I love gingerbread so much. I am one of those strange beings who loves all ginger spice flavoured treats, but truly can’t stand ginger in it’s natural form or crystallized. Every time I have sushi I always leave the ginger on the plate and if some mistakenly makes it’s way into my mouth it’s not a good thing. On the other hand, I absolutely adore ginger kisses, gingerbread, gingernut biscuits and ginger spice cake. So now that Christmas is just around the corner, I wanted to make some gingerbread cookies which are not only delicious to eat but also fill the house with a lovely Christmas-like aroma. I adapted this recipe from Liv For Cake and had a bit too much fun licking the beaters with the raw cookie dough. And maybe a little bit out of the bowl. Caution: the more dough you eat, the less cookies you’ll have at the end. These cookies are truly amazing. They are chewy and soft, with the spices and molasses giving them a great depth of flavour. And the white chocolate is totally the icing on the cake. It just goes so well with the gingerbread flavour and adds a mellow hint of sweetness that really make these cookies so special.
Ingredients:
2¼ cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground nutmeg
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp salt
¾ cup unsalted butter (room temperature)
1 cup light brown sugar (packed)
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
Granulated sugar (for dipping)
2½ cups (450g) white chocolate chips melted with 1 tablespoon shortening or canola oil (optional)*
Silver cachous pearls for decorating (optional)
Method:
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves and salt. Set aside.
- In a large bowl using an electric mixer, mix together the butter, brown sugar and molasses until light and fluffy, 3-5 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary. Add egg and beat until combined.
- Reduce mixer speed to low and mix in the dry ingredients until combined. Cover bowl and place in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
- Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (375 degrees Fahrenheit) and line baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Place granulated sugar in a shallow bowl for dipping. Form the dough into 1 inch balls and dip the tops into the sugar to coat and place on baking sheet at least 3 inches apart. (I did 9 cookies per sheet).
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until cracks form. Cool on the cookie sheet for 10 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Melt white chocolate and shortening (or canola oil) in a bowl over a simmering pot of water. It is very important to melt them at the same time so that the chocolate does not seize.
- Dip half of each cookie in the white chocolate, add silver cachous pearls and return to the parchment paper to set at room temperature.
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