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Chocolate-Molasses Cookies
![Chocolate-Molasses Cookies](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/12/05/dining/05slice3/05slice3-articleLarge.jpg?width=1280&quality=75&auto=webp)
- Total Time
- About 40 minutes
- Rating
- Notes
- Read community notes
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Ingredients
- ½cup/115 grams unsalted butter (1 stick)
- 1tablespoon freshly grated ginger (optional)
- 1½cups/190 grams all-purpose flour
- ½cup/45 grams cocoa powder
- 2teaspoons baking soda
- 1teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1teaspoon ground ginger
- 1teaspoon kosher salt
- ⅓cup/65 grams granulated sugar
- ½cup/120 milliliters molasses
- 1large egg
- Sanding, Demerara or granulated sugar, for decoration
Preparation
- Step 1
Heat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Step 2
Melt butter in a small pot over medium heat and add ginger, if using. Remove from heat and let sit a few minutes while you prepare everything else.
- Step 3
In a large bowl, whisk flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, cinnamon, ground ginger and salt.
- Step 4
In a medium bowl, whisk together sugar, molasses, egg and ginger butter. Using a spatula, slowly mix into dry ingredients, mixing until no dry spots remain.
- Step 5
Using your hands, roll small balls of dough about the size of a quarter (dough will be soft — if it is too soft for you to handle, pop into the fridge for a few minutes to firm up). Roll the balls in the sanding sugar and place on the prepared baking sheets about 1-inch apart.
- Step 6
Bake until just puffed and baked through, 6 to 8 minutes. Let cool completely before eating.
- Cookies can be baked 2 days ahead, stored wrapped tightly at room temperature.
Private Notes
Cooking Notes
Why oh why do people have you melt butter in a pot on the stove? Just put the butter into the (microwave-safe) mixing bowl you're going to use for the rest of the wet ingredients and do 1 1/2 minutes on 50% power to melt your butter--then check, as you may need 15-30 seconds more. Let the butter cool a bit while you mix up the dry ingredients, then proceed with the recipe, just adding the wet ingredients to the butter. This technique saves you a dirty pot, and all of your butter gets used.
The two forms of ginger will complement each other. I'd even go a step further and add finely chopped candied ginger.
Alison Roman mentions fresh ginger in the description but the recipe calls for ground ginger. Any thoughts?
Used 1 cup flour and 1 cup almond flour, coconut sugar instead of white sugar and 1/2 cup coconut oil instead of 1/2 cup butter. I really liked the way they came out. Not too sweet, a little crust on the outside but soft in the middle. I don't have anything against sugar and butter but was trying to replicate a chocolate almond flour cookie I've lost the recipe for. This got pretty close.
“One-bowl dough” = one small pot, one medium bowl, and one large bowl...?
Please a amend the bit in the recipe about the size that the balls of dough should be with (even just) an approximate measurement in inches, as neither the whole world (nor New York Times readers the world over and certainly not this one in Johannesburg, South Africa) know the size of a quarter.
Please, would it hurt to give all ingredients in grams? 1/2 cup molasses = 170 grams. Saving on clean-up time and no waste of molasses. Measuring out 120 milliliters is no different than measuring out 1/2 cup.
use both....grated fresh in the butter, and ground ginger in the mixed dry ingredients. These are good.
These turned out very nicely indeed. I think the next batch, though, will have a tablespoon or so of instant espresso powder in the mix and just a little less salt than called for.
If you used regular salt instead of the recommended kosher, your cookies will be too salty. The dough was sticky, but put in fridge for about 1/2 hour and then used small scoop to make walnut size balls and dropped them directly into turbinado sugar to coat.
what type of molasses was used, blackstrap or sorghum?
The recipe will work with either natural or Dutched cocoa, since the molasses is acidic enough to react with the baking soda. Dutched will give you a darker and smoother result that I suspect would be ideal here, but using natural cocoa shouldn't be a deal-breaker.
in step 2 add fresh ginger to butter if using. in step 3 add the ground ginger to the other dry ingredients.
I just made these, and they’re divine. In my opinion, the fresh ginger is not optional. Mmmm!
I made this recipe with no changes, they looked great, have a nice texture, but no one in my cookie loving family likes them; I can't give them away! The cocoa, molasses, ginger combo didn't work for us.
Wonderful, if you like ginger snaps, chocolate or molasses. All GREAT together.
Made these cookies following directions to a T. The cookies were soft and chewy but had very little chocolate flavor and a strange, slightly burnt, chemically molasses taste. Somehow the added ginger and cinnamon made you slightly suspicious that something was wrong w/the whole recipe. Sadly, my husband wouldn't eat them and had to throw these out, and he eats everything!
I followed the recipe quite closely and I'm sorry to say these are just not very good. The molasses is too strong, and it's a strange mix of flavors.
these are my new favorite cookies! Be sure to add all the fresh ginger. Only modifications: grated zest from an orange and bittersweet chocolate chips. Make bite size as they are intense. As others have said, important to chill the dough. I skipped rolling them in sugar, no need.
The chocolate overpowered the molasses, ginger and spice flavor, which is what I was really after. If I want a chocolate cookie, I’ll make this again. In the meantime, I’ll keep looking for the best recipe for molasses / ginger cookies.
Agreed! The ginger came across as quite subtle, which surprised me as I used both ground ginger and grated. This recipe could certainly use more of it. The texture of the cookie is also surprisingly soft/crumbly, making it a bit of a nuisance to eat on its own, but perfect for crumbling over ice cream and sundaes.
Made these using pomegranate molasses for a complex, delightfully tart flavor that paired well with the chocolate. I cut the fresh ginger and added a touch of cardamom and freshly cracked black pepper. Based on other notes, I chose to reduce the baking soda slightly. I opted to use a 1oz cookie scoop and baked these for 10 mins in total, rotating the baking sheets midway through. Cakey with a bit of gooey on top. So good!
These were delicious! Very easy recipe and I love how they’re not overly sweet. The only thing I would change next time is to not roll in sugar, I didn’t care for the crunch of the sugar - but that’s just me, everyone else loved them. I’d also try next time with a bit of black pepper or cayenne added for a bit extra kick!
Added 1 T candied ginger, 1 tsp ground ginger, and 1 T chopped fresh ginger….needs more of all. Also needed to cook closer to 15 minutes to be baked
This is a perfect cookie. Easy to make, rich and tasty. Try one crumbled over some whole milk vanilla yogurt or vanilla ice cream, topped with a few raspberries. Instant fancy dessert.
I make these every Christmas and they’re always a hit. Maybe it’s baking at over 5,000 feet but mine always come out puffier than pictured. I split the batch and add a half tablespoon of Chimayo red chile to one batch for a brush heat in addition to that the ginger provides.
I thought these were alright but nothing special. They'll get eaten, but with nearly infinite cookie recipes available, I probably won't make them again. They weren't very chocolate-y or spicy, even with the fresh ginger. I used the listed amount of Diamond Crystal kosher salt and they were not too salty. I suspect people having an issue may be using Morton's or table salt. I used a #70 cookie scoop and actually got exactly 40 cookies.
These cookies are really good, for sure. But they're confusing. I love ginger cookies, and I love chocolate cookies, but the combination makes me want one or the other. I think - even though these are excellent - I'd actually rather just make Alison's ginger-molasses cookies, AND some smitten kitchen intensely chocolate sables. That way I'd have a pure chocolate cookie and a pure ginger cookie.
These are wonderful! I ran out of molasses and topped off with honey. Still amazing!
I always use spelt flour in place of all-purpose and it never fails. Also used brown sugar. An easy recipe with delicious results. Not too sweet, just deep chocolatey flavor. Oh, I also added 1/2 cup of choc chips.
Save trouble and a bowl or two - First, melt and cool the butter in a heatproof bowl then mix the wet ingredients into same bowl, then dump the dry stuff* on top and mix. * measure the baking soda into a fine strainer to avoid those weird lumps.
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