Chocolate Ginger Crinkle Cookies

Maybe we should hold a contest to name these cookies, for there’s no deciding. Gingerbread Cookies with Chocolate? Chocolate Spice Cookies? Chocolate Chip Ginger Cookies? I finally decided on Chocolate Ginger Crinkle Cookies but what I really know these chocolate-y ginger-y cookies deserve is, “C’mon over. Let’s dunk a cookie into a cup of coffee.” A little long, yes, but aren’t you just dying for a coffee now? These cookies, they'll do that to ya.

A Sweet Treat Especially for Gingerbread Lovers, Coffee Lovers and Chocolate Lovers. Great for Gifts. Quick to Make with Pantry Ingredients. Spice Forward.

~ Skip Straight to the Recipe ~

A Christmas of Wonder and Abundance.

Twas another time, the Great Depression of the 1930s.

A young family prepared to celebrate Christmas on a hard-scrabble place above the Meramec River here in east-central Missouri. There were only five in the family now, a mother recently widowed and four children.

Money was scarce.

Determined to make the holiday festive, the mother went into the woods to cut down a Christmas tree, a possum haw already decorated with fat cherry-red berries.

Late on Christmas Eve, the family crossed the creek to attend midnight mass. “Take the little ones,” the mother instructed the older two with a grin. “I forgot something at the house, I’ll catch up.”

After mass, "Santa" had come and gone, leaving an orange for each one, homemade flour-sack shirts for the boys and small gifts for the girls.

Earlier, the kids had pooled their pennies to buy their mother a big peppermint stick. They exchanged gifts with one another too, the subject of much whispering and plotting beforehand, usually handmade, some times purchased with a few coins.

Looking back, the now-grown children, the oldest and the youngest with children and grandchildren of their own, remember feeling wonder and abundance.

By all rights, that Christmas should have been hard but thanks to their mother, it wasn’t.

Twas another time then, for sure.

Last month, a news reader cited evidence of our current financial troubles. “Revenue is down 10 percent at Saks Fifth Avenue,” he read rather breathlessly.

Ten percent, I thought. Only ten percent? At the ilk of Saks, there is nothing, NO THING, we need, plenty to want, of course, but nothing to need.

So what is the 2009 equivalent of possum haw Christmas trees, one orange per person, peppermint sticks and flour-sack shirts?

How do we feel rich, even without riches?

When surrounded by riches, how do we appreciate the beauty of a single orange?

Tis mine to ponder, this holiday season.

And now yours.

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CHOCOLATE GINGER CRINKLE COOKIES

Hands-on time: 20 minutes to mix
Chill: at least 2 hours
Time to table: about 3 hours
Makes 4 dozen cookies

• 12 tablespoons (1-1/2 sticks, 168g) salted butter, room temperature
• 1 cup (200g) brown sugar
• 1 large egg, room temperature
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 cup molasses

DRY INGREDIENTS
• 2 cups (250g) all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup (25g) unsweetened cocoa powder
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 2 teaspoons ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cloves
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon table salt

• 1-1/2 cups bittersweet chocolate chips
• Powdered sugar for rolling

MIX Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy in a large mixing bowl with an electric mixer. Add the egg, vanilla and molasses and combine well. In a separate bowl, stir together the Dry Ingredients with a fork, then mix them into the butter mixture until well combined. With a wooden spoon, stir in the chocolate chips. Gather the dough together into a ball, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.

BAKE Heat the oven to 350F/180C.

Pinch off a piece of dough about a tablespoon big, roll into a ball and roll in powdered sugar. Arrange on a baking sheet lined with parchment, leaving three inches between.

Bake for 12 minutes (for softer cookies) to 14 minutes (for crisper cookies) until the centers are set.

Remove from the oven and let cool for 2 minutes before removing from the baking sheet to finish cooling.

TIMING TIP Good Day One but beginning Day Two, the chocolate and spices really emerge, especially dunked in hot coffee and cold milk.

NUTRITION INFORMATION Per Cookie: 79 Calories; 3g Tot Fat; 2g Sat Fat; 12mg Cholesterol; 74mg Sodium; 11g Carb; 0g Fiber; 7g Sugar; 1g Protein. WEIGHT WATCHERS Old Points 2 & PointsPlus 2 & SmartPoints 4 & Freestyle 4 & myWW green 4 & blue 4 & purple 4

Adapted from a favorite new cookbook this fall, The Spice Kitchen (affiliate link & My Disclosure Promise) by Sara Engram and Katie Luber, who call these cookies "Bittersweet Chocolate-Chip Ginger Cookies". The book evangelizes the same "spice forward" simple food found in Kitchen Parade recipes. I think you'll like it!

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Hello, Chocolate Lovers

more
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Shop Your Pantry First

(helping home cooks save money on groceries)

~ cocoa powder ~
~ molasses ~

~ All Recipes, By Ingredient ~
~ How to Save Money on Groceries ~

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail via recipes@kitchen-parade.com. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, for more scratch cooking recipes using whole, healthful ingredients, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. If you make this recipe, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below.

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