The holiday baking has begun in our house. So far, I've baked triple chocolate muffins and Chocolate Revel Bars, but I had not yet baked anything with Erin. Today is the day of my dept's Christmas party so while on childcare duty this morning (Erin is officially on holiday from her Montessori), we baked up a batch of these goodies for the annual cookie contest.
The recipe came from Heidi Swanson. I love Heidi Swanson and the beautiful aesthetic that's always a component in her recipes. This one was no different.
We used a 70% cacao Gran Saman chocolate for the "chip" part. I know, we could have used a plain old mini semisweet chip, but Swanson always makes me want to go the extra mile so we chopped our chocolate by hand.
Erin chopped chocolate too.
Only, her chocolate didn't really end up in the cookies.
This is truly a girl after my own heart when it comes to chocolate. She ate a few discs of that dark, dark, velvety and delightfully bitter chocolate and asked for more. I think this kind of taste is a bit unusual in a two-year old.
The dough with the ginger and the chopped chocolate was gorgeous and smelled heavenly.
Of course, I discovered midway through the prep that I did not have fresh ginger. I was home alone with two young children, it was pouring rain outside and I was already melting the butter on the stovetop. No way was I heading out for fresh ginger. Central Market had just filled the ground ginger bulk jar when I purchased it a few days ago so I just hoped for enough good, fragrant quality from that. I seem to be having some trouble reading recipes lately (perhaps it's lack of sleep? I'll just say that scarves don't knit themselves this time of year).
Erin really really enjoyed rolling the dough balls in turbinado sugar.
We also had a timely lesson in handwashing. I know that it sunk in because later when we were playing "restaurant", she made a point of washing my hands for me before I could eat the pretend cupcakes she was baking.
Also, Erin chose to empty that teeny bowl after the cookies were rolled out by sticking a wet hand in the rough sugar and licking it clean (over and over again until I realized how much sugar she was ingesting).
Here we are with Erin's batch. Note the kid-styled shape. Perhaps not as round and symmetrical as the remaining cookies, but Erin loved them just the same. She ate about half a dozen before I could divert her.
I think these may go in our regular holiday repertoire. Next time, I'm going to try to work a little faster so that the dough is a teeny bit gooier and holds the sugar a little better. Mine didn't sparkle quite as much as the originals appear to.
Here's the recipe, courtesy Heidi Swanson:
Sparkling Ginger Chip Cookies
If you can't locate whole wheat pastry flour, you can substitute spelt flour. Or feel free to use all-purpose flour if that is what you have on hand. As far as the unsulphured molasses goes, I use Wholesome Sweeteners or Plantation Organic Blackstrap Molasses. I used a Scharffen Berger Bittersweet 70% here. You can use light brown sugar, or light muscavado sugar in place of the natural cane sugar.
1/2 cup / 3.5 oz / 90 g turbinado sugar
6 ounces / 170 g bittersweet chocolate
2 cups / 8.5 oz / 245 g whole wheat pastry flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup / 4 oz / 113 g unsalted butter
1/4 cup / 2 oz / 60 ml unsulphured molasses2/3 cup / 3.75 oz / 100 g fine grain natural cane sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons grated fresh ginger, peeled
1 large egg, well beaten
Preheat the oven to 350F / 180C degrees - racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Line a couple baking sheets with unbleached parchment paper or a Silpat mat, and place the large-grain sugar in a small bowl. Set aside.
Finely chop the chocolate bar into 1/8-inch pieces, more like (mostly) shavings really.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, and salt.
Heat the butter in a saucepan until it is just barely melted. Remove from heat and stir in the molasses, sugar, and fresh ginger. The mixture should be warm, but not hot at this point, if it is hot to the touch let it cool a bit. Whisk in the egg. Now pour this over the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate.
I like these cookies tiny, barely bite-sized, so I scoop out the dough in exact, level tablespoons. I then tear those pieces of dough in two before rolling each 1/2 tablespoon of dough into a ball shape. From there, grab a small handful of the big sugar you set aside earlier and roll each ball between your palms to heavily coat the outside of each dough ball. Place dough a few inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies puff up, darken a bit, and get quite fragrant.
Makes roughly 4 dozen.




