Thursday, December 10, 2009

Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies


I kind of made these wrong. They were still very good (and festive!) but probably didn't turn out the way they were supposed to. I didn't refrigerate the dough for 2 hours, used ground ginger instead of freshly grated ginger and rolled the cookies in sugar after I baked them instead of before. Oops! Oh, and I did not use "best-quality semi-sweet chocolate" (I used Nestle). And I substituted honey for molasses (which is perfectly acceptable). Hm...this all doesn't sound too good for me as a baker. However, I wasn't too upset that I made all of these mistakes since I wasn't bringing these to anyone's house or serving them at a party. I just wanted to kick off the Christmas season and got lazy in the process...oh well. They were still delicious!

Adapted from: www.MarthaStewart.com

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
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup granulated sugar
DIRECTIONS
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.
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.
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.
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.

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