Ginger-Ginger Chewy Cookies and Chewy Chai Gingerbread Cookies

This holiday season I had to make cookies - something I don't seem to ever make consistently well. But I love ginger, so I decided to try the Gingerbread Chewy Cookies from Pinch of Yum for the Wareham Garden Club's Holly Fair on December 5. The cookie recipe included a maple glaze, but if I have a hard time baking cookies, I have a harder time decorating them (e.g. messier.) I tried the glaze and decorative sugar candies and gave up on that.

The cookies are delicious! Nice and chewy with a snap. And a week later they are still good. I made four batches - 3 dozen for the Holly Fair in cellophane bags with 3 each so one dozen bags.  I made them smaller than the recipe called for because the golf ball-sized balls in the recipe spread into 3" to 3-1/2" cookies on the first try.

As far as the Chai Gingerbread below this recipe, the cookies are softer but just as delicious. Not quite the chewy snap as the first recipe. 

Soft Gingerbread Cookies with Glaze (note my modifications*) 

3/4 cups unsalted butter, softened
1 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg
1/3 c. molasses
2-1/4 c. flour
2 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt
1-2 tsps. ground ginger *I used the full two tsps.

Because I'm a ginger addict,  I added:

*1 T. Ginger People Ginger Syrup to the batter before the dry ingredients to each batch

* About 1/4 cup chopped candied ginger to each batch

*1/2 tsp. ginger extract to each batch

Granulated sugar for rolling 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Place parchment on baking sheets. I used 12x9 cookie sheets with 3 to a row for the smaller balls. The smaller balls do not run into each other. 

Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and add the egg and molasses and mix.

Stir the flour, baking soda, salt and ginger together. Add the dry to the wet and incorporate into a soft dough.

Scoop in small balls about the size of a generous mellonball, roll in the sugar, and bake for 9-11 minutes. If you overbake, the cookie will have more of a snap. 

Maple glaze: 1 T melted butter, 1 T maple syrup, 1-1/2 cups confectioners sugar, 2 T milk and a pinch of salt.  Whisk together. It will be thick. Dip or spread the cookie adding sugar decorations as you like.

Chewy Chai Gingerbread Cookies (note my modifications) from NY Times

Note: I made this Chai spice mix recommended in the NYT recipe and used the whole mix for a double batch of cookies:

2 tsp. ground ginger; 1 tsp ground cardamom; 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon; 1/8 tsp ground cloves and 1/8 tsp ground black pepper. 

I made the same size balls,12 to a sheet on parchment paper baked in a 350 degree oven for 10 minutes.

Blend 1 c granulated sugar and the whole spice mix above)

Mix this with:

1 cup of neutral-flavored oil such as Canola

Whisk together

Add 2 eggs and whisk. Add 1/2 cup of molasses and whisk.

Mix 4 cups flour with 2 tsps baking soda and 1 tsp. salt.  Add this to the wet ingredients above - I found I needed a hand mixer to mix this all together but you could do it by hand.

*I added 2 T. ginger syrup when I added the molasses and added 1/2 cup of chopped candied ginger to the batter. 

Roll in sugard. Do not overbake. Bake the 10 minutes until the cookie tops are dry, puffed and cracked. Slide the parchment sheets with cookies onto a cooling rack. Decorate if you want!