Chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies are a chocolatey version of my soft molasses cookies with two kinds of ginger, a dark chocolate dip and festive holiday sprinkles.
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This year was a very hectic year with lots of personal things going on ( my major hip surgery included) so I didn't get to make as many Christmas cookies as I would have liked. I did make a few but not all are making it to the blog before Christmas. But these Chocolate Dipped Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies had to make it. Even if its just a few days before.
Ginger in both powder and diced candied ginger add an extra level of spice, they are soft and chewy and stay chewy for days after baking. The dark chocolate half dip is a really nice contrast to the sweet and spicy of the cookie.
Jump to:
- Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookie ingredients:
- How to make these chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies:
- Cream butter and sugar:
- Add in egg, vanilla, molasses:
- Next, add in your dry ingredient mixture
- To chill or not to chill, the cookie dough that is:
- Time to get rolling and baking:
- Now it is time to take a dip, in chocolate:
- Weighing ingredients Vs using cups:
- Other ginger Christmas cookie recipes you may also enjoy:
- Recipe for Chocolate Dipped Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies:
- Chocolate Dipped Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
These cookies are an adaptation of my soft molasses cookies with pear and ginger. And they are also half dipped but in white chocolate not dark. And they are oh so good too. I swapped out some ingredients, made some adjustments to other ingredients and after the first few tests I knew I had a winner cookie recipe.
Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookie ingredients:
- All purpose flour - any kind is fine. These all vary in weight so I use 130g per cup and all my recipes come out great with that amount.
- Cocoa powder - I use Barry extra brute. You want a higher fat (around 22-25%), dutch processed cocoa powder for baking. This one has a reddish hue and the flavor is fantastic. It is my go-to cocoa powder
- Baking soda and kosher salt (Diamond is my go-to)
- Ground spices - ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove
- Butter - unsalted. I prefer to bake with unsalted butter than salted
- Brown sugar - You can use light or dark
- Molasses - a must have in any kind of gingerbread recipe. I use unsulphured molasses. Do not use blackstrap.
- Egg - one large one
- Vanilla extract
- Crystallized ginger - I get it in strips and dice myself. You can find dices as well in the dried fruit and nut section of most stores.
- Granulated sugar for rolling the cookies before baking.
- Bittersweet chocolate 70%
- Coconut oil - to melt with the chocolate
I love using crystallized ginger in baking recipes when it calls for an extra hit of ginger. The little spicy, chewy bits really give a recipe like these chocolate gingerbread cookies a something extra special.
How to make these chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies:
- I am a big fan of measuring out everything before baking. Mixing certain ingredients together before adding to a bigger bowl or stand mixer bowl. I even crack the egg into its own little bowl first so I make sure no egg shell gets into the cookie dough.
- Weight and measure out your "dry" ingredients into a large bowl and sift or whisk together.
- Dice up the crystallized ginger if you get larger pieces like I did.
- Weight and measure the sugar, molasses and butter. Vanilla too.
Cream butter and sugar:
You need to get the butter and sugar well mixed and lighter and fluffier in texture. It won't be as light as regular white granulated sugar and butter since the brown sugar is darker but it will still get lighter in color as seen above.
Add in egg, vanilla, molasses:
A trick for how to measure molasses without it sticking, or anything sticky like that such as honey or any kind of syrup, is to lightly oil the bowl you are weighing the molasses into. Just enough to oil the bottom and sides then pour out any excess. Then you weigh the molasses and it will pour right into your mixing bowl without sticking to the bowl it is being poured from.
Next, add in your dry ingredient mixture
This gets mixed on low until almost all the way added in. Then the crystallized ginger is added.
To chill or not to chill, the cookie dough that is:
Once everything is mixed in, I transfer the dough to a bowl to chill for a bit.
You don't have to chill this dough but I find that chilling helps takes away just a bit of the stickiness and makes rolling a lot easier.
Time to get rolling and baking:
I like cookies a little bigger ( about 3 inches across when baked) so I measure out about a tablespoon and a half ( 35-40 grams) of dough using a cookie scoop then I roll into a ball in my hands and roll in granulated sugar before placing on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
The cookies are baked for around 10-12 minutes. You want them just set, starting to crack on top and nice and round. The cookies will puff up a bit when baking and flatten out more when cooled.
Since they are chocolate it will be harder to tell when done since you wont look golden like lighter cookies. You don't want to over bake these cookies at all. You want to keep that chewy texture.
I like to press down on the tops very gently while still hot to make sure they get extra cracks and don't stay as puffy.
Now it is time to take a dip, in chocolate:
I melt 70% chocolate with a little coconut oil. You can do this in a microwave, a double boiler or a pan over the stove. I prefer the double boiler method ( I set a glass bowl over a small saucepan filled with just enough water to hold a simmer but doesn't touch the bottom of the glass bowl) and melt the chocolate and oil together.
I don't temper the chocolate, really no need to here since I cover the chocolate in sprinkles. No need to take those extra steps for shiny chocolate.
I place the dipped and sprinkled cookies on a wax paper lined baking sheet and place in the freezer to firm up the chocolate. I then store these delicious chocolate dipped chewy chocolate gingerbread cookies in an airtight container and keep them in my freezer.
They will last up to a week at room temperature up to three months in the freezer. Unless they all get eaten before that.
Weighing ingredients Vs using cups:
I use my food scale and weigh out ingredients in grams because this is the most accurate way to get the best quality baked goods. Cups aren't accurate because not only are all cups not the same the sizes vary from brand to brand as well as from different countries. I have done tests with different brands of measuring cups and they all came out with different weights after I did the spoon and level as well as scoop method and then weighed in grams.
Baking is a science and science needs accuracy. Weighing is accurate and precise. Not to mention a lot easier. Another issue with cups is that I have no control over how people use measuring cups to measure dry ingredients especially flour. You could pack in way too much which would result in a sub-par baked good. Too much flour could throw everything off. Same with not enough. Not to mention also some ingredients are difficult to measure in cups such as nuts, dried fruit, chocolate etc. This is why weighing in grams is the most accurate.
I also use grams for most liquid measure since 100 grams equals 100 ml of water. Smaller amounts of items measured in teaspoons I usually leave as teaspoons, tablespoons are sometimes listed in grams as well but for the most part the different tablespoons I have used have all resulted in the same amount. Aside from cute, decorative ceramic tablespoons and teaspoons are never accurate. Those are better as decoration than for being used for baking.
Do you have to chill the cookie dough?
How many cookies does this recipe make?
Other ginger Christmas cookie recipes you may also enjoy:
- White Chocolate Dipped Soft Molasses Cookies with Pear and Ginger
- German Pfeffernüsse Cookies ( German Spice Cookies
- Soft Spiced Gingerbread Cut Out Cookies
- Ginger Cardamom Meyer Lemon Crinkle Cookies
- German Lebkuchen Cookies ( German Honey Gingerbread
- Spiced Mushroom Cookies
Recipe for Chocolate Dipped Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies:
Chocolate Dipped Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 260 g all purpose flour
- 50 g dutch processed cocoa powder 22-25% fat
- 1 ½ teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- 226 g unsalted butter room temperature ( soft but still cool)
- 208 g brown sugar light or dark
- 70 g unsulfured molasses
- 1 large egg room temp
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 85 g crystallized ginger finely diced
For rolling:
- 1 cup granulated sugar
For dipping and decoration:
- 8-12 ounces dark chocolate chopped
- 1 ½ teaspoon coconut oil
- Holiday sprinkles
Instructions
- Oven is preheated while the dough is chilling, not before dough is made.
- In a large bowl weight and measure the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves and whisk until well combined.
- In a bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, or a large bowl using a hand mixer combine the butter and brown sugar and mix on medium-high until creamed ( lighter in color, fluffier in texture) about 5 minutes.
- Crack the egg into a small bowl or straight into the mixing bowl (make sure you don’t get any egg shell pieces in there) and add in the vanilla extract. Mix again until well combined, scraping down the sides of the bowl when needed. Another 1-2 minutes.
- Add in the flour mixture and mix on low until almost combined then add in the diced crystalized ginger and mix until fully incorporated.
- You can transfer the dough to a smaller bowl to chill, or chill in the stand mixer bowl, after scraping all the dough off the paddle attachment or beaters. Wrap with plastic wrap and set in refrigerator to chill for at least 30 min.
- While the dough is chilling, preheat your oven to 325 Deg F. and prepare baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Pour the granulated sugar in to a bowl. When ready to bake the cookies, use a tablespoon sized cookie scoop to scoop a generous tablespoon and a half sized ball of dough (35-40 grams) and roll into a ball in your hands. Roll the ball in the sugar then place on a prepared baking sheet. Repeat with more dough until you have 8-10 cookies on a baking sheet, placed a few inches apart.
- Bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes or until looking dry on top and tops have started to crack and they have spread to about 3 inches across. They will puff a little and as soon as you remove from the oven you can gently press down on any of the cookies that have puffed a lot to crack them more.
- Repeat until you have baked all the cookies.
- Once the cookies are fully cooled, melt the chocolate with the coconut oil either using a double boiler over the stove or the microwave. If microwaving, heat at 30 second increments, stirring between until melted. Pour the chocolate into a small bowl or glass wide enough to fit the cookies.
- Prepare some baking tray with wax paper. Dip half the cookies into the chocolate then place on the baking sheet and decorate with sprinkles while the chocolate is still melted. Once you get a full tray of cookies, place in the freezer to firm up the chocolate.
- Cookies will keep well for a week at room temperature in an airtight container or in the freezer up to three months. Also in an airtight container.
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