Having had a baby 8 short weeks ago, Christmas looks a little bit different for us this year. Usually I would have made dozens and dozens of cookies and delivered them to my dearest friends and family. I would have prepared marshmallows from scratch for hot chocolate on Christmas Eve and I would have made homemade cinnamon buns for Christmas morning’s breakfast. This year, there simply wasn’t time for any of this between feeding and changing diapers and getting to know our little daughter. In fact, the Christmas season has mostly snuck up on us and I still don’t feel like I’ve caught up yet. Oh well, there’s always next year.
I have lots to say and write about our early adventures in parenting; we are a totally and completely changed family now. Mostly because we walk around with day-old spit up on all our clothes. M walked into our favourite coffee shop the other day and they said he looked like a zombie as he robotically asked for a large drip. We’re surviving through the days trying to savour all the little moments and embed them in our sleep deprived minds.
Through groggy eyes, I found this recipe in our archives. I made these cookies last year inspired by a recipe in Flourless by Nicole Spiridakis. This is a sweet little hardcover book with lots of naturally gluten free desserts like macaroons, pudding and amaretti cookies. I’ve adapted her recipe slightly so that you can make them two ways: super ginger flavoured or super festive chocolate mint flavoured. These cookies come together easily but if you want to make them ahead of time, I’ve included instructions below for making them slice-and-bake style so you can pull them out of the freezer anytime. Who needs those Pillsbury cookie logs?!
How the slice and bake cookies look.
How to press the criss-cross pattern in the cookies if you’re making the cookies with fresh cookie dough.
Wishing you and yours a very merry holiday season. Here’s to a 2017 filled with good food and new adventures in the kitchen and in parenthood.
| Chocolate Ginger Cookies | Print |
- 60g butter, unsalted and softened
- 130g coconut sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 4oz/116g of bittersweet chocolate
- 60g almond flour
- 30 cocoa powder
- 1tsp baking powder
- 1 tbsp ground ginger
- ½ tsp freshly grated ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ¼ tsp salt
- organic, granulated cane sugar for sprinkling
- Place the butter and coconut sugar in the bowl of your stand mixer. Beat on medium speed until light and fluffy, several minutes.
- Set up a double boiler and place the chocolate in the bowl. Melt the chocolate until smooth and shiny and then set aside to cool.
- Meanwhile, in another large bowl whisk together the almond flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon, cloves and salt.
- Once the butter and sugar is fluffy, add the egg and vanilla and beat untl combined. Lastly, add in the melted chocolate and stir until combined.
- Fold the dry ingredients into the butter and chocolate mixture and stir until evenly combined.
- Turn out dough onto plastic wrap and refrigerate until firm, at least 30 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 350F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.
- Using a small cookie scoop, scoop out walnut sized balls of dough and roll into balls. Place them on the baking sheets 1 inch apart.
- Flatten by pressing a fork into them in a criss-cross fashion.
- Bake for 12 minutes until the house is fragrant and they have spread out.
- Cool on the baking sheets for 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.
- Store in an airtight conainer.
Variation-Peppermint Chocolate: If you’re not a ginger fan, these cookies can also be made into Peppermint-Chocolate cookies. Just omit the cinnamon, clove and ginger. And add 3 drops of food-grade peppermint essential oil. Follow all the instructions as above.
Slice & Bake Instructions: If you want to make the cookie dough ahead of time and stash it in your freezer, make the dough as above. Turn it out onto plastic wrap and shape it into a 4-6cm diameter log (depending on what size you want, remember they will spread). Place in freezer. When you’re ready to bake them, remove them from freezer and slice into 1cm thick rounds. Place them on a parchment lined baking sheet 1 inch apart (no need to make criss-cross pattern with fork). Bake for about 14mins at 350F. Cool on baking sheet for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack. This method works for both the chocolate-ginger and chocolate-peppermint.
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