Prepare cookie dough: Sift all of the dry ingredients together. In a separate medium-sized bowl or, using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream shortening, sugar, egg and molasses together. Add dry mix and stir to combine. Stir in candied ginger.
Take tablespoons of dough and roll them into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in granulated sugar and place them onto parchment-lined trays, about 2-inches apart. Press balls down into a flattened disc shape using a flat-bottomed glass. Slightly twist the glass as you flatten the cookies to ensure they come away without incident.
Transfer to oven and bake for 7 ½ minutes for a very chewy cookie, 8 minutes for a softer chew.
Remove from oven and immediately transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. If they seem too soft to move, give them maybe 30 seconds.
Store in an airtight container to maximize freshness.
Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
¾ cup shortening, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup blackstrap molasses
1 egg, room temperature
2 ¼ cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup, finely minced candied ginger
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F
Prepare cookie dough: Sift all of the dry ingredients together. In a separate medium-sized bowl or, using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream shortening, sugar, egg and molasses together. Add dry mix and stir to combine. Stir in candied ginger.
Take tablespoons of dough and roll them into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in granulated sugar and place them onto parchment-lined trays, about 2-inches apart. Press balls down into a flattened disc shape using a flat-bottomed glass. Slightly twist the glass as you flatten the cookies to ensure they come away without incident.
Transfer to oven and bake for 7 ½ minutes for a very chewy cookie, 8 minutes for a softer chew.
Remove from oven and immediately transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. If they seem too soft to move, give them maybe 30 seconds.
Store in an airtight container to maximize freshness.
Ginger Cookies
5 / 5. 2
Tender, chewy cookies made with candied ginger, blackstrap molasses, sugar and fragrant spices…
These are the SOFT & CHEWY GINGER COOKIES we’ve all been dreaming about!
There’s always a story, right? Well, this one has the happiest ending ever, and it involves you. We’ve been baking up a storm as we get ready for the holiday season; between shooting our CHOCOLATE SHORTBREAD COOKIES, this glorious BÛCHE DE NOËL and a MINCEMEAT FRANGIPANE TART, something magical happened. I ventured across the lake to drop something off at my friend Barb’s when she handed me a container of her SOFT & CHEWY GINGER COOKIES. One bite and I instantly knew I just had to beg Barb for the recipe. She said yes (we love you, Barb!) and now we all get to make and enjoy these scrumptious ginger cookies. See, it’s a feel-good ending to our festive story!
Before listing a few fun facts and special details about making them, we have a request: share the love! We’re asking you to share this recipe with all the bakers and cookie lovers in your life. Let’s make the recipe go viral so Barb gets the “best ginger cookie ever” accolade she deserves. Thanks!
Without further delay, here’s some information you can chew on about SOFT & CHEWY GINGER COOKIES:
INGREDIENTS
Looking at the above photo of the ingredients, I’m liking that only a dozen are needed to make superior homemade ginger cookies. Although we’ve pitched them as holiday cookies, let’s not just limit ourselves to the 12 days of Christmas; let’s remember them throughout the entire year. We proudly believe they’ll be enjoyed and well-received anytime, any day of the week, 24/7. Since all the ingredients used to make these cookies are readily available, there’s nothing holding us back.
RECIPE ORIGINS
I mean, come on, look at Barb’s recipe card. Oft-used, edited for improvements, stained and even creased in a few spots, this recipe card itself tells a tale. My heart swells with joy at the thought of the baker’s journey whenever I see a card like this. You just know these cookies have been requested again and again by Barb’s family and friends. Let me just say for the record, I did ask Barb if I could fiddle with and test the recipe, and she said, “Of course! I change it every time I make them too!” LOVE!
SHORTENING AND MOLASSES
So this is interesting. I fell in love with this classic cookie recipe on my very first bite. Yes, it’s about the combination of ginger and spices, but the first thing I noticed was how luxuriously soft and chewy they are. In chatting about them with Barb, she attributes it to the use of shortening instead of butter. I do agree with this, but I also think there’s a second contributor to the soft texture: molasses. As I was prepping to make the cookies, I noticed I was out and popped out to town to pick some up. I grabbed a carton and headed home. Back at the cottage, I realized I had picked up BLACKSTRAP MOLASSES instead of regular molasses. Game changer! Blackstrap is darker, thicker and has the most bitter flavouring that I think is a bit smoky. It’s also less sweet, giving these SOFT & CHEWY GINGER COOKIES more flavour without the added sweetness. No need for brown sugar in this recipe, the molasses delivers that flavour.
GINGER COOKIE SPICES
Safe to say that all old-fashioned, traditional ginger cookies contain one essential ingredient: ground ginger. Similar to this recipe for OLD-FASHIONED GINGERBREAD COOKIE RECIPE, the ground ginger is paired with other spices to boost the fragrant spice notes. For this recipe, we’re pairing the ginger with cinnamon and cloves, but during the testing, we took the idea of ground spices, next level. Enter the spice mill, AKA coffee grinder. Crushing cinnamon sticks to zip up in the mill and then doing whole cloves right after elevates the rich, spicy aromas and the warming flavouring that spice imparts. Let’s say there are other spices that tickle your fancy; feel free to give them a try. We’re already dreaming of those cardamom, nutmeg, black peppercorn, allspice and coriander pairings.
DRY MIX
So here’s a photo of the dry ingredients in a large bowl. Why did I include it? It’s there to remind you to whisk the dry mixture thoroughly before adding it to the creamed room temperature shortening, granulated sugar, large egg and molasses. Not only do we want those freshly ground spices evenly distributed with the kosher salt and unbleached all-purpose flour, it’s essential that the baking soda is well incorporated too. The baking soda gives the ginger cookies their lift, further causing those epic cracks that appear as the cookies bake. Easy step, but important.
CANDIED GINGER
Yes, I did speak with Barb before adding candied ginger to her cookie dough. She said she has done so in the past with great success. Look for slices of candied ginger in your favourite baking store or bulk food market. The ginger is easy to chop up into tiny pieces that then gets worked into the dough right before we roll and bake. I think they take the taste of these SOFT & CHEWY GINGER COOKIES to a whole new level of deliciousness.
ROLL INTO BALLS
If your holiday plans include hanging out with little kids, grandkids or those who remain kids at heart, now’s the time to call them into the kitchen to help. Our instruction is to pinch off tablespoon morsels of dough. Next step is to roll each morsel into a ball, then roll them in a small bowl of granulated sugar. This sparkle of extra sugar on the outside is festive, regardless of the time of year.
Let me also say this: here’s a pic of my thumb next to a ginger cookie dough ball to give you a sense of the sizing of the small balls. The problem with this photo, my thumb should have been up because the entire recipe gets a resounding two thumbs up for ease of preparation. From using a stand mixer or hand mixer, to the pliable dough that’s easy to stir and shape, to this final assembly directive, this recipe for easy ginger cookies is a keeper.
FLATTEN
The final step before we bake the cookies is to flatten the dough balls. Again, the above photo will hopefully give a sense of the shape we’re after. We used a flat-bottomed glass to do this final step giving the glass a tiny twist as we pushed down. This helps release the cookies without incident.
BAKE
Go ahead and laugh, but make sure to note the cook times listed below. Seven and a half minutes for extra chewy, 8 minutes for soft ginger cookies. Seriously, Nik? Thirty seconds can change the texture of these cookies? You betcha!
Have fun with this, but pay close attention to how the recipe works in your oven. Remember, every oven is different. The other thing to mention about baking the cookies is that we did them in batches; easier to monitor without lots of pan handling.
Here’s a tip on what to do with them when they come out of the oven. Because the pan is hot, the cookies will continue to bake. We found giving them 30 to 60 seconds cooled them down enough so they’d hold their shape when we lifted and transferred them to a wire rack to cool completely.
ENJOY
These cookies were featured during a recent TV spot for CHCH Morning Live. We were standing by, ready for the segment to start, when the host, Annette Hamm, said, “Oh, I so want a glass of milk to go with these!” For me, it was a steaming cup of black coffee, while someone else might want a cuppa tea. On their own or paired with a favourite bevvie, be prepared for all the feels when you take your first bite. They are soon to become one of your favourite cookie recipes, guaranteed.
PACKAGE AS GIFTS
Wait! One final suggestion before you head off to make them. Check out how wonderful they are packaged up in festive cellophane bags, adorned with a ribbon and holiday-inspired sticker. These cookies aren’t just easy to make and enjoy, they’re easy to give out as gifts too.
Just make sure you store them in an airtight container after they’ve cooled to ensure they stay soft and wonderful.
Cook Mode Use cook mode to keep your screen on while cooking.
Ingredients
¾ cup shortening, room temperature
1 cup granulated sugar
⅓ cup blackstrap molasses
1 egg, room temperature
2 ¼ cups unbleached all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon cloves
¼ teaspoon kosher salt
¼ cup, finely minced candied ginger
Directions
Preheat oven to 350°F
Prepare cookie dough: Sift all of the dry ingredients together. In a separate medium-sized bowl or, using a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream shortening, sugar, egg and molasses together. Add dry mix and stir to combine. Stir in candied ginger.
Take tablespoons of dough and roll them into 1-inch balls. Roll the balls in granulated sugar and place them onto parchment-lined trays, about 2-inches apart. Press balls down into a flattened disc shape using a flat-bottomed glass. Slightly twist the glass as you flatten the cookies to ensure they come away without incident.
Transfer to oven and bake for 7 ½ minutes for a very chewy cookie, 8 minutes for a softer chew.
Remove from oven and immediately transfer to a wire rack to cool completely. If they seem too soft to move, give them maybe 30 seconds.
Store in an airtight container to maximize freshness.
Until Cottage Season
