When Alice Medrich says “this is my favorite” something, you want to pay full attention. After chocolate and vanilla and mocha and chocolate, ginger is my favorite cookie flavor. Oh, I left out mint. Nevermind.
In her book Chewy… Alice has gone back to basic recipes and reworked them. Perfected them. So this ginger cookie won’t just be her favorite. It will be yours.
With all the crystallized ginger bits here, this cookie is “hot.” If you want to temper that temperature, then just scale back. And topping with the sugar is a must. These cookies are wonderful just out of the oven, or when they have cooled. Supposedly they store for some time, but I’ve never had that experience.
My Ginger Cookies from Alice Medrich
Yield: ~50 2-inch cookies
Ingredients:
- 2 cups (9 ounces) unbleached all-purpose flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground allspice
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted and still warm
- ¼ cup unsulfured mild or full-flavored molasses
- ½ cup (3.5 ounces) granulated sugar
- ½ cup (2.33 ounces) packed brown sugar or light muscovado sugar
- 2 tablespoons finely minced or grated fresh ginger
- 1 large egg
- ¾ cup (4 ounces) ginger chips or crystallized ginger, cut into ¼-inch dice
- About ½ cup (3.5 ounces) Demerara or turbinado sugar or ¼ cup (1.75 ounces) granulated sugar for rolling
Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven. Line cookie sheets with parchment paper [or you can bake on ungreased pans].
Combine the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, cinnamon, allspice, and salt in a medium bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk or fork.
Combine the warm butter, molasses, sugars, fresh ginger, and egg in a large bowl and mix thoroughly. Add the flour mixture and ginger chips and stir until incorporated. The dough will be soft.
Form the dough into 1-inch balls (0.5 ounce dough for each). Roll the balls in the Demerara sugar and place them 2 inches apart on the lined or ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cookies puff up and crack on the surface and then begin to deflate in the oven. Rotate the sheets from top to bottom and from back to front halfway through the baking time to ensure even baking.
For chewier cookies, remove them from the oven when at least half or more of the cookies have begun to deflate; for crunchier edges with chewy centers, bake for a minute or so longer.
For lined pans, set the pans or just the liners on racks to cool; for unlined pans, use a metal spatula to transfer the cookies to racks. Cool the cookies completely before storing. May be kept in an airtight container for several days.
Source: Chew Gooey Crispy Crunchy Melt-In-Your Mouth Cookies by Alice Medrich