Cakes & Bakes: Chocolate ginger cookies

Over the years of making my own cookies, I have hit on a basic recipe that I simply tweak depending on what we like and what we have in the store cupboard. This week, after a short rummage through food storage baskets, I decided to experiment with making chocolate and ginger cookies.

These cookies have a double dose of warming ginger; a spoonful of ground ginger and a handful of crystallised ginger. The chocolate hit come courtesy pure cocoa powder; however, 50 grams of dark or milk chocolate chips on top of this would be a great idea.

As the recipe makes a couple of dozen cookies (way too much for 2 people), I cook off half the dough and store the rest in a reusable ziplock bag either in the fridge or freezer.

Click here or on the image below to save my chocolate ginger cookies recipe to Pinterest

Chocolate ginger cookies

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Cook Time 15

Course Snack

Cuisine British

Servings 24

Ingredients

135 g/4¾oz salted butter softened
150 g/5¼oz soft brown sugar
1 egg
150 g/5¼oz plain flour
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
3 tbsps cocoa powder
1 tsp ground ginger
50 g/1¾oz crystallised ginger

Instructions

In a large mixing bowl and using a wire whisk, cream the softened butter and soft brown sugar
Whisk in the egg until completely mixed in
Sift over the flour, bicarbonate of soda, cocoa powder and ground ginger. Fold in using a spatula or wooden spoon until fully combined
Stir in the crystallised ginger
Cover and chill the dough in the fridge for about an hour
Preheat the oven to 150°C/300°F/ Gas mark 3
Grease & line a large baking sheet with baking parchment
Scoop out about a dessert spoon of the cold dough at a time, roll it between your palms to form a ball
Put the ball on the prepared baking sheet (only put 4 or 5 balls on the sheet at a time, leaving lots of space between each ball, as the cookies spread a fair amount during cooking)
Bake for 15-18 minutes, or until they turn lightly golden around the edges
Allow to cool and firm up for 5 minutes on the tray before transferring them to a wire rack for at least a further 10 minutes
Repeat stages 8-11 until all the cookie dough has been used

Keyword biscuits, chocolate, cookies, ginger

Cakes & Bakes: Double chocolate Vietnamese coffee cookies

This recipe for double chocolate Vietnamese coffee cookies comes from a brand new cook book by James Beard Award nominee, Jason Licker, entitled Baking With Licker: Home Baking With Asian Accents.

One of the things that drew me to the recipe – on top of the fact it contains 2 types of chocolate and strong coffee – was the way the recipe ingredients are all given in grams. So many American recipes use cups; what’s a cup of butter or a cup of peanut butter? It can be a messy and inaccurate method of measurement.

Saying that, the grams were also my downfall in the making of the cookies. I decided that 30 grams of egg coresponded to 3 eggs – so that’s how many I used. In fact, it’s one, medium-size egg!

That’s why, after chilling the cookie dough in the fridge for many an hour, there was no way I’d be able to roll 50g chunks (more like ‘blobs’) between my palms! Nevertheless, other than spreading a WHOLE lot on the baking sheet, they were absolutely delicious.

Vietnam is currently the largest producer of Robusta coffee and the second largest producer of coffee in the world. The coffee produced in the country is rich roast with chocolaty tones – so perfect for teaming with dark and white chocolate. If you can’t find it, full-bodied espresso beans will be a good swap; just set your coffee grinder to the finest setting.

Click here or on the image below to save this double chocolate Vietnamese coffee cookies recipe to Pinterest

Double chocolate Vietnamese coffee cookies

2020-10-22 14:58:59

Yields 12

Cook Time

15 min

Cook Time

15 min

Ingredients

65g/2⅓oz butter
100g/3½oz sugar
110g/3⅔oz dark brown sugar
50g/1¾oz egg (1 medium egg)
3g/½tsp bicarbonate of soda
2.5g/½tsp salt
40g cocoa powder
115g plain flour
5g Vietnamese coffee, ground into a fine powder (I used finely ground Espresso beans)
125g white chocolate

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Instructions

In a stand mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, sugar and brown sugar for 10 minutes until the mixture is light and creamy. Every few minutes, use a spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure a uniform mixture
Add the eggs into the butter and sugar mixture in three increments. Once again, scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure a uniform mixture
Add the bicarbonate of soda,salt, cocoa powder, plain flour and Vietnamese coffee slowly, so that you gradually incorporate these dry ingredients until they are just combined into the mixture. Finally, scrape down the sides of the bowl to ensure a uniform mixture
Mix in the white chocolate chips and then remove the cookie dough from the stand mixer. Place the dough in a medium-size bowl and chill for at least 4 hours or overnight
Preheat the oven to 185ºC/365ºF/Gas mark 5
When you are ready to bake, weigh out 50g chunks of dough and roll them into balls. Place them on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet and make sure you leave some room for the cookies to spread out. Push the balls down with your palm evenly until they are half the original height of the balls
Bake for 12-15 minutes. Half way through, turn the tray from back to front so they are evenly baked. You will know the cookies are done when the edges are set, but the centre is still soft
Remove the cookies from the oven and either transfer to a wire rack or allow them to completely cool on the cookie sheet

By Jason Licker

Adapted from Baking With Licker: Home Baking With Asian Accents

H is for Home Harbinger https://hisforhomeblog.com/

Cakes & Bakes: Double chocolate cookies

I had another request for this week’s Cakes & Bakes to be cookies (Justin is SO demanding!) I flipped through the pages of The Great Big Cookie Book by Hilaire Walden and found this recipe for double chocolate cookies. He’s not the biggest fan of chocolate cakes & biscuits but the words ‘beggars’ and ‘choosers’ spring to mind!

Double chocolate cookies

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Ingredients

115 g/4oz/½ cup unsalted butter
115 g/4oz/½ cup light muscovado sugar
1 egg
5 ml/1tsp vanilla essence
150 g/5oz/1¼ cup self-raising flour
75 g/3oz/¾ cup porridge oats
115 g/4oz plain chocolate roughly chopped
115 g/4oz white chocolate roughly chopped
https://hisforhomeblog.com/images/cakes_and_bakes/double_chocolate_cookies/double_chocolate_cookies_ingredients.jpg

Instructions

Preheat oven to 190ºC/375ºF/Gas mark 5
Lightly grease two baking sheets
In a mixing bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale & fluffy
Add the egg and vanilla essence and beat well
Sift the flour over the mixture and fold in lightly with a metal spoon
Add the oats and chopped plain & white chocolate and stir until evenly mixed
Place small spoonfuls of the mixture in 18-20 rocky heaps on the prepared baking sheets, leaving space for spreading
https://hisforhomeblog.com/images/cakes_and_bakes/double_chocolate_cookies/double_chocolate_cookie_dough.jpg
Bake for 15-20 minutes until beginning to turn pale golden brown
Leave to cool for 2-3 minutes on the baking sheets then transfer to wire racks to cool completely