Soft and Chewy Ginger Cookies
Thick ginger molasses cookies with warming spices, crystallized ginger and crisp, sugar-coated edges. The centres stay wonderfully soft and chewy.
Ingredients
- 2⅓ cups all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- ¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon ground black pepper
- ¾ cup unsalted butter melted, cooled slightly
- ½ cup molasses (see note)
- ⅔ cup dark brown sugar packed
- 1 large egg yolk
- 3 tablespoons crystallized ginger finely chopped
- 6 tablespoons granulated or turbinado sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C). Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Whisk the flour, spices, baking soda, salt and pepper in a large bowl until fully mixed. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients. Pour in the melted butter, molasses, brown sugar, yolk, and candied ginger. Whisk these together in the center a couple times (until the egg yolk is dispersed); then switch to a spoon or rubber spatula to continue mixing. The dough will be very thick!
- Scoop the dough into balls (you can use a medium cookie scoop – 1½ tablespoons) or take just shy of 2 tablespoons of dough for each cookie. Roll each in your hands briefly to shape it into a ball, then roll balls in the granulated or turbinado sugar for coating.
- Space the cookies evenly on the parchment-lined baking sheet and bake until top is slightly firm to the touch, about 10 to 12 minutes.
- Let cookies cool for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. The cookies will set as they cool.
Notes
Deb Perelman's Baking Tips
- To make the perfect soft and chewy ginger cookie, you want what looks like a quite underbaked cookie. The cookie will look totally soft on top (you may think it's raw), but if you lift a cookie and see that the bottom is one shade darker than the rest of the cookie, you'll know that they're done.
- You can use either unsulphured or blackstrap molasses here; I’ve tested it with both. If you can’t get molasses where you are, use treacle.
- You can make dough one week ahead and keep refrigerated in airtight container. Remove an hour before baking.
- Baked cookies will last for two weeks in a sealed container.