These eggless double chocolate cookies are chewy, gooey, and spiced with fresh ginger for an absolutely amazing flavor. They’re perfect for the fall and so easy to make!
Chocolate and ginger is wonderful flavor combo. The sweetness of chocolate with the spiciness of the fresh ginger and other warm spices like cinnamon, cloves, and nutmeg pairs together perfectly! I love the unique and intense flavor combo and always crave these cookies, as well as my soft molasses cookies, as soon as fall hit They’re both also great Christmas cookies.
The base of these babies is a classic ginger cookie with molasses, brown sugar, an spices with chocolate and cocoa powder added. There’s plenty of spice and melted chocolate in every single bite. These cookies are also super soft and chewy with a slight crunch from the sugar coating. They’re the perfect holiday cookie!
How to make chocolate ginger cookies
- Sift together all the dry ingredients except baking soda. This includes flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa powder. Set aside.
- Beat butter and fresh ginger. Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment or handheld mixer, beat the butter with fresh ginger until light ant fluffy, about 3 minutes.
- Add the brown sugar and molasses. Beat in the brown sugar, followed by the molasses until everything is incorporated.
- Dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Do this in a small bowl.
- Combine dry ingredients with the butter. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture and combine. Then, beat in the baking soda mixture. Lastly, add the remaining half of the flour mixture.
- Add the chocolate chunks. Mix in chocolate chunks just until combined.
- Chill. This is a VERY sticky dough and will need to chill for a minimum of 2 hours before baking. Wrap your cookie dough in plastic wrap in a disc shape, or place it in a bowl covered with plastic wrap in the fridge.
- Bake. Form 1 ½-inch cookie dough balls and place on a parchment-lined sheet pan. Roll each cookie ball in granulated sugar and place the sheet pan in the fridge for another 20 minutes before baking at 325°F/160°C for 10-12 minutes.
*Tip: For an amazing ice cream cookie sandwich, make a batch of no-churn vanilla ice cream and put a scoop between 2 of these cookies for an unbelievable treat!
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Tips for making perfect chocolate ginger cookies
- Don’t skip the fresh ginger. There’s a whole tablespoon of fresh ginger in this recipe and it provides amazing flavor, so I highly recommend not leaving it out or substituting for ground ginger.
- Grate the ginger very finely. I like to use my microplane grater for this.
- Chilling the cookie dough is a must. If you bake these cookies right away, they’ll spread out so much during baking that you’ll end up with one giant flat cookie. Chill the dough for at least 2 hours before baking, plus 20 minutes after shaping the dough into balls. I like to prepare the cookie dough quickly in the evening and bake it first thing in the morning, then eat about six of the cookies before anyone gets home.
- Don’t overbake these cookies. Overbaking can make the cookies tough, and the best thing about them is their chewy texture. Because of their dark color, it’s hard to know when they’re ready, but don’t bake them for more than 12 minutes. Once the bottoms are firm, you can pull them from the oven.
I hope you love these cookies as much as I do! Let me know in the comments below.
More of my favorite cookie recipes
- Chewy Peanut Butter Cookies: Amazing thick and chewy bakery-style peanut butter cookies.
- Chocolate Dipped Shortbread Cookies: Buttery and delicate cookies dipped in rich dark chocolate.
- Coconut Cookies: Chewy coconut cookies with toasted coconut flakes.
- Brown Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies: Nutty brown butter adds a deep caramel flavor to these chewy chocolate chip cookies.
- Pumpkin Cookies: Soft, pillow pumpkin cookies drizzled with maple glaze.
Chocolate Ginger Cookies
Extra chewy double chocolate cookies made with fresh ginger and lots of warm spices.
Ingredients
- 1 ½ cups (200g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ¼ teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ¼ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)
- ½ cup (115g) unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1 tablespoon freshly grated peeled ginger
- ½ cup (100g) dark brown sugar
- ½ cup (120 ml) unsulfured molasses
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 ½ teaspoons boiling water
- 1 cup +1 tablespoon (200g) dark chocolate chips or chunks
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar , for coating the cookies
Instructions
-
Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
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In a medium bowl sift together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa. Set aside.
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In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter and fresh ginger on medium speed until whitened, about 4 minutes. Add brown sugar and beat until well combined. Add the molasses and beat until combined.
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In a small bowl, dissolve baking soda in boiling water. Add half of the flour mixture to the butter mixture then beat in baking soda mixture. Beat in remaining flour mixture. Mix in chocolate just until combined. Don’t overmix. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 2 hours or overnight.
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Preheat oven to 325°F/160°C. Roll dough into 1 ½-inch (3cm) balls (I like to use
medium cookie scoop for that) and place 2 inches apart on baking sheets. Refrigerate for 20 minutes, then roll each ball in granulated sugar.
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Bake until surfaces just begin to crack, 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan halfway through. Let cool 5 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
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Cookies are best the same day they are made, but can be stored in airtight containers at room temperature for up to 5 days.
Recipe adapted from Martha Stewart’s Cookies
Lynn says
I cant wait to try this:)
Q: the unsulfured molasses is in liquid or solid form?
Shiran says
It’s liquid 🙂
Kathleen @ Yummy Crumble says
I can’t wait to try these! They look fantastic 🙂 I bet they are amazing with vanilla ice cream just like you suggested!
Shiran says
Thank you, Kathleen! 🙂
Lynn says
Thanks, Shiran!
Jess @ What Jessica Baked Next says
These cookies are gorgeous, Shiran! Love the spices mixed with the chocolate. These cookies make the perfect autumn treat!
Shiran says
Thank you so much, Jess!
Sarah | Drool-Worthy says
Wow! And they’re spicy too? This recipe sounds fantastic, love it!
Shiran says
Thank you, Sarah!
jaime says
I just made these this weekend. I kicked up the heat by using 4.25 oz of Scharffen Berger bittersweet chocolate and a 2.75 ounce bar of do not eat this chocolate bar http://www.lilliebellefarms.com/do-not-eat-this-chocolate
(not for the faint of heart or palette!). My mouth was on fire in the best possible way
Shiran says
Sounds interesting! I think I could handle the heat 🙂 I’m glad you enjoyed it!
Liz @ Teta Lizza's Kitchen says
These sound so tempting! Traditional ginger(bread) cookies are sorta “meh” to me but these might tip the scales to me becoming a fan. 🙂 Beautiful site! – Liz
Shiran says
Thank you so much, Liz! 🙂
Angela says
I made these for our office holiday bake-off and they were a hit! I added a little fine-chopped candied ginger with the chocolate chunks, and I did put about 1/4 teaspoon of salt in the dry ingredients, and they came out fantastically. Moist and chewy and so flavorful. Thank you for sharing the recipe!
Shiran says
Thank you so much for your comment, Angela! I hope you have a good holiday!
Sangavi jagannathan says
Instead of using molasses can you use honey
Shiran says
I haven’t tried it with honey, but the two are different in flavor, and the molasses gives it its unique flavor.
Jacqueline Lim says
Sounds delicious! Could I use unsulphured blackstrap molasses? That’s all the shop I go to has. I understand that blackstrap means the molasses have been processed further, just opened a jar, they are really thick! Thanks!
Shiran says
Hi Jacqueline, blackstrap molasses has a stronger, less sweet taste, and the cookies can have a bitter flavor. I don’t recommend using it, but it’s a matter of personal taste.
Anita says
After chopping up all my 90% dark chocolate Lindt bars (almost no sugar), I realized maybe you meant sweetened dark chocolate. If the dark chocolate should have been sweetened, can I add brown sugar to compensate?
Shiran says
Hi Anita, 90% would be bitter, unless you try it and like the flavor. I usually suggest up to 70% when baking. Adding sugar at this point would ruin the cookie texture. You can taste the cookie dough and see if you like it. If it tastes good, you can add more chocolate that’s sweeter, like milk chocolate, and bake them anyway.
Elliott says
Any recommendations for substituting with gluten free flour?
Shiran says
Hi Elliott, I don’t have a lot of experience with gluten free flour but usually you can substitute all-purpose gluten-free flour in place of all-purpose flour at a ratio of 1:1, but my guess is that you’ll also need to add xanthan gum.
Carrie says
Hi Shiran, in response to Elliott the ratio of gluten free to all purpose flour is 1:1 by weight, not volume. In my experience, rather than xanthan gum (which gives a somewhat ‘gritty’ mouth feel) using sweet rice flour a.k.a. mochiko as about 15-20% of the total gluten free flour weight gives the baked goods the ‘glutinous’ chewy texture without the grit. There are some gluten free flours that are the same weight and volume as a/p flour but I have no experience with them as I mix my own. Hope that helps.
Carrie
Shiran says
Thank you so much for sharing, Carrie!
Emily says
I’ve had the same questions about Stewart’s recipe, which is all over the Internet – why no eggs? I’ve added a yolk and it’s always seemed fine. I don’t know, I’m leery of cookies without the ingredients I expect, I guess. Do you think it works well for a particular reason sans eggs?
Shiran says
Every recipe is different, and I simply tried the recipe and loved it. It’s delicious without any eggs 🙂
Babe says
It taste so delicious.
Jenny says
Hi! I’ve made these cookies before and they’re always amazing!! Thinking about prepping some dough in advance this year. A lot of the time you can freeze the dough balls & bake straight from frozen–do you think this would work for this recipe?
Thanks!
Shiran says
Yes it would work 🙂 You might need to add about 1-2 minutes to the baking time.
Sutanuka says
Hi! These cookies turned out absolutely amazing!! Thanks for the recipe!
Jasmine says
Do you think orange dark chocolate would pair nicely with versus just dark chocolate?
Shiran says
There would be many flavors so it’s a matter of personal taste 🙂 I think it can work nicely.
Maria says
Just made these. I only post when 1) I’ve made the recipe and 2) they’re good. These were easy to make and so good! I had a recipe I saw a couple of years ago for another recipe I like but the link is broken and the reviews for Martha Stewart’s are all over the place; found this and they came out so delicious. I made a blackberry marscapone cheese filling with thyme and turned them into sandwich cookies (saw that elsewhere, too). These are sophisticated but not fussy – I love them! Will definitely be making again this winter.
Brittany says
Can i do this as a bar cookie?
Talia @ Pretty. Simple. Sweet. says
Hi Brittany, I haven’t tried these as bar cookies. But if you want to try it, I would make sure the cookie layer is about 1/2-inch thick in your pan (try using an 8x8in). Good luck!:)