Aloha from Hawaii! My family is fortunate enough to be taking a vacation on the glorious island of Kauai, and it could not be more wonderful. We’re enjoying the beautiful mountain scenery, glittering ocean waves, a warm salty breeze and the sun! I hear it was a white Christmas back in Seattle but I’m perfectly content to have spent my Christmas snorkeling and lounging by the water.
However, I do love holiday cookie recipes, so here’s another one that I tried out before we left! I adapted the recipe from Martha Stewart, increasing the cocoa powder and using natural instead of Dutch-processed. I used candied ginger chips instead of grated fresh ginger, and I also increased the amount of sugar, since otherwise the dough was a little too bitter from the molasses. I loved the combination of ginger and chocolate, and these cookies turned out wonderfully chewy, and when they were warm from the oven the insides of the cookies were still gooey, and combined with the melty chocolate chips they were amazing. The crackly tops and the sparkly sugar make these cookies nice and festive for the holidays, although I would welcome these any time of the year! Here’s the recipe I used.
Chewy Chocolate Ginger Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Makes about 40 cookies
Ingredients
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
2 tbsp natural cocoa powder
1 ½ tsp ground ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
½ tsp cloves
¼ tsp nutmeg
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
½ cup unsulfured molasses
¾ cup semisweet or bittersweet chocolate chips
½ cup candied ginger pieces
2 tbsp granulated or turbinado sugar, for sprinkling (I ended up using both)
Directions
Sift together the flour, cocoa powder, spices, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl.
In a medium bowl, cream together the butter, sugars, vanilla, and molasses until well combined. Stir in the dry ingredients and mix until well combined, then add the chocolate chips and candied ginger. Mix until the chips and ginger are evenly distributed throughout the dough.
Cover and chill at least 2 hours, or overnight. When ready to make the cookies, preheat the oven to 325˚F. Using a small cookie scoop (about 1 tbsp of dough per cookie), scoop out the dough and roll into a ball, then roll in the granulated or turbinado sugar. Flatten slightly and place on cookie sheets about 1 ½ inches apart.
Bake for 8-9 minutes, until cookies have nice crackly tops, then remove from oven and allow to cool a couple minutes before removing from cookie sheets and transferring to racks or plates to cool completely. Enjoy!
Look at that lovely crackly sugar top! 
Soft and gooey inside
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