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So, yes, it looks like this week has turned into gingerbread week here on Fox and Briar. I was going to hold off and post these next week, so as not to overload you with ginger recipes, but let me explain to you what happened. As I mentioned on Monday, we went and got our Christmas tree this weekend. I was all set to decorate it but soon discovered that one of my light strands was burnt out. Despite both myself and Mr, Briar spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to fix it, it was beyond repair. So I threw in the towel and watched Harry Potter while drinking Baileys, obviously.
On Monday I managed to run to Target and pick up a few new strands of lights – luckily I got four boxes, which seemed like overkill but turned out to be the perfect amount. I wanted to try a new light stringing method, which uses quite a few more lights than my regular old “lasso” method. If you follow me on pinterest you may have noticed that I pinned a bunch of “perfect way to light a tree” pins. Turns out the best way to light a tree is to wrap each branch in lights. I’ve never tried this before, but I thought I would give it a try this year since I am so in love with the shape of our tree.
I am not a patient person, and this turned out to be more time consuming than I was wanting it to be. So while I was doing this, I needed Christmas music in the background and I needed cookies baking in the oven, to give me the holiday feels. After spending what seemed like hours stringing one strand of lights, I took a break and made these cookies. There are three kinds of cookies that I must make every Christmas, and this is one of them. My mom has been making these cookies during the holidays for years, and even though she always sends me some in the mail, I like to have them baking in the oven sometimes as well.
These cookies are packed with gingerbread flavor, but they are soft and chewy, just how I like them. The recipe calls for crystalized ginger chips, which adds a nice extra ginger kick, but if you can’t find them you can leave them out, the cookie itself is still so good. One year I couldn’t find the ginger chips so I just bought regular crystalized ginger and chopped it up into small pieces, that works too. The dough requires an hour of chilling time, which I do really recommend. If the dough is not cold it is stickier, and the cookies have a better texture if the dough has been chilled.
Soft and Chewy Ginger Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 ¼ cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup unsalted butter softened
- 1 cup granulated sugar plus extra for rolling cookies in
- 1/4 cup dark molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1/2 cup crystallized ginger chips optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375°F
- Whisk together dry ingredients, set aside.
- In another bowl, cream together butter and sugar until light and creamy.
- Add molasses and egg, mix until combined.
- Pour in dry ingredients, mix well.
- Stir in ginger chips, if using.
- Chill dough for 1 hour.
- Roll dough into 1 inch balls and roll each ball in extra granulated sugar.
- Place on a lined baking sheet 2 inches apart. Bake for 8-10 minutes, remove from oven while still soft. Allow to cool on the baking sheet.
- Makes about 30 cookies.
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Recipe from The Ginger People
While these cookies baked, I continued my quest for the most magical Christmas tree ever. I did the lazy girl’s version of this lighting method – I just don’t have the patience to spend hours putting up Christmas tree lights. Although I probably would not impress Martha Stewart with my tree lighting skills, I think the tree turned out pretty darn magical.
I hope you are enjoying “ginger week” here at Fox and Briar – just wait until you see what I have planned for you on Friday! Oh, and if you are not a fan of gingerbread flavored things, don’t worry, I have good things coming to you next week. But if you DO enjoy gingerbread flavored things, why don’t you whip up a batch of these cookies and then enjoy them with a gingerbread latte in front of your magical tree? That’s what I’m going to be doing.
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These really do look so soft and chewy! I love ginger cookies!
Thank you Marsha! They really are!
Yass. I just got into baking mode today. I am not a great baker, but determined to improve. Today’s cookies were not perfect but very tasty. I will try yours too as I love the idea of the ginger pieces. Thanks for joining us at #SaucySaturdays.
Ps I need more details about your lighting method!
Thanks so much Christine! These are seriously one of my favorite cookies, so I’m sure you will love them! And thank you for your lightling compliment!! I actually struggle with light quite a bit. I use natural light, and I don’t have a tripod yet (one is in the mail!). So I put my wood board on the floor next to the sliding glass door, and I use white foam core boards (one or two) to bounce light if I need it (I can’t remember if I used it for these photos, but it has been really dark in Seattle the last few weeks so I have been using it almost every time.) Sometimes I have to bump up my ISO but I don’t like to go over 400. I still have so much to learn, but that is my current method, usually! Also the main reason I use a white background most of the time is because it has been so dark around here and I need as much light as I can get.
Oh my goodness! Of course I remimber bringing you the little can of Ginger Chips from “Ginger People” several years ago! I knew you liked the cookies I’d sent the year before & I was pretty sure you’d enjoy the packaging as much as I! Of course I had found alternatives over the years & found The Ginger People also have a bag they call “nuggets” as well as crystallized slices, which I’ve also chopped & diced! “Reed’s” also makes a great natural crystallized ginger.
Your cookies look classis! I don’t think Mama has even turned out just the right puff &
crackle~~good job, Miz Fox!❤️
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Chewy biscuits are my favourite and I can’t wait to try these. Thanks for linking up with us for Fabulous Foodie Fridays, have a lovely weekend!
Thanks so much Lauren! Chewy cookies (biscuits!) are my favorite too!
Love these super classic and chewy ginger cookies. Can’t wait to try these.
Thank you so much Anu!
I love a good ginger cookie! These look amazing! I haven’t heard of ginger chips before. I will have to search for them! Love that you have all your lights and tree up…I’m hoping for this coming weekend!
Thank you Kathy! The ginger chips are sometimes in the baking section of grocery stores, and I also see them at World Market sometimes. And there is always Amazon! The decorating process always takes me awhile, so we might finish at the same time, ha!
Yay for gingerbread!! I LOVE ginger cookies during the holidays! These look awesome – and I love that they use ginger pieces! I just bought some the other week!
Thank you Ashley! I love the ginger chips! I need to replenish mine, I used them up for these cookies!
Love the lighting in these photos! I could totally use one of these right now. We tried to get our tree last night at IKEA but they didn’t have a tree skirt, so we’re still looking! I think I’m going to have to try a farm…
Thanks so much Katy! I remember having so much trouble finding a tree skirt! Things seem to sell out by this time, which is annying because this is when everyone wants to buy it! I think I ended up getting mine at Target a few years ago, and now that I have one I don’t want to have to bother buying one ever again! Also, if you don’t end up going to a farm, I think Home Depot and Costco have good trees, at least in the US, not sure how that relates to Canada!
It is the worst when your Christmas lights are burnt out! But these gingerbread cookies look like they might do some cheering up! Soft and chewy cookies are my favorite kind!
Thank you Izzy! They do help with cheering up 🙂
hey, i’ll be making your ginger cookies for sure, they look fantastic!! can’t wait to see your tree!!
Thank you Auntie! I am so glad you are going to make them, can’t wait to hear about it! I’ll try to get a picture up of the tree soon!
Girlfriend, bring on the Ginger EVERYTHING! I am loving these cookies! They look unbelievably soft and perfectly chewy, exactly how I like my cookies! These babies wouldn’t last very long in my house. #Danger. Pinned!
P.S. Don’t you just HATE light strands when ONE bulb goes? I stopped playing that game “find the one stupid bulb that needs to be replaced” a long time ago. I have zero patience for that nonsense. I would have sent Boy to the store while I had some bailey’s and watched Harry Potter. 🙂 lol. Next time, send the man to run the errand. But don’t you dare tell him I said that! <3
Haha! Cheyanne, you seriously crack me up. Too bad he reads the comments! 🙂 But good idea, I’m pretty sure he would do it, he kind of likes me. So glad we are on the same page with the light strand shenanigans, who has time for that! Thank you so much, and thank you for the pin!!
Hey Lady… I was hoping to see a pic of your tree! Sounds like you had fun despite the workup to decorating. I always have these grand ideas, but rarely do they get executed. I like your lazy girl’s decorating game! These cookies, my dear (!!!) – absolutely love the candied ginger you used in your recipe. Just delicious! Santa will be pleased! 😀
Gah, I know Traci! I wanted to share one but right now it only has lights on it, ha! Maybe after I finish decorating, which could be anywhere from 1-22 days. 🙂 I’m glad I’m not the only one why has great ideas that don’t always get a follow through. Thank you so much!
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Those cookies look Scrumpdeliouses!! Although you still may get some in the mail, I totally relate to your wanting to bake, smell & eat them in your own home!
I’ve cut up the regular crystallized ginger, too, & last year decided to make a ginger-sugar for rolling, with some powdered ginger & pieces of crystallized added~~then in my mini -food processor I give it a whirl& Voila!!
I’m so looking forward to seeing your magnificent tree decorated!! Love your Harry Potter & Baileys coping skill! Balance is the key in surviving the holidays enjoyably! ??
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Yum, I love the ginger sugar, what a great idea! <3
These cookies are perfect to have while decorating the tree. They look so delicious and I love how soft and chewy they are!
Thanks so much Kelly! Chewy cookies are the best!
I love my cookies to be soft and chewy and the ginger element to these sound delicious! Thank you for sharing!
Thank you so much!
I love ginger cookies, Meghan – these looks so good and they must have smelled delicious while baking. I haven’t started holiday decorating yet – that’s my plan for this weekend!
Thank you Geraldine! Holiday decorating is always a process for me, I can never get it done in one day!
Bring on the ginger! It’s such a underused flavor that I absolutely adore.
Yay! I’m glad you feel the same way about ginger, it is one of my favorites. Thank you Nicole!
These cookies look like absolute perfection, I wish I could just reach through the screen and take a bite out of one!
And we’re getting our tree this weekend (hopefully…), I’ll have to try out your method!
Thank you so much Sam! I’m pretty happy with how the lights turned out. If you want some tips on the tree lighting, check out my pinterest, I pinned a bunch of tutorials that were really helpful – even though I only sort of followed them, haha! Have so much fun getting your tree, it is one of my favorite things at Christmas time!
Mm these ginger cookies look so good! I’ve never use crystalized ginger chips and I’m excited to try that out! I am also pumped with all of these ginger posts. Please don’t refrain but posting all this ginger goodness!! Also I love how watching Harry Potter is your go to for when you’ve just had enough. It is totally the same for me, everyone needs to escape and pretend they are Hermione for a moment.
Yes, Hermione is the best! My husband asked me “Why do you just want to watch Harry Potter sometimes?” And I was like “I really can’t explain that”. Haha, I’m glad you fee the same! Crystalized ginger is so great, you should definitely check it out! Thanks Linda!