Ginger Molasses Cookies

baking

Preamble

A certain purveyor of coffee in North America sells a ginger molasses cookie that is much loved by my partner and I. After a lot of delicious trial and error, this is our version of that cookie. We daresay it's as good as and possibly better than the original!

Preparation time

2 to 3 hours to let butter soften at room temperature
½ hour to mix wet and dry ingredients
1 ½ hours for dough to cool in refrigerator
1 hour to roll and bake cookies

Yield

Approximately 24 to 28 cookies.

NOTE: Images shown below were taken when recipe was doubled to yield approximately 48 to 56 cookies.

Equipment

2 to 4 cookie pans, 43.8 x 29.2 x 2.54 cm
4 silicon baking sheets, or, parchment paper
large mixing bowl
medium mixing bowl
electric mixer or wooden spoon
2 cooling racks
food scale
whisk
spatula

Ingredients

Dry

295 g all-purpose unbleached white flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. ground ginger
½ tsp. salt

Wet

170 g unsalted butter, softened
110 g white sugar
110 g brown sugar
1 egg, room temperature
½ tsp. pure vanilla
60 g molasses

Topping

approximately 250 g coarse dark granulated sugar

Directions

About five hours before you wish to complete the baking process, measure out the butter, and place in the large mixing bowl. Chopping the butter into smaller cubes hastens the softening process.
About 2 to 3 hours later, set the egg out to warm to room temperature.
Beat the butter until it is light and airy.

Butter in a large glass mixing bowl that has been beaten until light and airy.

Using a whisk, combine dry ingredients in the medium mixing bowl.

Flour, baking sode, cinnamon, ground ginger, and salt, mixed in a medium stainless steel bowl.

Combine white sugar with contents of large mixing bowl.

White sugar combined with butter in a large glass mixing bowl.

Combine brown sugar with contents of large mixing bowl.

Brown sugar combined with butter and white sugar in a large glass mixing bowl.

Add egg, vanilla, and molasses to large mixing bowl, then combine.

Egg, vanilla, and molasses combined with butter and sugars in a large glass mixing bowl.

Gradually add dry ingredients to wet ingredients. Four rounds of combining dry to wet works well. Dough will be stiff.

Dry ingredients combined with wet ingredients in a large glass mixing bowl produces a stiff dough that is ready to be chilled. — Dough will become stiff as the mixing continues. When complete the dough is ready to be chilled.

Set the dough in a refrigerator to chill, covered, for 1 and ½ hours.
Pre-heat an oven to 350 °F with convection, or 375 °F without.
For the topping, place the coarse, dark, granulated sugar in a low-rimmed bowl.

Coarse, dark, granulated sugar placed in a low rimmed ceramic bowl.

Using a small cookie dough scoop (pictured at left in first image) and a butter knife, scoop dough from mixing bowl.

A small cookie dough scoop and a butter knife are used to scoop and level dough.

Roll the dough between your hands, then gently compress the ball of dough in the granulated sugar, and place on cookie sheet.

Cookie dough is rolled and compressed in the low bowl of sugar to top the cookie.

Repeat steps 12 and 13 until you have 8 cookies per baking sheet.
With a convection oven you can bake 16 cookies, one sheet per oven rack. Bake for 15 minutes. While first batch of cookies bakes, prepare the second batch of cookies for baking.

Eight cookies pictured before and after baking. After baking, cookies will spread but should not touch one another.

When cookies have baked for 15 minutes, remove from oven and let cool for 3 minutes, then use a spatula to move to a cooling rack. Allow oven to reheat before placing the next batch in the oven.

All cookies pictured cooling on a wire rack.

When cooled, cookies should be moderately crisp at the edges, but soft and chewy at their centre. Enjoy! 😀