Chocolate Ginger Cookies Recipe

This recipe is part of my annual holiday cookie countdown called Sally’s Cookie Palooza. Every year since 2013, I work on a handful of new cookie recipes and publish the 10 best ones for readers to enjoy. It’s the biggest, tastiest event of the year on my website! This cookie recipe was, quite simply, a JOY to create. It only took a couple of test batches to get it right, and how often does that happen? (The answer is: not nearly often enough.) The flavors of chocolate, ginger, and molasses come together so perfectly—an underrated flavor trio! This is a classic drop cookie dough that comes together with basic ingredients. Pick up a few holiday baking spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves—all ingredients you need for a batch of gingerbread oatmeal cookies, too!

Here Are the Ingredients You Need & Why

Flour: All-purpose flour provides the main structure in this cookie dough. Cocoa Powder: We’re adding just enough cocoa powder to the dough to give it a chocolatey flavor, while still letting the other flavors come through. Don’t expect a fudgy chocolate flavor like a batch of chocolate crinkle cookies; it’s mild here. Baking Soda: A touch of extra baking soda helps the cookies puff up in the oven, then fall and develop that crinkly texture when they cool. Don’t worry if yours don’t crinkle—you can see in the photos that they all look a little different. Spices: This careful blend of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves is exactly what every molasses cookie needs! Fresh grated ginger is too strong for these cookies—in testing, we found that its sharp flavor overpowered the chocolate. Salt: To balance the sweetness. Butter: Creamed butter forms the base of these soft cookies. Dark Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is what helps produce the softest cookie ever. You can use light or dark brown sugar, but I like using dark for the extra molasses flavor it provides. Molasses: Make sure you’re using a dark molasses, aka “robust” molasses, but avoid blackstrap, which is too intense. Egg: For structure and richness. Vanilla Extract: Feel free to use homemade vanilla extract in these cookies. Granulated Sugar: To coat the dough balls before baking. Sweetness and sparkle! Chocolate: Melt chocolate once the cookies are cool, and dip or drizzle to take the chocolate-ginger flavor to the next level.

Plus, an optional garnish: Finely chop candied ginger for a dazzling (and flavorful!) finishing touch. I love using crystallized ginger in baking for that unexpected sweet-yet-spicy flavor, like in these lemon ginger cookies and this ginger pear galette.

Step-by-Step Photos

Like many cookie doughs prepared with molasses (looking at you, gingerbread cookies) this is a sticky dough mixture and must chill in the refrigerator before you shape it into balls: It solidifies after a 2-hour nap in the refrigerator, and a cookie scoop makes portioning the dough really easy. Use about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, roll into a ball, and then coat generously in granulated sugar just as if you were making a batch of peanut butter blossoms. Arrange 9–12 cookie dough balls on a lined baking sheet. If you’re shopping for new baking supplies, I use and love these baking sheets. The cookies will puff up in the oven from all the baking soda, and then fall as they cool. The rising and falling helps create those beautiful crinkles. Some will have more cracks than others.

Don’t Forget the Chocolate Dip!

These neapolitan cookies and pinwheel cookies will tell you… a chocolate dip is the best finishing touch. Once the chocolate has set, the cookies can be stacked, stored, transported, or gifted. Make sure the cookies have fully cooled before you dip them into the melted chocolate. I had extra chocolate, so I drizzled the rest on top. Sprinkle the finely chopped crystallized ginger onto the chocolate-dipped cookies while the chocolate is still melty, then let dry. Can I use white chocolate instead? Absolutely! White chocolate is another delicious pairing with ginger, like in these soft white chocolate chip molasses cookies.