Inside the Baker’s Kitchen: Ginger Molasses and Dark Chocolate Cookies

Hello friends!  It’s time for our third and final installment of Inside the Baker’s Kitchen with KitchenAid!  I want to show you my very favorite kitchen appliance, and also make my favorite spicy, sweet molasses cookies. 

This 5 qt. KitchenAid® Stand Mixer  is where luxury meets necessity in my kitchen.  I use it for everything from cake batters to bread loaves.  It’s just a work-horse.  The hum of this stand mixer of is exactly familiar to me… and it usually means cookies are in my future.  KitchenAid now has beautiful ceramic bowls to use with the 5 qt. stand mixers.  They’re beautiful, durable, and feel so special in my baker’s kitchen.  Really the most special thing!  

Chewy edges, soft and cakey centers.  Holiday spiced, dark chocolate studded, utterly perfect because they’re cookies.

Naturally they’re topped with just a touch of sea salt.  Sweet meets salty meets perfect all around.

For more Baker’s Kitchen inspiration:  Sweet and Savory Buttermilk Biscuits and Creamy Spiced Squash Soup with Parmesan Thyme Popovers.

Brown sugar is essential in these cookies.  It’s a solid base for the molasses and spice flavors.

Brown sugar is creamed with softened butter until light and fluffy.  In the meantime, the dry ingredients are sifted together.  Flour, leavening, salt, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, and (spicy bonus!) cracked black pepper.

I love this ceramic stand mixer mixing bowl.  It’s weighty, sturdy, and just a really beautiful thing to work with in the kitchen.

This molasses cookie dough will be soft and fluffy as it comes together.

Because the dough is so tender. It needs a bit of resting time in the refrigerator to chill and settle.  After an hour in the refrigerator, the dough will be ready to scoop onto cookie sheets and bake off into cake cookies.

I feel like every cookie should go into the oven sprinkled with a bit of sea salt.

Salt to balance the sweet.

These cookies are tender, cake-y, fragrant and spicy, and studded with chocolate. They feel like the perfect addition to our holiday good times.

This post is in partnership with KitchenAid: adored and all up in my baker’s kitchen.

Molasses Ginger and Dark Chocolate Cookies

Print Recipe

Soft and cakey spiced cookies studded with dark chocolate!

• Author: Joy the Baker

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
• big pinch of fresh ground black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon coarse sea salt, plus more for sprinkling
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
• 3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses
• 1 1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Instructions

1. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom cloves, pepper, and salt. Make sure no lumps remain.
2. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream together butter and brown sugar on low speed. Beat for 3 to 5 minutes until light, fluffy, and creamy.
3. Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides of the bowl, and add the egg. Beat the egg into the mixture for 1 minute. Beat in the vanilla extract.
4. Add the molasses and beat on low until thoroughly incorporated.
5. Add the dry ingredients all at once and beat on low until just incorporated.
6. Stop the mixer and add the chocolate chips. Use a spatula to fold the chocolate chips into the dough.
7. Refrigerate the dough for at least one hour before baking.
8. Place racks in the center and upper third of the oven and preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
9. Scoop cookie dough by the heaping tablespoonful onto the prepared baking sheet, leaving about 2-inches of space between each cookie ball.
10. Bake for 12 minutes until just browned around the edges and the tops begin the crinkle. Remove from the oven and allow to rest on the baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool before storing. Store in an airtight container for up to 5 days.