Double Ginger-Molasses Cookies with Caramelized White Chocolate
A sultry sweet-savory holiday cookie to light up tastebuds
I am fully aware that another Christmas cookie recipe inundating your inbox is literally the last thing you need (I’m even eye-rolling at myself for sending it). But on the matrix of worthy-holiday baking recipes, this one hits pretty high. You know you’ve hit something when you receive a winning high-five hand of approval from a 6 year-old, so I hope you don’t bypass this post or delete it in all the festive holiday chaos. Double Ginger-Molasses Cookies with Caramelized White Chocolate. A little bit of naughty spice, a little bit of nice caramelized white chocolate, a dash of zippy candied ginger & fresh ginger root and some sultry depth from molasses. I took inspiration for the little dreamboats of a cookie from Tandem Bakery in Portland, Maine on a recent trip this past autumn and decided I absolutely needed to make my own version. And I think I turned out a annual keeper.
I love a good cookie that’s not too sweet, a little savory, a little salty and warms you up with spices and ginger—I’m definitely in the pro-gingerbread camp. I’ve taken that base and raised the bar a little higher with the addition of two types of ginger, freshly grated from the root and candied (which you can find at Whole Foods, health food stores, online etc), and then white chocolate. Typically, I’m VERY wary of white chocolate (generally bland, chalky, kind of heavy and fatty), but if you gently bake it, bringing out caramely notes and a golden color as the sugars darken, it reaches a whole new level of flavor intrigue. And that’s something I’ll always say ‘yes’ to. It takes a bit of foresight it caramelize the white chocolate ahead of baking these cookies, but grab 2 bars of white chocolate, break them up into pieces, pop them on a baking sheet covered with a piece of parchment paper or a silpat non-stick baking mat, put it in the oven and you’re done. That’s the only “extra” piece of the recipe. Throw the rest in a bowl (after creaming the butter & sugar) and that’s basically it, except for balling and rolling in sugar. Normally for most cookie doughs, I would use a stand mixer to cream the butter and sugar together nice and fluffy, but I’ve been living without one in Copenhagen for the past 2.5+ years now and these cookies are a strong testament to the ability and determination of hand-creaming…and the cookies still turn out with great texture—possibly even better than with the stand mixer, and you get a decent arm workout as a small bonus. They’ve got a perfect blend of chewy inside, crispy/crackly outside. I only have a small cookie scoop (30g) at the moment, but I imagine these would benefit even more texture-wise from a slightly large scoop size. That said, 30g per cookie makes a pretty perfect snacky size when you’ve got lots of other Christmas cookies around and only so many calories to spare. So I hope you enjoy these and share them with friends, family, and maybe even a frenemy or two—it is the holiday season after all. With that holiday spirit in mind, I’ll leave the paywall down to the recipe below until after Christmas.
Double-Ginger Molasses Cookies with Caramelized White Chocolate
Makes 25 30g cookies
125g unsalted butter, room temp
150g dark brown sugar
150g sugar
1 heaping tablespoon freshly grated ginger
105g molasses (about ⅓ cup)
1 egg + 1 egg yolk
2 tonka beans, grated (or 1 vanilla bean, scraped / 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla paste or powder) *for more info on tonka beans, see this previous post
255g AP flour
100g ølands wheat flour (or spelt flour)
1/4 - ½ teaspoon nutmeg, grated
¼ - ½ teaspoon allspice, ground (or 1/8 teaspoon ground cloves)
50g candied ginger, finely minced
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ teaspoon kosher salt / sea salt
200g white chocolate, caramelized in the oven at 300F / 150C for 40 minutes, cooled and then crumbled into bits (or make it easy on yourself and look for dulcey blond chocolate pieces from Valhrona, also use 200g and simply roughly chop into chunks)
2-3 good pinches maldon flaky salt
sugar for “sanding” (aka rolling the balls of dough in so they glisten)
Method:
Cream butter and sugars together until fluffy and incorporated. You can do this in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or in a large mixing bowl by hand with good arm strength and a good rubber spatula (see photo below).
Add in eggs, fresh ginger, molasses and tonka beans (or vanilla). Mix well.
In a separate mixing bowl, whisk together your “dries”: both flours, your spices, baking powder & soda, candied ginger, regular salt, caramelized white chocolate pieces and maldon salt. Add the dries to wets in 3 iterations. Combine until a nice cookie dough is formed.
Refrigerate the dough for 1 hour. Ball it out into 30-50g cookies and then roll in sanding sugar. Gently press the middle in with your palm to create an ident and slightly spread the cookie. Freeze cookie balls overnight on a baking sheet. Freezing the cookies improves the texture and keeps the shape when baking. I freeze all my cookie dough after it’s been balled out / portioned. This is a great way to store unbaked cookies as well — then you have cookie dough at the ready for whenever you want to bake it off.
To bake cookies off, place 9 cookies per greased baking sheet (I’ve baked these without parchment, but a piece of parchment with baking spray would be helpful). Bake at 385F / 195C for 10-12 minutes, rotating halfway through. Thanks for reading and happy holidays!
