thewayne | Recipe: Chocolate/Molasses/Ginger Cookies

This is what I was making when I recalibrated my oven. I've never made a cookie containing ginger, these were quite good! You want them SLIGHTLY under-done, they'll firm up sitting out and cooling. Rolling them in sanding sugar is important for presentation, crunch, and flavor - it's a good two-person job for a couple or to do with a youngling: one person portions, one person rolls in sugar and places on baking sheets. They poof up a bit and don't increase in diameter too much, so I can easily do 4x5 on a sheet pan for 20 per sheet. Personally, I like to wear nitril gloves while portioning out cookies to reduce hand mess.

The yield of 40 is about right after allowing for test batches to recalibrate my oven.

I used ground ginger with the butter, it never occurred to me to use the fresh chopped ginger that we have in a jar in my fridge. It would have changed the cookie considerably. Oh, well. Something for the next batch. And watch that the added sugar is 1/3rd of a cup: I was hung up on using my 1/2 cup scoop for everything and didn't notice the change. Still, the cookies came out fine.

Oh, and with these being molasses cookies, they'll crack down the middle while baking, a very common characteristic when molasses is used in large quantity. Perfectly normal. Very yummy.

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Chocolate-Molasses Cookies

Ingredients
* ½ cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick)
* 1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger (optional)  

* 1 ½ cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
* ½ cup/45 grams cocoa powder
* 2 teaspoons baking soda
* 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
* 1 teaspoon ground ginger
* 1 teaspoon kosher salt  

* ⅓ cup/65 grams granulated sugar
* ½ cup/120 milliliters molasses
* 1 large egg

1. Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Melt butter in a small pot over medium heat and add ginger, if using. Remove from heat and let sit a few minutes while you prepare everything else.
3. In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger and salt.
4. In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, molasses, egg and ginger butter. Using a spatula, slowly mix into dry ingredients, mixing until no dry spots remain.
5. Using your hands, roll small balls of dough about the size of a quarter (dough will be soft — if it is too soft for you to handle, pop into the fridge for a few minutes to firm up). Roll the balls in the sanding sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets about 1-inch apart.
6. Bake until just puffed and baked through, 6 to 10 minutes. Let cool completely before eating.

* Yield About 40 cookies

https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1019806-chocolate-molasses-cookies