Chocolate Ginger Cookies come courtesy of Kristin Schell, who gave me the recipe years ago before she founded The Turquoise Table. As the story goes, Kristin fell in love with the cookies at the Four Seasons Teddy Bear Christmas Tea and (bravely) asked the chef for the recipe. The pastry chef at the time, Naomi Gallego, kindly shared it.
No Eggs in Chocolate Ginger Cookies
At first I was a little surprised to see that the Chocolate Ginger Cookies recipe didn't call for eggs. To be safe, I checked the Martha Stewart Cookie Book which features a very similar cookie on the cover. Martha's recipe did not call for eggs either. This was good news or future vegan cookie baking, and I've since made these cookies completely vegan by using "plant butter" and vegan chips.
Yield and Cookie size
Kristin's recipe is here. I've made her recipe several times over the years, but I almost always cut it in half as written below. The recipe says to chill the dough for four hours. You can chill the dough and then portion it or you can portion it into 20 dough rounds, chill the rounds, then bake. I always portion before chilling. As for size, you can use a medium cookie scoop and make large Chocolate Ginger Cookies, in which case you should get around 18 to 20. If you don't have a cookie scoop or just want smaller cookies, use a tablespoon to scoop up the dough and make about 24 rounds.
Recipe
Chocolate Ginger Cookies
Equipment
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups plus 1 tablespoons flour (210 grams)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 ¼ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ¼ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp freshly ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder natural
- 1 stick salted butter or use unsalted and add salt (114 grams)
- 1 Tbs crystallized ginger, finely chopped -- can use more
- ½ cup brown sugar, tighly packed (110 grams)
- ½ cup molasses**** (145 grams)
- 1 ½ cups chocolate chips (or use chocolate chunks)
- Sugar for rolling (optional)
Instructions
- Mix together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg and cocoa powder. If you are using unsalted butter, add the ⅜ teaspoon of salt as well. Set aside.
- With an electric mixer, cream the butter and the brown sugar until light and fluffy. Gradually add the molasses, stirring as you pour.
- Using lowest speed of mixer (or by hand), add dry ingredients, scraping side of the bowl. Stir in chocolate chips as well. Mix well. Cover dough and chill for at least 4 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- Scoop about a tablespoon full of dough and roll in the palms of your hands until perfectly round and compact.
- Roll the rounded dough balls in sugar to coat (if you want) and place on baking sheet.
- Bake at 350 for about 10 minutes (for small cookies) or slightly longer for larger cookies. You can also bake at 325 for 12 or so minutes.
- Allow cookies to cool and store in an airtight container.
Notes
.
Anna says
Hooray! I need to make these again.
Skippie22 says
Oh my GOODNESS these were amazing!!! I would have ignored Santa too.
I really recommend finding the crystallized ginger, because it adds a wonderful texture and flavor variation.
Brava Naomi and THANK YOU Kristin! 😀
Merry Christmas~~
Anna says
Hi Bee, it's on the link that says "Here". Here's the link.
http://www.theschellcafe.com/?p=645/
Bee says
Where is the recipe? It is not on this page.
PLEASE post it. It sounds wonderful.
Upstate NY Native says
Linda - here it is,cut & pasted
Chocolate Ginger Cookies
From the Four Seasons Hotel
12 oz chocolate chips (I used a mix of Ghirardelli semi-sweet and 60% bittersweet)
3 cups + 2 Tbs all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tsp ginger
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
2 Tbs cocoa powder (I used ScharffenBerger)
2 sticks butter
2 Tbs crystallized ginger (Whole Foods in bulk!), chopped as tiny as you can
1 cup brown sugar
1 cup molasses
bowl of granulated sugar for dusting
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter and the brown sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly add molasses scraping well after each addition.
Sift all of the dry ingredients and add them along with the chocolate chips and crystalized ginger bits to the bowl and mix until just combined.
Store the dough in refrigerator for at least 4 hours, over night is better.
Scoop about a tablespoon full of dough and roll in the palms of your hands until perfectly round and compact. This is super messy, but so worth it!
Roll the rounded dough balls in sugar to coat and place on baking sheet.
Bake until puffy. These cookies are best when slightly under baked. After several attempts to determine the perfect baking time, 5 minutes yielded the perfect cookie for my taste.
Allow cookies to cool and store in an airtight container.
Note: One of Mrs. Kravitz’s Littles was here the day I made a test batch of these cookies. He says the dough is just as good as the cookie. And, he had enough of both to be considered an expert.
Linda Frank says
Kristin, I found your blog but can not open the recipe. I keep trying but I keep getting URL unavailable. The Chocolate Ginger Cookies are just what I am looking for. I have copied the metric recipe but wondered if you could send me the original one as I lack the metric measuring system. Thank you-Linda
Anna says
Hi Ana,
This particular recipe doesn't have metric measurements on it, but maybe I can help. 2 sticks of butter = 8 oz which = 230 grams.
336 grams chocolate chips (bittersweet or semi-sweet)
400 grams (3 cups + 2 Tbs) all-purpose flour
13 ml ginger
10 ml baking soda
10 ml cinnamon
2 ml ground cloves
2 ml tsp freshly ground nutmeg
30 ml cocoa powder (I used ScharffenBerger)
230 grams (2 sticks) butter
30 ml crystallized ginger, chopped
240 grams brown sugar
240 ml/320 grams molasses
bowl of granulated sugar for dusting
Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
Cream the butter and the brown sugar in a mixing bowl until light and fluffy. Slowly add molasses scraping well after each addition.
Sift all of the dry ingredients and add them along with the chocolate chips and crystalized ginger bits to the bowl and mix until just combined.
Store the dough in refrigerator for at least 4 hours, over night is better.
Scoop about a tablespoon full of dough and roll in the palms of your hands until perfectly round and compact. This is super messy, but so worth it!
Roll the rounded dough balls in sugar to coat and place on baking sheet.
Bake until puffy. These cookies are best when slightly under baked. After several attempts to determine the perfect baking time, 5 minutes yielded the perfect cookie for my taste.
Allow cookies to cool and store in an airtight container
Ana says
Thanks so much on this cookies, I would realy wonted to make them, but I have one problem, since I come from Serbia, I don't understand how much butter to put,I couldn't find out how much is 2 sticks, our butter has 250g...Could you please explain that a little better, I would be very gled to try this cookies!:-)
Mattie says
Anna, Anna!
You may or may not recall me emailing you about the gingersnaps from Whole Foods (last year, oh so long ago!!) I am in love with these (and any/all gingersnaps) but especially the texture of these. Anyway I noticed that at http://www.davidlebovitz.com/ he was on much this same pursuit and seems to have succeeded! I am so excited I can hardly wait to get home to make these. In any event, I thought I would pass this along to you. I will let you know how mine turn out, but David is pretty spot on with whatever he takes on, so I feel certain these will be good! As always, keep up the great work you do with this site. Love it!
Mattie
cookienurse says
Oh, Anna, thank you! I've never made ginger cookies for Christmas and I was determined to do so this year. These seem to be perfect!
Emily says
These look like the perfect cookies to make on a cold rainy today. Wait, today happens to be cold and rainy. If you need me I'll be in the kitchen. 🙂
Anna says
Lara, they are really good! I think next time I might try Martha Stewart's.
Kristin, I leave off ingredients all the time. Anyway, luckily you didn't! This is a great recipe and since it's egg-free it should be easy to make vegan.
.....so Veggiegirl can make them ;).
Dawn, I was a little hesitant to make these but the chocolate/ginger combo was really good.
Catherine, good for you for asking for recipes. I have no idea how chefs feel about that. I guess some like it and some hate it. I never even thought to go find the chef and ask for a recipe.
Catherine says
Two of my favorite flavors! What a great recipe. I love it that it has no eggs, because I'm always discovering that I have none, when I start a cookie dough!
That is awesome she went right up to the chef! Props! I do that all the time. Sometimes I get tossed right outta the kitchen! Oh well, no pain, no gain!
dawn says
oh those so good. I have never made a chocolate cookie with ginger...sounds like a great pairing.
VeggieGirl says
DAMN those look wonderful.
Kristin says
Thanks so much Anna! And, you were smart to double check on the eggs. One time I actually left chicken off the ingredient list on my Chicken Noodle Soup recipe. I could use an editor. 😉
Lara says
mmmmm! Those look like must-bakes to me!