Christmas is one of my most anticipated times of the year. I look forward to the whole month of December, setting up the Christmas tree, the stockings and playing my Christmas vinyl. I’m a Christmas ‘purist’, I only play Christmas music during the month of December, I refuse to start any earlier. Mostly. The longer I’ve been in Seattle, with the sun setting earlier and earlier, the lights of the Christmas tree and joyful Christmas music is a nice balm to the soul when you haven’t seen the sun in what feels like months. So I’m introducing a series post! This marks the first of four Christmas themed posts and four delicious Christmas cookies.
Stevie Wonder’s Christmas album is one that although he is singing very familiar songs, songs we all know and love, the songs sound uniquely his. I love that this album, with the harmonica solo in “Ave Maria” (and a few other songs) hints at Stevie Wonder’s next album, a harmonica/jazz album spelled with the artist’s name backwards. The album was released without much notice, until later in his career. To me this is partly what makes Stevie’s album stand out, he is allowing his passion to shine through regardless of what the instrument is. So what would pair well with a Christmas album that has its own spice and zing?
I wanted a cookie that had some familiarity, like many Christmas songs but also had a hint of something deeper, almost passion-like. Enter my Spiced Triple Ginger cookies. With crystallized ginger, fresh grated ginger and ground ginger, these cookies will stand out on a plate of all other Christmas cookies. I’ve amped up the spices so that each bite not only sings with ginger but has an extra kick with black pepper. Crispy, chewy and crunchy, these will be hard to resist. When you are listening to Christmas music this season, put on Stevie Wonder’s Someday at Christmas and prep the oven to bake these irresistible cookies.
(Spotify doesn’t have this in their collection, here is a Youtube link)
Spiced Triple Ginger Cookies
Makes 24 cookies
Ingredients
- 2 1/4 cups of all purpose flour
- 3 tsp of ground ginger
- 1.5 tsp of baking soda
- 1 tsp of ground cinnamon
- 1 tsp of ground nutmeg
- 1/2 tsp of ground cloves
- 1/2 tsp of ground allspice
- 1/2 tsp of ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp of kosher salt
- 3/4 cup of light brown sugar (packed)
- 2 sticks of unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 1 egg
- 1/2 cup of molasses
- 4 tsp of peeled, grated ginger (about a 2 inch piece)
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 3/4 cup of crystallized ginger, finely chopped
- 1 cup of raw sugar
Instructions
- Whisk first nine ingredients together in a bowl.
- In the mixing bowl for your electric mixer, add the butter and brown sugar. Mix on medium to high until the butter looks light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for another minute. Add the egg, molasses, grated ginger and vanilla extract. Mix until combined.
- Add half the dry ingredients to the mixing bowl and mix until just combined. Add the other half of the dry ingredients and again mix until the ingredients are just starting to combine.
- Add in the crystallized ginger and fold into the dough. The dough will be soft and quite sticky. Cover the bowl and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Once your dough has chilled, turn the oven onto 350 degrees. Cover your cookie sheets (I recommend using two) with parchment paper. Place the raw sugar into a bowl.
- Take about a tablespoon sized amount of dough and roll it into a ball, place it into the sugar bowl and roll to coat. Place on the parchment paper and repeat with the next ball. Place dough balls about 1.5 inches apart from each other.
- Bake for 10-12 minutes until the cookies have turned into lovely circles and are just starting to crack.
- Transfer cookies to a rack and let cool. Enjoy and share with friends and family!