chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies

Last weekend was spent doing practically nothing but baking. I made some new things, and I made some favorite things. I also made something that was probably the most fun, if not a bit time-consuming that you'll see later, sort of a flashback to the past. So the next few posts will be the recipes I made.

One of my favorite cookies to make during cooler weather is anything spicy, anything with warm flavors. You can't get much warmer or spicier than the combination of ginger and chocolate together. These cookies have a great ginger flavor thanks to both ground ginger and fresh ginger, as well as a few other spices to subtly boost the flavor. Molasses and brown sugar make the cookie chewy, and the chunks of chocolate are a great contrasting texture and flavor.

As good as these were, though, and call me crazy if you must, I wonder what they would be like with a bit of espresso powder mixed in. Or, better yet, finely ground coffee beans added to the sugar you roll the cookies in. How awesome is that!

If you can't tell already, I highly recommend everyone making these cookies. Super simple, the dough can be made ahead of time, and you'll be rewarded with pretty, crackly, sugar-topped cookies.

Recipe after the jump.

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chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies
Recipe from Martha Stewart

makes about 2 dozen cookies

ingredients ~

7 ounces best-quality semisweet chocolate
1 1/2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/4 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar

directions ~

1. 1. Line two baking sheets with parchment. Chop chocolate into 1/4-inch chunks; set aside. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa.


2. In the bowl of an electric mixer, fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and grated ginger until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar; beat until combined. Add molasses; beat until combined.


3. In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in 1 1/2 teaspoons boiling water. Beat half of flour mixture into butter mixture. Beat in baking-soda mixture, then remaining half of flour mixture. Mix in chocolate; turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat dough out to about 1 inch thick; seal with wrap; refrigerate until firm, 2 hours or more.


4. Heat oven to 325 degrees. Roll dough into 1 1/2- inch balls; place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate 20 minutes. Roll in granulated sugar. Bake until the surfaces crack slightly, 10 to 12 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes; transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

cookies of the week

In an attempt to regain control of baking habits, and also so I won't end up with fifty dozen cookies at a pop, I've decided to loosely have a "cookie of the week". While not set in stone, it gives me a guideline so I can better determine the butter usage.

These sparkly treats came from Smitten Kitchen's post about peanut butter cookies. My addition was to finely chop around a half cup of peanuts and mix in after you cream the butter and sugar. I thought of this because I wondered if a peanut butter cookie I had once might have had finely chopped pieces strewn in. Whatever you do, these are incredible, and as per her instructions, don't overbake them.

Giant ginger cookies must be made every fall, though it doesn't particularly matter what recipe you use, anything spicy is a fall cookie. These are given a kick thanks to the pepper, which I decreased to an 1/8 of a teaspoon. Plenty of spicy after-bite remained, even more so the following days. My cookies didn't come out as thick as the ones in the picture, even with refrigerating the dough; oh well. By the bye, these were made a few weeks ago.

Do you guys have a baking routine you follow, even if it's more a loose guideline?

End of post.

POM and Pellegrino

Back to POM, I saw a recipe for a simple ginger syrup in an issue of Everyday Food. I thought I remembered seeing one for just ginger syrup, but this included the peel and core of a pineapple. No worries, I simply omitted the pineapple and sliced a lime, substituting an 8 oz. bottle of POM 100% pomegranate juice for one cup of the water. I think I squeezed in the juice of half a lime after it finished cooking down, too.

You're essentially making a flavored simple syrup except that the water to sugar ratio is about 4:1 instead of 1:1, and instead of heating just until the sugar dissolves you boil away for 20-30 minutes or until it's reduced to one cup. And of course this allows the aromatics to infuse into the liquid.

I mix the concentrate with sparkling mineral water to create a pseudo-soda beverage. I don't have the exact ratio since I add the syrup to taste.

Whilst the aroma of fresh ginger was a bit intense when cooking, once mixed with the sparkling water it just had a nice light after bite that wasn't intense at all, but present somethemore. Pellegrino is nice and all, but this drinked needed a sparkling mineral water with more punch. It'd probably work with tonic water as well, but that's already sweetened, and I don't really prefer the taste of seltzer. My mom had a brand that was Mexican I really liked, but I forgot the name. I'm not sure if I could taste the lime at all, though perhaps it added something.

I'm never sick, but I think I have some sinus cold or something that I probably picked up from the race. You know, the handling of cups at water station, the giant tub of ice water you have to dip your hand into to grab a bottle of Powerade. Yeah. At least it wasn't the swine flu.

Anyway, I love ginger drinks when I'm sick. I get these honey-ginger tea packets from the Asian store that I love, but can only tolerate in intervals. Also, those are for hot beverages, whilst this made a cold, soothing drink. I might try this again with honey in place of sugar to see what happens.

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Print this recipe

ginger POM juice syrup
Adapted from an Everyday Foods recipe

ingredients ~
1 3-inch piece of fresh ginger, sliced thinly
1 cup sugar
8 oz. POM 100% pomegranate juice
3 cups water
1 lime, sliced thinly
1/2 a lime
Sparkling mineral water

directions ~

1. Place ginger slices in a medium saucepan with the sugar, POM juice, water, and lime slices. Boil until reduced to 1 cup, 25-30 minutes. Strain, discarding solids; chill.


2. Mix to taste with mineral water and sip away.