Author Notes
I have my friend Christine Beck, who is, like me, a Paris part-timer, to thank for this recipe. The cookies belong to the chewy-molasses-cookie family, but they have so much flavor and so many surprises that they transcend the familiar. For starters, there’s both crystallized ginger and powdered ginger, lots of chopped dark chocolate and an optional bit of instant espresso too, which I tacked onto the recipe because I’m an incorrigible tinkerer.
I also tinkered with the way these are baked. Classic molasses cookies are scooped, molded into balls, rolled in sugar and then pressed with a fork before baking, and you can make these cookies that way. Or you can do what I do: Mold them in muffin tins, which turn out more uniformly shaped cookies that teeter on the brink of becoming gingerbread cakes.
Text excerpted from Dorie’s Cookies © 2016 by Dorie Greenspan. Reproduced by permission of Rux Martin/ Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved. —Dorie Greenspan
Watch This Recipe
Double Ginger Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
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2 1/4 cups
(306 grams) all-purpose flour
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2 tablespoons
unsweetened cocoa powder
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1 to 2 teaspoons
instant espresso, to taste (optional)
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1 1/2 teaspoons
teaspoons ground ginger
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1 teaspoon
ground cinnamon
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1/4 teaspoon
ground cloves
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1/2 teaspoon
baking soda
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1/2 teaspoon
fine sea salt
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1 1/2
sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces; 170 grams) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature
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1/3 cup
(67 grams) sugar
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1/3 cup
(67 grams) packed light brown sugar
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1
large egg yolk, at room temperature
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1/2 cup
(120 ml) unsulfured molasses
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1 1/2 teaspoons
pure vanilla extract
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1/3 cup
(55 grams) chopped crystallized ginger or 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger mixed with 2 teaspoons sugar
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7 ounces
(200 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped chip-size
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Sugar, for rolling
Directions
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Whisk the flour, cocoa, espresso (if using), spices, baking soda, and salt together.
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Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-low speed for about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed, until fully blended. Add the yolk and beat for 1 minute, then add the molasses and vanilla, beating until smooth. Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients all at once and pulse the mixer until the risk of flying flour passes. Working on low speed, mix the dough until the flour is almost but not completely incorporated. Add the crystallized ginger (or the sugared fresh ginger) and chocolate and mix until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough and the ginger and chocolate are evenly distributed. If you’ve got bits of dry ingredients on the bottom of the bowl, mix them in with a flexible spatula.
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Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it and wrap it in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
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GETTING READY TO BAKE: Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 350° F. Butter or spray regular muffin tins or, if making free-form cookies, line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
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Have a medium cookie scoop at hand. Alternatively, you can use a rounded tablespoonful of dough for each cookie. If you’re using tins, find a jar or glass that fits into them and can be used to flatten the dough; cover the bottom in plastic wrap. Spoon some sugar into a wide shallow bowl.
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For each cookie, mold a scoop or spoonful of dough into a ball between your palms, then turn it in the sugar to coat and put in a muffin cup or on a baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each ball of dough. If using tins, use the jar or glass to flatten each ball until it almost reaches the sides of the cup. If it’s freeform, press to flatten to about 1/2-inch thick.
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Bake the cookies for about 13 minutes, rotating the tins or sheets top to bottom and front to back after 7 minutes. The cookies should be lightly set around the edges and softer in the center. Transfer the tins or sheets to racks and let the cookies rest for 15 minutes before unmolding them and/or placing them on racks to cool completely.
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If you’re baking in batches, make certain to start with cool tins or baking sheets.
With the publication her 14th book, Baking with Dorie, New York Times bestselling author Dorie Greenspan marks her thirtieth anniversary as a cookbook author. She has won five James Beard Awards for her cookbooks and journalism and was inducted into the Who’s Who of Food and Beverage in America. A columnist for the New York Times Magazine and the author of the xoxoDorie newsletter on Bulletin, Dorie was recently awarded an Order of Agricultural Merit from the French government for her outstanding writing on the foods of that country. She lives in New York City, Westbrook, Connecticut, and Paris. You can find Dorie on Instagram, Facebook, Bulletin and her website,
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