Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies

I’ve always loved ginger cookies, as does my family. My mom tries to hoard some for herself when she thinks I’m not looking.

I chose this cookie as one of the cookies I would make for Chinese New Year because I wanted a chocolate cookie, but also wanted ginger, so this was a perfect combo.

While I was reading through the recipe, I noticed that there were no eggs in the recipe. I thought that was odd, but it resulted in a thin chewy cookie instead of a cakey one.  I was also surprised that it only called for a single TBSP of Dutch processed cocoa. I haven’t been able to find Dutch processed cocoa anywhere until I saw it at Whole Foods one day.



I did make a few alterations to the original recipe, some intentionally, some not so much. I unintentionally left out the extra TBSP of flour the recipe called for, although I don’t think it made much of a difference. I didn’t have dark brown sugar, so I used light brown instead; again, I probably don’t think it made much of a difference. As I was grating the ginger, there seemed to be excess liquid, so after I squeezed out the liquid, I ended up with a packed half TBSP of ginger. I’m not sure if this was the right way to measure fresh ginger, but that’s how I did it. I altered the ingredients list to show 2 TBSP of sugar for rolling the cookies instead of the 1/4 cup it called for since I had some leftover sugar remaining.

Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
adapted from: Martha Stewart’s Cookies
printable recipe

ingredients: 1 1/2 cups plus 1 TBSP flour
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 TBSP unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder 
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1/2 – 1 TBSP freshly grated peeled ginger
1/2 cup packed brown sugar (light or dark)
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 tsp baking soda
1 1/2 tsp boiling water
1 cup semi sweet chocolate chips
2 TBSP sugar for rolling

directions: 
In a bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cocoa powder. Set aside.

In your mixer using your paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger for 4 minutes until light and fluffy. Beat in sugar to combine well, then beat in molasses.

Add half the flour mixture to the butter mixture. Mix well.

Combine baking soda with boiling water. Beat into batter. Add the remaining flour to the batter and beat to combine. Mix in chocolate chips.

Refrigerate for 2 hours or overnight.

Preheat oven to 325° F. Spray 2 cookie sheets with cooking spray or line with parchment paper.

Using a cookie scoop, scoop out dough and roll into 1 1/2 inch balls. Roll in the sugar and place 2 inches apart on cookie sheet.

Bake for 10-12 minutes in preheated oven, rotating halfway through, until surface begins to crack.

Let cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Makes about 2 – 2 1/2 dozen.


The strands you see are from the gingerroot. Maybe I should get a ginger grater to avoid this next time.