Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies
Have you guys seen all The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap? Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil and Julie from The Little Kitchen teamed up to organize this huge cookie swap for food bloggers. We each made three dozen cookies and shipped a dozen to three different food bloggers. The best part was that Hubby and I got to try three new kinds of cookies! We loved checking the mail every day to see if there was a new box of cookies waiting for us.
For my contribution, I decided to make these Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies. When Hubby tried one straight from the oven, he thought the ginger taste was too overpowering. After sitting in the fridge for a couple days, the ginger flavor became more subtle. They honestly mellowed out into an amazing flavor combination.
I shipped these cookies off to Peanut Butter and Peppers, Chrysanthemum, and Brave New Food. I hope everyone enjoyed these cookies!
And now on to the good stuff, the cookies that Hubby and I got to enjoy. I totally forgot to take pictures of the cookies, so be sure to click through to each blog to see the photos and recipes. That Skinny Chic Can Bake sent Raspberry White Chocolate Bars. Peanut Butter and Julie sent some Cranberry Lemon Biscotti. And last but not least, Reetsyburger’s Refuge sent some Simple Shortbread cookies.
As a reminder, everyone who participated in The Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap should email Cookies for Kids Cancer with the number of cookies swapped (3 dozen here) so that Glad can donate $0.10 for each cookie.
Two Years Ago: Mint Brownies
Three Years Ago: Fudge and Cranberry Orange Cookies
Four Years Ago: Easy M&M Treats
Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies
Yield: Makes 2.5 dozen cookies
Ingredients:
7 ounces semisweet chocolate chips
1 1/2 cups plus 1 Tbsp flour
1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger
1/2 cup dark-brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 cup sugar
Directions:
Line two baking sheets with parchment. 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.
Recipe from Martha Stewart
I am Jen the Beantown Baker. Engineer by day and baking maven by night. Hubby serves as my #1 fan and official taste tester. We got hitched back in 2006. Barefoot. In the sand. With the waves crashing behind us. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. 
OMG, I am in love with these cupcakes! They’re so awesome! I love HP, and I made owl cupcakes when the movie came out. I might need to give these a try before going to see the IMAX 3D movie.
How cute are those?! And i was wondering how you got the lettering so perfect – thanks for the step-by-step. Lol – I just dragged DH to the Harry Potter exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry – I’m sure he’ll be happy when the final movie comes out and he doesn’t have to hear about it anymore!
Great job, how lucky are your friends?
I’m so jealous! My two sisters are going to the exhibit this weekend. I thought about flying to Chicago to join them. Luckily I found out the exhibit is coming here in October. Whew!
These look fabulous! You did such a great job on them!
WOW JEN!! Those are fantastic!! Better than professional! Seriously, what talent you have to make those! 🙂
Aw thanks Katie – you’re making me blush.
I hate when cupcakes do that to me too. Instead of baking up they bake out! 🙁
Love your Harry Potter cupcake toppers! Very cute and creative!
~ingrid
Hi Jen! A friend of mine forwarded me your page for HP Cupcakes and I just wanted to drop in and say that I think they’re awesome and I want to run home now and try to create some fun hp themed cakes! I had done some in the past–cauldron cakes if you will, by buying mini cauldrons and cutting the bottom off so the tops sat just on the cakes and then used a bit of green frosting on the inside. You should join up with the HP-MA crew! We’ve been organizing some meet-ups for Boston Fans!
Sounds awesome Manda.
Oh my goodness, what adorable little cupcakes!
So so cute! And yeah, those “HPs” must have taken FOREVER. I have a fabulous vanilla cupcake recipe that never fails me here: http://annies-eats.com/2008/07/18/vanilla-cupcakes/. Also, I recently made Dorie’s perfect party cake into cupcakes and had great results with that as well.
I love your HP cupcakes! I too am a huge Harry Potter fan but I have to admit, I don’t think I’d be patient enough to make cupcakes and toppings as cute as yours!
These are so awesome!! I wish I would have seen them and did some of these with the HP cake I did!!