When I bake these chocolate gingerbread cookies, the entire kitchen smells of wintry spices. It’s impossible not to feel like the holidays have arrived.
Deep dark chocolate and fresh grated ginger sets these cookies apart from the other cookies on the holiday cookie plate.
Most gingerbread and gingersnap cookies don’t quite have enough gingery “snap” to them for me. My solution is to use actual fresh-grated ginger in the dough. It sounds fussy, but once you start using the fresh ginger, it’s hard to go back to plain ground ginger.
The fresh ginger also gives the cookies a warm heat that makes a great contrast to the earthier chocolate.
The ingredient list for these cookies may seem daunting, but don’t worry. You probably already have most of the spices in your spice drawer, and the others are easy to find at the grocery store.
The whole recipe comes together quickly, but keep in mind that you’ll need to chill the dough for a minimum of 2 hours before shaping the cookies into balls, plus another 20 minutes of chilling before baking them. The dough is soft and you need to chill it to be able to handle it.
Trust me: one bite of these soft, chewy cookies and you’ll realize they are well worth any amount of fuss!
Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies Recipe
Make sure to use dark, full, or robust molasses, but avoid blackstrap molasses. It will give the cookies an overwhelming bitter flavor.
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup (115 g or 1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup (110 g) packed dark brown sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 cup (150 g) dark, full, or robust molasses (not "blackstrap")
- 1 tablespoon fresh grated ginger
- 1 1/2 cups (210 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 tablespoons Dutch-processed cocoa
- 1 cup (200 g) semi-sweet chocolate chips
- 1/4 cup (50 g) white granulated sugar, for rolling the cookies
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