Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Candied Ginger Cookies

For the first time ever, Mary Jo, one of our Sutter Home Kitchen chefs, is sharing her secret holiday cookie recipe with the world. If you do decide to treat your family and friends to this very inviting recipe, Mary Jo does suggest baking a few batches. That’s because these melt-in-your-mouth cookies are totally irresistible since they combine a warm, delicious, soft, chewy inside with a candied ginger-encrusted crunchy outside. The good news: Even though Mary Jo’s Soft and Chewy Molasses Spice Candied Ginger Cookies will disappear almost as fast as you serve them, they only take about 20 minutes to bake.

The kids will love dunking them in milk. You, on the other hand, can enjoy them with Sutter Home Gewürztraminer.
So let the family and guests have their way with the cookie jar. After all, it is the holidays.

Ingredients:

• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup Turbinado sugar (for rolling cookies in)
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon finely ground black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 12 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
• 1/3 cup packed brown sugar
• 1 large egg yolk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup molasses
• 1/4 finely chopped candied ginger

Cooking instructions:

1. Adjust oven rack to middle position and heat to 375 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper. Place Turbinado sugar into a shallow baking dish.
2. Whisk flour, baking soda, spices and salt in medium bowl until thoroughly combined.
3. In standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat butter with brown sugar and granulated sugar at medium speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium low, and add the egg yolk and vanilla. Increase speed to medium and beat until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds. Reduce speed to medium low and add molasses; beat until fully incorporated, about 20 seconds, scraping bottom and sides of bowl once with rubber spatula. Reduce speed to lowest setting; add flour and beat until incorporated, about 30 seconds, scraping bowl down once. Give dough a final stir to ensure that no pockets of flour remain at the bottom. Stir in the chopped candied ginger. Dough will be soft.
4. Scoop heaping tablespoon of dough into the baking dish with the Turbinado sugar. Roll between palms to form a sugar-covered ball. Place on lined cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake one sheet at a time until cookies are browned and still puffy, and edges have begun to set but centers are still soft (cookies will look raw between the cracks and seem underdone), about 11 minutes. Do not over-bake.
5. Cool cookies on baking sheet for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool.

These cookies store well up to 5 days in a zipper-lock plastic bag.

Yields 22 cookies