TRIPLE GINGER-CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES
Do you ever have a cookie that you just can’t get out of your mind? Maybe it’s the first taste of a Levain bakery cookie on a visit to NYC. Maybe it’s your grandmother’s ginger-molasses…or the very first bit of the simple Tollhouse cookie of your youth, fresh from your mother’s oven.
For me, there are a few ultimate cookies. Dorie Greenspan’s World Peace Cookies (any version—her latest 2.0 appears in her latest book, Baking with Dorie) is one of them. This cookie—-A Triple-Ginger Chocolate Chunk Cookie, in Susan Spungen’s excellent book Open Table that came out right as the pandemic hit, is another. Just looking at these photos can warm me head to toe. I can feel the melt of that chocolate, the crisp edge the dusting of sugar gives the edges. And that’s just the photo. Wait until you make them.
Susan is a master of all things food and entertaining. I’ve written about her before (in the ancient, adorably innocent blog of my 20’s), worked with her on many a photo shoot, and devoured her food in all the best movies—she’s the brains and hands behind the food in movie classic like Julie and Julia, It’s Complicated and Eat Pray Love. She’s also a friend and, an icon.
Susan’s book is a must have, at the holidays or any time. Her Baked Pick with Sausage Ragu and Big Salad Nicoise are both on my list for festive days ahead. In case you don’t have it yourself, she generously agreed to contribute these incredible chewy, crinkly, molasses-forward chocolate chunk cookies to my 12 days of cookies effort so you can make them at home, stuff them in your cookie boxes or—if you’re having a more hunkering down kind of holiday again this year—hoard them all for yourselves. I won’t judge.
SUSAN SPUNGEN’S TRIPLE GINGER-CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES
Reprinted with permission from Open Table, by Susan Spungen
2 cups plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1½ teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
¼ teaspoon ground cloves
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
¾ cup (1½ sticks) unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 large egg yolks
½ cup unsulphured molasses
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
8 ounces dark chocolate chunks (chop a quality chocolate bar for the best results)
1/3 cup coarsely chopped candied ginger
Granulated sugar
Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and cocoa powder in a large bowl. Set aside.
With a stand or hand mixer, cream together the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, 2 to 3 minutes. Beat in the fresh ginger and egg yolks until combined. Add the molasses and vanilla, then add the flour mixture and mix on low speed just until no flour pockets remain. Stir in the chocolate and candied ginger. Chill the dough until firm, at least 3 hours, but preferably overnight.
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
Place some granulated sugar in a bowl. Pinch off pieces of dough about the size of a golf ball (about 1½ ounces) and roll in the sugar. Place on a plate and freeze while the oven heats up (about 10 minutes). Roll in the sugar again and place the cookie dough balls 2 inches apart on the prepared cookie sheets. Bake the cookies for 10 to 12 minutes, rotating the pan after 5 minutes, until the tops begin to crack and the edges are just set. Be careful not to overbake. Let the cookies cool briefly on the baking sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely.
images belong to Susan Spungen and Avery, and should not be pinned or posted without attribution. **
Food + Prop Styling // SUSAN SPUNGEN
Photos // GENTL AND HYERS