Chocolate Ginger Cookies

Dark chocolate combined with ginger and warm spices gives these chocolate ginger cookies a unique twist. Serve warm with a cup of coffee and you’ll be in holiday heaven. If you love gingerbread, you must try these chocolate ginger cookies.

This recipe is adapted from a cookie I had from a small bakery in Leesburg, VA called Lola’s Cookies. It was this little shop in historic downtown where we’d walk up and order just a few cookies at a time. They always served the cookies warm and were a go-to stop when we were in high school and walking around downtown. 

They’ve since closed their doors, but I saw they posted their recipe for these cookies online and had to try to make them at home. I’ve made some adjustments to the original recipe as I prefer these to be a bit softer and more chocolatey to balance out the kick from the spices.

Key Ingredients

Molasses gives these cookies their chewy texture along with a hint of bitterness to balance out the sweetness.

Dark Chocolate. You can use dark, milk, or semi-sweet chocolate for these cookies, but dark chocolate provides a richer and slightly less sweet taste.

Butter. Try using grass-fed butter (or Irish butter) to give these cookies a creamier texture. If using salted butter, remove the additional salt from the recipe.

Warm spices. While packed with ginger, this recipe also includes nutmeg, cloves, and cinnamon.

How to Make Chocolate Ginger Cookies

To start, blend the room-temperature butter and sugar together until light and fluffy. I do this first and then weigh out the rest of my ingredients to give the fat and sugar time to dissolve together.

Next, you’ll add the molasses, egg, and vanilla. Try and scrape out as much molasses as you can. I’ve seen tricks where you can spray your cup with baking spray and it will just easily come out, but I can’t confirm if that works since it doesn’t work for me for whatever reason 😉  

Whisk together the dry ingredients in a separate bowl. This recipe may look like it includes a lot of spices but adding the melted chocolate at the end helps to mellow them out. You should just get a small kick at the end of your bite. 

Add the dry ingredients to the wet mixture in sections, mixing in between to make sure it’s very well combined.

In a microwave-safe bowl, melt the chocolate. I usually start with 30 seconds on power level 7 in the microwave and add more time if needed. I’ve used dark baking chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate chips and both taste delicious. I prefer dark chocolate, but you can use either. Let the chocolate cool for a couple of minutes then add to the dough. Mix well. 

Roll or scoop cookies into 2-inch balls. I use this OXO cookie scoop and the texture is perfect. Sprinkle the tops of the cookies with sugar (if you roll them completely in sugar, the bottoms tend to burn).

Bake at 350 for 8 minutes (9 minutes if using the medium cookie scoop). You do not want to overbake these cookies. You’ll know they are done when the top starts to crack just a bit. Remove from baking tray immediately and place on cooling rack. 

These cookies are best served warm (and with coffee in my opinion 🙂 ) Feel free to pop these in the microwave for 5 seconds before enjoying.

Looking for more cookie recipes? Try these soft gingerbread cookies, raspberry thumbprint cookies, or Nutella-stuffed ginger cookies.

Last Updated on December 4, 2024 by Kari Bakes