Chocolate Ginger Sugar Cookies

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Today marks the day for lovers across the nation. What a better way to celebrate than with chocolate, sugar, and a hint of spice. However, I don’t really have anything planned other than the cookie exchange I’m hosting at work today. You see, I’ve never really celebrated this holiday. I’ve always considered it a Hallmark holiday, and I don’t like flowers, or wasteful gifts.

Food on the other hand, is always welcome! One late day at work, I threw out the idea of having a cookie exchange. A few of us at work actually really enjoy baking, so we thought it would be fun. The next holiday coming up would be Valentine’s Day, so why not?

Six of us will be getting together to share the cookies with each other, as well as the rest of the company. Since this month is heart healthy month, we will be putting the cookies out and requesting donations to donate to The American Heart Association. We were originally only going to bake enough for the small group of us, but decided to donate the rest for charity.

I packaged the ones for the group in cellophane and tied it with a red ribbon. The rest will be put out for everybody else. I tried this recipe first when I went over to my parents for Chinese New Year. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out, so that was my test batch. I’m glad I tried it out first, because the original recipe yielded 4 dozen, meanwhile mine ended up being 3 dozen. Other than that, these had great chocolate flavor with a nice kick of ginger. When I made it for the cookie exchange, I doubled the recipe and got about 70 cookies. Mine were a little bigger since I used my cookie scoop.

I’m not sure if the cookbook had a typo, or omitted a step in the original recipe, but it didn’t mention when to place the ginger in the batter. I added it in to the dry ingredients and it worked out well. I also think the recipe for the sugar/ginger topping ingredients were too much. I’ve halved that to eliminate waste.

Chocolate Ginger Sugar Cookies
adapted from: The Ultimate Chocolate Cookie Book

 printable recipe

ingredients:
cookie batter:
1 3/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 TBSP ground ginger
1 1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup (one stick) unsalted butter, softened
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 TBSP vanilla extract

sugar topping:
2 TBSP sugar
1 tsp ground ginger

directions:
Preheat oven to 350° F. Grease 2 baking sheets and set aside. In a covered container, add the 2 TBSP sugar and 1 tsp ginger, cover and shake to combine. Set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, ginger, and salt. Whisk until the mixture is evenly colored. Set aside.

In your mixer on medium speed, beat butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time, then beat in vanilla. Turn mixer down to low speed, and slowly add the dry ingredients. Mix until just combined.

Using your cookie scoop, scoop the dough and roll into a ball. Roll it in the sugar/ginger mixture and place about 1 1/2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake in preheated oven for about 12 minutes. The cookies will crackle, but the tops will be soft to the touch. Cool cookies on the sheets for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Makes about 3 dozen cookies.