Good morning! Today is Candlemas! Want to make some crystallized ginger chocolate chip sugar cookies?
If you are in the Boston area, maybe we will see you tonight at the Anglican Use parish, St. Athanasius? 7:30 pm! Get those candles blessed!
Mine are all ready to go. I've scrounged some up. I feel like those nasty LED ones have pushed out real ones (our friend Fr. P calls those “contraceptive candles” and that's rather apt!). My need is mainly for votives, which seem to be the very ones that are least available with any kind of quality. The very best ones I ever found were Shabbat 5-day votives — I picked them up on clearance after Passover one year at the grocery store. But now I can't even find those.
Okay, enough complaining (note to self, give it up for Lent).
Let's eat some delicious sugar cookies! Before it's too late!
My go-to sugar cookie recipe (below) is from The All New Good Housekeeping Cook Book (this version I'm linking to is awesome). These drop cookies quick, easy, buttery — and I've taken to adding little fun things to the recipe. Sometimes I add chopped dates, sometimes toffee bits, sometimes coconut flakes. Sometimes I swap out half the regular sugar for brown sugar, or replace some of it with honey. Anyway, they mix up in a jiffy and everyone loves them. More, they are intrigued by them, because the texture isn't quite what they are expecting…
This time, I chopped up some crystallized ginger and threw in some mini chocolate chips. This is it, my friends. An inspired combination! The ginger gives it a little pop and a little softness, and the chocolate chips, well, everything needs chocolate chips!
So by the way, if you can swing (space-wise, which I really can't) having two bowls for your KitchenAid mixer, I highly recommend it. This is a big-family thing. Since I let my dough proof and do its first fermentation right in the bowl, it's ever so handy to have another one for crystallized ginger mini chocolate chip sugar cookies! Or what have you. If you don't have lots of baking to do, it's hard to make this seem like a necessity, but if you do (because of those hordes of children), you'll see.
Crystallized Ginger Mini Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies, Like Mother, Like Daughter
(I've doubled the original recipe here. The cookies freeze perfectly if for some unknown reason you need to do that.)
1 cup (2 sticks) butter, softened
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 large eggs
2 tsp. vanilla extract
2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 to 2/3 cup chopped crystallized ginger of high quality (this kind of ginger is what I mean)
1 cup mini dark chocolate chips of high quality
Preheat oven to 375°. Cream butter and sugars until light and fluffy, 2 minutes. Add the eggs one at a time. Add the vanilla.
Mix in the dry ingredients. Mix in the ginger and the chocolate chips.
Drop the dough onto the ungreased cookie sheet, leaving room for them to spread*. If you like, you can roll the dough in coarse sugar or sprinkle some on top of each little ball, but with the crystallized ginger it's not really necessary.
Bake until the cookies are just slightly browned and puffed, rotating them halfway through the baking time of 12 minutes or so.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes around 60 cookies.
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*I like to use this scoop. A few years ago, Bridget said that she loves making cookies but hates the scooping part. Suddenly, after a lifetime of cookie-baking, I realized that she is right! So for her birthday we got her this scoop (among other things, don't worry, we aren't complete self-serving monsters). It's a little stiff on the hands after a while, but it's well made.
Rosie says
That scoop has revolutionized my cookie baking, too – works great for meatballs also!
Kimberly Murin says
+ Dear Auntie Leila, I’d like to send you a Christmas card, to introduce myself and to thank you for your blog. If you’d like to receive it, please respond to my email address and let me know where to send it. If not, that’s okay, thank you for your blog! Love and prayers, Kimberly
Leila says
Feel free to email me at leilamarielawler at gmail dot com!
Thanks!
Gina Switzer says
Happy Candlemas to all! What a beautiful meditation the Church gives on Christ, the Light of the Gentiles. If you’re in Columbus, OH, Mass, procession and blessing of the candles begins at 6:30 at St. Patrick’s http://www.stpatrickcolumbus.org/. Bring your candles and get there early; it gets crowded.
Leila, I always take my candles in a grocery bag, but your basket is beautiful…now I’m hunting for one in the basement.
Love those little lights under the kitchen cabinets, especially how they’re doubled up. I have some that were used to light a single step down into the living room but they may get repurposed to the kitchen instead.
Sara says
My mom has decided that after a lifetime of scooping cookies, she is done with it and now only makes bar cookies (with the exception of Christmas, for which no cookie is too labor intensive).
But my cookie-scooping is greasing a second bowl for the bread dough’s first rise, which I dutifully but grudgingly do since every bread recipe ever says to. Can it really just rise there in bowl I mixed it up in?
Leila says
Sara, if you follow my methods of bread-making (scattered helter-skelter all over this disorganized blog), you will know that I do the “autolyse” and sometimes the first rise in the bowl I mixed in. Pizza dough doesn’t leave this bowl until it’s put out on the counter.
Only if I am doing further rises over time do I transfer to a larger container (usually my enameled pan or my extra-large metal bowl).
If you are going to put it out on the counter anyway to form the loaves, you can rise it there! No bowl necessary.
Lisa G. says
I really, really have been wanting to make cookies for a young family with three smallish children who sit near me at Mass. This recipe might be just the thing. But, if you’re not using a scoop, are you supposed to roll the dough into balls? Or are they regular drop cookies? -Thank you.
Leila says
Lisa, just regular drop cookies! You can just drop them in the sugar if you are doing that.
Margo, Thrift at Home says
I don’t even have a stand mixer, just an electric hand-held.
Anyway, my aunt made fabulous double-ginger chocolate molasses cookies over Christmas and I begged for the recipe and she just got it to me this week. It’s such a great combination! And I do like to make huge batches of cookies and freeze part of the batch – then everyone is excited all over again when there’s a “new” cookie in the jar a few weeks later.
Leila says
Yes, Margo, I would absolutely endorse doubling this already doubled recipe. You could even pop half the dough onto plastic wrap, form into a log, and squirrel away — slicing and baking another day.
It’s very versatile and so good!
Katie says
Yum. I was just organizing my cookie recipes yesterday in my recipe box. But that sounds like more of a thing than it really was. I have one of those cookbook stands with space underneath for a loose-leaf pile– from which I sorted the cookie sorts of scribbled papers, and then “organized” them by bundling via the amazing technology of a paper clip. =) Was looking for a chocolate one, as we’ve recently come by a football-shaped cookie cutter, and I am envisioning footballs with piped icing laces by Sunday for the Super Bowl! We’ll see. It’s a recipe I clipped from that little Martha Stewart Food magazine, which always had a cookie recipe on the last page. (Is it still published? I don’t know.) The key learning for me was that one could roll out chocolate dough between parchment paper layers, so as not to need white flour which would mar the dough. Amazing! . . . to me anyway, who has learned all the kitchen stuff I know on my own as a grown-up.
Alton Brown’s Good Eats was another excellent source of info as a newlywed– not always the tip-top recipe in a given category, but full of insight into the how and why of kitchen science and gadgets. That’s where I learned about the wonders of the #40 disher! I asked for one on the following birthday and now use it to scoop all my scoop-able cookies. Add to AB the perusal of The Joy of Cooking; the combo of gumption, trial, and error; and the regular reading of this lovely blog; and you have a pretty good history of why I now can acquit myself well in the kitchen. =)
Erin says
I love a good cookie scoop. So much so that I have several sizes and use the largest one for meatballs. I only have 1 bowl for my mixer, but also only have a family of 3 so it works. I’ve been eyeing the new-ish paddle with the silicone edge on them that supposedly scrapes the edge as you go. I’m tempted to pick one up, but they are spendy and I have a sneaking suspicion they don’t work as well as one might hope.
I’ve been looking for a new chocolate chip variation, this looks fabulous, thanks for sharing!
Donna L. says
Hi Erin~
I’m just a reader, but thought I’d give you my opinion–I received one as a gift, and I’m afraid it doesn’t do a great job of scraping the edges down when making cookie dough, as you guessed. However, if you find yourself in need of an extra “tool” for your stand mixer, and you need the paddle attachment, it works well for mixing. Hope that helps!
Erin says
Thank you so much for responding, I love real user feedback! And, I’m very happy I haven’t spent the money on it.
Leila says
Erin, I use the silicone paddle for making cakes, and I actually do think it really helps with the issue that KitchenAids have with a wee bit of the batter sitting at the bottom of the bowl. It doesn’t work as well for cookies, but mainly because the one I got is weirdly designed and hard to wipe down, so not worth it for something really sticky like cookie batter.
However, the newer versions with one smooth blade (rather than the difficult-to-describe more serrated style that I have) would be an improvement. So this one (which to be clear I have not tested): http://amzn.to/1PUWq0C
Rather than this one: http://amzn.to/1nPRtAb which I do use all the time. It’s just a pain to get all the batter off. But it mixes everything up perfectly.
I got mine at Marshall’s (or Homegoods) and thus it wasn’t that much. I have seen them for $15 or less.
Erin says
Thanks Leila! I never thought to check Homegoods, I’ll keep an eye open for the all smooth one. At that prices, it is worth a try.
Mrs. B. says
I hate to scoop cookies, so I always try to make a dough you can slice instead… Thanks to that Good Housekeeping cookbook I discovered another soup I’m now obsessed with: White Beans and Spinach (but I add some chicken to it, and I think the recipe uses way too much spinach and forgets salt. Sans chicken is a wonderful Friday soup!)
Today is my youngest child’s Baptism anniversary – I was so happy we could have in on this feast! Seems appropriate. But after tonight I’ll have to put away my beloved Nativity icon, and that makes me sad… but boy, do I need Lent!
For those in Northern VA, St. John’s in McLean has Procession and (Latin) Mass at 7:30pm as well.
Nancy H. says
Semi off topic, but may I ask what are the blooming branches in the top picture? Looks like begonia on a branch but maybe it’s not a Midwest-growing bush? Thanks! Signed, Hungry for Spring Beauty
KB says
I think it’s a flowering quince….
Leila says
Yes, quince. The pear branches are not doing anything. Need to find some forsythia!
JulieS says
Beautiful! We made some walnut candle boats to use as a centerpiece at dinner, tonight, and I wanted to use the walnut meats in some sugar cookies for dessert – I am intrigued by the description of these and their unexpected texture, so we’ll use that with the walnuts (and maybe some coconut), as we’re without both parts of the blissful chocolate-crystallized ginger combination, right now!
Caitlin says
I have the same scoop and it has indeed revolutionized my cookie baking! For some reason I found rolling cookies to be such a drag. I’m unreasonably pleased by how the cookies also all turn out the same size then using the scoop! Your candle basket is just darling.
Kimberlee says
Thank you for this, Leila! My daughters made a double batch (I guess that’s quadruple the original recipe) for tea and they are delicious. We’ll be taking some to our priests this evening as well. (Your Fr. P. cracked me up, though he’s right of course.)
Blessed Candlemas to you and yours, especially your very own Beekeeper!
Polly says
This has instituted a mad craving for chocolate and ginger in me, with cream earl grey tea. I know it will be wonderful. I just have to wait until next week since I *just* went to the grocery store!
I am not sure my children will enjoy the crystallized ginger, but I’m going to try it. Because if not: more for me.
Susan (DE) says
Okay, I’m sure this is a stupid question, but where do you find crystallized ginger? High quality? In your regular grocery store…somewhere? Or is there some other marvelous place? I made some, once — had some fresh ginger to attack the asthma in me (with which it did help) — and then I had SO MUCH ginger that I boiled it in a bunch of sugar. But it was a pain to make, and very, very sticky and hard to deal with. Is there a way to buy it that is more efficient and all? I did make some cookies into which I threw the ginger, once upon a time, and they were good. Very good. But the whole thing was a pain, so it isn’t happening soon…at least, if I have to make my own sugared ginger.
Leila says
Susan, I just mean not the kind you always see that comes in the little plastic containers and is in neat little cubes, for making “fruitcake” — you know that kind. The old-school kind.
In my grocery store, there is a section with gourmet or ethic ingredients and spices, and things packaged in cellophane… and actual pieces of ginger, crystallized rather appealingly. This is what I mean: http://amzn.to/1P6i5Wf
I wouldn’t make it… seems, yeah, too labor-intensive.
Susan (DE) says
Thanks. 🙂 I’m going to take a look sometime. My one daughter, especially, just LOVED the ginger cookies.
Katie says
What?!?! I just followed that link. Trader Joe’s sells nearly 2,500 products on Amazon, and half of them on Prime? I had no. idea. Haven’t been to TJ’s recently enough to compare prices off the top of my head (no doubt there’s a tidy markup online) . . . but still, this is very interesting intelligence. It’s not THAT far to a TJ’s in person, but it sure seems farther with a toddler and wriggly nursing baby to consider!
Susan (DE) says
Our closest Trader Joe’s are across the bay (Chesapeake) and more than two hours away. 😀
Mrs. B. says
These cookies and Lent next week got me thinking, but I’m stumped – what do you all think would be a good idea to bring to a gathering that happens during Lent, like a St. Greg’s Pocket or a homeschool group meeting? I usually turn to sweets, but feel that I shouldn’t during Lent – but then what, if we want to prepare something, and not just take cheese and crackers out of their wraps? Ideas anyone?
Leila says
Mrs. B: Bread and biscuits.
http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2013/02/simple-swirly-bread-or-its-okay-to-feed/
Gingerbread: http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2011/03/my-poor-blog/
Lenten “cookies”: http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2015/02/lenten-cookies-edition-pretty-happy-funny-real/
Scones, which you can have ready easily if you have baking mix on hand: http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2015/02/lenten-cookies-edition-pretty-happy-funny-real/
Mrs. B. says
I always remember Gingerbread, because of your joke about it being *bread* 🙂 Then I didn’t know what to put in the search box to find ideas, so thank you for doing it for me!
The link to the scones repeats the one for the cookies, did you mean this? http://www.likemotherlikedaughter.org/2009/02/vii-breakfast-recipes-including/
Leila says
Yes, Mrs. B — that’s the one 🙂
logan says
I’m a sucker for an olive plate at that sort of thing.
logan says
The cookies do look nice on your new plate!
The having a second mixing bowl for baking is a brilliant thought! I’ve been lamenting that when you get married and register for pots and pans you don’t really know what it’ll be like cooking for your future family and you underestimate all your pot sizes. Or at least I did.
Katherine says
What?! With all those bees, you didn’t make your own candles? Every year I intend to make candles to be blessed on Candlemas and I finally did it this year. I’ve been making candles off and on for years and have the supplies ready to hand, but until this year the feast always caught me unprepared with zero candles. I don’t know what my excuse was – it didn’t take very long to make 16 tapers and 6 votives Monday night using molds. I was so pleased with myself and my youngest was very proud to carry a basket of candles into church on Tuesday. A Little Oratory win!
Rose says
Well thank you Leila, I had never thought to scoop biscuit (cookie) dough! I read Rosie’s comment at the beginning so I’ll try it with scoop-able cooking. 🙂
Being an Australian I call cookies biscuits, while I know scones are biscuits to you!