Chewy Brown Sugar Molasses Ginger Cookies

As part of my week of Zen catering I had to make cookies for a tea ceremony.

I love spice cookies, but I like them chewy, I'm not a big fan of crunchy cookies, even though I know if you dunk them everything changes, I just find chewy is what I want in my cookie.

After some fiddling this is what I came up with, it's a fairly assertive cookie so if you are spice shy feel free to use less in your first batch. Also these are so addictive and keep well in a sealed container I would highly recommend doubling the recipe.

Preheat the over to 350 F.

In a bowl mix together 2 cups all purpose flour, 1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, 11/2 teaspoons ground ginger, 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg.

In another bowl (I used a standing mixer for this but you can use a hand held or just a fork) cream together 1 1/2 sticks of unsalted organic butter (3/4 cup) and 1 cup of dark brown sugar. When well combined add one lightly beaten large egg and 1/4 cup molasses, stir to fully incorporate.

Slowly stir in the dry ingredients. When all mixed this produces a rather wet and sticky concoction, not to worry.

In yet another bowl measure out 1/2 cup (ish) of organic non-bleached cane sugar for rolling the cookies in.

Roll 1/2 Tablespoon amounts of the dough into the sugar and place on a parchment paper covered baking sheet. Place a good 2-3 inches apart as they are very spreadable. Bake for about 15 minutes until the cookies have flattened and are just firm. My oven is maybe a little on the cool side so check in on these at the 10 minute mark to see how they are doing. I found 15 minutes was just when they started to get nice and aromatic, but hadn't yet started to brown (which you don't really want).

It's excessive but it you wanted to make these larger you could use them as a base for a dessert:

Bottom layer cookie, topped with a dollop of lemon curd, then topped with unsweetened whipped cream then garnished with a fine dice of crystallized ginger. Or if you were feeling really over the top you could squish the whole thing together with another cookie on top and make a very gooey decadent sandwich, just a thought.