Very Ginger Chocolate-Chip Cookies

(Laura Kramarsky)







Our second winner this week is Laura Kramarsky for her Very Ginger Chocolate-Chip Cookies! I was intrigued by the combination of ginger with chocolate, and fascinated by the fact that the recipe uses crystallized ginger instead of powdered ginger.


Here's Laura's recipe ~


This is one of my favorites: very ginger chocolate-chip cookies.





½ cup crystallized ginger, chopped


¾ cup sugar, divided


6 tablespoons butter, at room temperature


¼ cup molasses


1 large egg


2 cups flour, all-purpose white


2 teaspoons baking soda


¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon


1.5 cups semi-sweet chocolate chunks or large chocolate chips


½ teaspoon ground nutmeg




Preheat oven to 350°


In a food processor or blender, cut ginger into 1/3 cup sugar until ginger is finely ground. Pour from container and set aside.


Put butter and 1/3 cup sugar in mixer and beat until fluffy. Add ginger mixture, molasses (or cane syrup), and egg, continue beating to mix.


Mix flour, soda, cinnamon, and nutmeg in a separate bowl. Add to butter mixture; beat to blend well.


Stir in chocolate chunks.

Cover dough and chill until firm to the touch, about one hour. (Dough may also be frozen into a sliceable log at this point.)


Shape dough into 1-inch balls and coat in remaining sugar. Place balls 2 to 3 inches apart in lined or non-stick baking sheets.


Bake in a 350° oven until slightly darker brown, 11 to 14 minutes total (if using 1 oven, switch pan positions after about 6 minutes). Transfer cookies to racks to cool. Serve, or store airtight up to 1 week; freeze to store longer.


Krista's take ~


If you love gingersnaps and chocolate, you'll adore these cookies! Grinding the ginger made all the difference. The flavor is evenly spread through the cookies.

















The hardest part of this recipe was grinding the ginger. I started with the small bowl of my food processor. It broke the ginger down, but only into tiny balls. I had more luck with a mini food processor, but be prepared to let it run a bit. Except for that, this recipe falls into the anyone can do it, Nina Reid Norwood category. I do think you need some kind of electric food processor or a very good blender to grind the ginger so that it's fine.




Once again, this recipe called for rolling the dough into balls and then rolling them in sugar. Both recipes would be fabulous choices for little kids who want to help bake. The dough was nicely manageable and it's fun to roll it in sugar.



















The cookies in the middle are Mocha Crinkles and the cookies around the edge are Very Ginger Chocolate-Chip Cookies. Congratulations to Elisa and Laura!


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