white rice flour, 1/4 c. tapioca starch and 1/4 c. potato starch. Definitely worth all of the measuring and a really satisfying cookie. Thanks for another ginger cookie for my arsenal.
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