Food and Recipes Desserts Cookies Dark Chocolate-Ginger-Molasses Cookies Be the first to rate & review! Homemade cookies are always a good idea when you want to give a food gift. For attractive packaging, look for decorative tins or boxes, line them with colorful tissue and use festive paper muffin and candy liners to help cushion the contents. You can put shaped cookies in the center of the tin to keep them from breaking apart and surround them with sturdier treats. Cookies that are the same shape as the container make a good barrier. Everyone loves the traditional cookies, such as chocolate chip cookies and oatmeal cookies but, this holiday season, try out a new recipe. These tasty cookies check off all the boxes for a winning holiday treat: rich, dark chocolate flavor, a slight hint of heat from both crystallized and ground ginger, and the deep smoky sweetness of molasses. The cookies will be very soft when they come out of the oven, and as they cool, they firm up and develop a nice crunchy exterior and soft interior. By Pam Lolley Pam Lolley Pam Lolley developed and tested recipes for Southern Living Magazine in the Souths most trusted Test Kitchen for 19 years. She worked closely with the editors planning and packaging stories, collaborating with art and photo teams on food styling and recipe reproduction to ensure reader satisfaction, content quality control, and recipe authenticity history and cooking. Her area of expertise was baking and and pastry development and she acted as the point person for these areas in the Test Kitchen. With 30+ years of experience in the culinary field, Pam created and tested 1000s of recipes for Southern Living. Southern Living's editorial guidelines Published on November 6, 2019 Print Rate It Share Share Tweet Pin Email Photo: Antonis Achilleos; Prop Styling: Kay E. Clarke; Food Styling: Emily Nabors Hall Active Time: 15 mins Total Time: 1 hrs 10 mins Yield: 2 1/2 dozen Ingredients 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened 1/2 cup lightly packed light brown sugar 1 large egg 2 tablespoons unsulphured molasses 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa 3 tablespoons finely chopped crystallized ginger 1 teaspoon baking soda 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger 3 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped into small chunks 1/4 cup granulated sugar Directions Preheat oven to 350°F. Beat butter and brown sugar in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment on medium speed until smooth, about 1 minute. Add egg, and beat until just combined. Beat in molasses and vanilla. Stir together flour, cocoa, crystallized ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, salt, and ground ginger in a bowl. Gradually add flour mixture to butter mixture, beating on low speed until just combined, about 1 minute. Fold in chocolate. Shape dough into 30 (1 1/2-inch) balls (dough will be sticky). Place granulated sugar in a bowl; roll balls twice in granulated sugar. Arrange balls 2 inches apart on 2 baking sheets lined with parchment paper. Working in 2 batches, bake in preheated oven until tops are crackly but cookies are still soft to the touch, 10 to 12 minutes. Cool on baking sheets 5 minutes. Transfer to wire racks; cool completely, about 30 minutes. Rate it Print