A new cookbook from baking guru Dorie Greenspan is always cause for celebration. And when that cookbook is all about cookies? Well, all I can say is preheat the oven and soften some butter. Because it is time to bake.
Every year in September, National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month, housewares giant OXO supports Cookies for Kids Cancer, a nonprofit that provides inspiration and support to allow anyone to easily get involved in fundraising to find a cure for pediatric cancer.
This year, in honor of the publication of Dorie Greenspan’s new cookbook which is all about cookies, OXO is giving bloggers like me a chance to preview one of the recipes from the book and to bake with some outstanding OXO products. For each blog post created, OXO will donate $100 to Cookies for Kids Cancer. Isn’t that sweet?
Dorie’s new book Dorie’s Cookies, will be out on October 25, just in time for all your holiday baking. This book has every kind of cookie recipe you can imagine, including bars, brownies, biscotti and even savory cookies. Today, I get to share one recipe from the book — a sneak preview if you will — for a Double Molasses Ginger cookie that has some surprising add-ins, like chunks of bittersweet chocolate and spicy candied ginger. And guess what? You bake it in a muffin tin.
Yes, a cookie that you bake in a muffin tin. That may sound weird, but as always, Dorie has a good reason. By baking the cookies in a muffin tin, they turn out more uniformly shaped and become like a cross between a ginger cookie and a gingerbread cake.
How I love gingerbread! The sticky, spicy denseness of it. Not a universal favorite, but one that truly sophisticated palates share. When I was in second grade, my mother made gingerbread instead of cupcakes for my school birthday celebration and I proudly brought it in, so excited to share my favorite with my peers. Only then did I learn that most seven year olds would prefer a cupcake over gingerbread any day.
But I digress. The point is, if you are going to bake these intensely flavored, spicy, chocolatey molasses ginger cookies in a muffin tin, you want to use the very best muffin tin you can. OXO’s Non-Stick Pro 12 Cup Muffin Pan is made with a ceramic-reinforced, two-layer, commercial-grade coating so the cookies (or cakes?) release without sticking. The unique micro-textured pattern ensures even baking with no burned edges. And using a cookie scoop, such as the OXO Medium Cookie Scoop, will ensure that your cookies are all the same size.
Sometimes when baking a quick project like these Double Ginger Molasses Cookies, you don’t feel like pulling out the large stand mixer. Or maybe you don’t have a stand mixer. When my children want to bake something on their own, which happens constantly around here, I personally feel a lot more comfortable with them using a hand mixer than my expensive and slightly unwieldy stand mixer.
If you need to rely on a hand mixer for all or part of your baking, I highly recommend the OXO Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer. Its $60 price point is a lot more accessible than that of a stand mixer and with a strong motor for thick batters and precise mixing for finicky projects, the Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer can handle whatever you throw at it. Plus, unlike a stand mixer, the Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer has an on-board beater clip and wrap-and-secure cord, making it compact and easy to store.
So, I made the batter for these Double Ginger Molasses cookies with my OXO Illuminating Digital Hand Mixer, scooped them out with the OXO Medium Cookie Scoop and baked them, just as Dorie told me to do, in my OXO Non-Stick Pro 12-cup muffin tin. Is it any wonder that they came out so well?
Evenly shaped, perfectly baked, spicy little gingerbread cakes. Or cookies. Studded with toothsome crystalized ginger and gooey bits of bittersweet chocolate. These Double Ginger Molasses cookies are a true indulgence for adult palates. I’m bringing two of the three dozen I made — because one dozen has already disappeared natch — to the middle school open house this week, where I expect them to be the talk of the night.
Thanks to OXO for letting me try these excellent baking tools and for giving me a sneak preview of Dorie Greenspan’s new book Dorie’s Cookies. I am also delighted that OXO will donate $100 to Cookies for Kids Cancer in honor of my post!
I hope that you give these outrageous Double Ginger Molasses Cookies a try and be sure to look for Dorie’s book when it comes out October 25. I cannot wait for my copy.
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 TB unsweetened cocoa powder
- 1 to 2 tsp instant espresso, to taste (optional)
- 1 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, cut into chunks, at room temperature
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
- 1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
- 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
- 1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger
- 7 ounces semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, chopped chip-size
- Sugar, for rolling
Instructions
- Whisk the flour, cocoa, espresso (if using), spices, baking soda and salt together.
- Working with a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a hand mixer, beat the butter and both sugars together on medium-low speed for about 3 minutes, scraping the bowl as needed, until fully blended.
- Add the yolk and beat for 1 minute, then add the molasses and vanilla, beating until smooth.
- Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients all at once and pulse the mixer until the risk of flying flour passes.
- Working at low speed, mix the dough until the flour is almost but not completely incorporated.
- Add the crystallized ginger and chocolate and mix until the dry ingredients disappear into the dough and the ginger and chocolate are evenly distributed. If you’ve got bits of dry ingredients on the bottom of the bowl, mix them in with a flexible spatula.
- Gather the dough into a ball, flatten it and wrap it in plastic. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Position the racks to divide the oven into thirds and preheat it to 350 degrees.
- Butter or spray regular muffin tins or, if making free-form cookies, line two baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats.
- Have a medium cookie scoop at hand. Alternatively, you can use a rounded tablespoonful of dough for each cookie.
- If you’re using tins, find a jar or glass that fits into them and can be used to flatten the dough; cover the bottom in plastic wrap.
- Spoon some sugar into a wide shallow bowl.
- For each cookie, mold a scoop or spoonful of dough into a ball between your palms, then turn it in the sugar to coat and put in a muffin cup or on a baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between each ball of dough. If using tins, use the jar or glass to flatten each ball until it almost reaches the sides of the cup. If it’s free-form, press to flatten to about 1/2 inch thick.
- Bake the cookies for about 13 minutes, rotating the tins or sheets top to bottom and front to back after 7 minutes. The cookies should be lightly set around the edges and softer in the center.
- Transfer the tins or sheets to racks and let the cookies rest for 15 minutes before unmolding them and/or placing them on racks to cool completely.
- If you’re baking in batches, make certain to start with cool tins or baking sheets.
Full disclosure time: I received the aforementioned OXO products free of charge in order to participate in this blogger campaign. I will also receive a free copy of Dorie’s Cookies when it comes out. I was not compensated in any way for this post and as always, all opinions expressed herein are entirely my own.
