Aromatic Five Spice Ginger Cookies

This is my second time posting this very tasty Five Spice Ginger Cookie recipe. I first created these bites last Fall, for the 3rd Annual Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale. They were a delicious hit and so tasty my mouth is watering looking at the picture. You can find the original recipe post from September here: Five Spice Ginger Cookies.

I am re-posting this recipe in all it’s infinite glory as I am entering the Sweet Dreams Cookie Contest by Crosby’s. This is actually a perfect reminder I have two containers of Crosby’s Fancy Molasses sitting in my pantry needing to get used up. I know I’ll be making them again soon. Probably this week. Maybe tomorrow.

After deciding I drink to much espresso and eat way to many ginger cookies at a very popular coffee chain, I was inspired to make my own version of this cookie. A healthier version. Had to be the same size however because, after all, bigger is better, isn’t it?! Inspiration comes from everywhere.

I wanted to turn it up a notch and decided to use a favourite spice blend, Five Spice Powder. The aromatic combination of spices would be the perfect match in this cookie. My gamble paid off as it’s an explosion of equally balanced flavours in every bite.

Taste testers love this monster cookie and I think you will too.

Aromatic Five Spice Ginger Cookies

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Course: cookies, snacks, Treats

Author: Wanda Baker

Ingredients

• 2 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp five spice powder
• ½ tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 tsp ground cloves
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour
• ¼ tsp kosher salt
• ¾ cup butter softened but not melting
• ½ cup brown sugar
• ½ cup white sugar
• 1 egg room temp
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/3 cup fancy molasses
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/3 cup candied ginger chopped small
• ½ cup white sugar for rolling

Instructions

• Preheat oven to 350F.
• Sift and toss into a bowl ginger, baking soda, five spice powder, nutmeg, cloves, cinnamon, flour and salt. Mix to combine.
• In a second bowl beat your butter with sugars until creamy consistency. Add egg and vanilla, beating some more. Finally drop in your water and molasses mixing until everything combined and smooth.
• Drop your flour mixture into your wet ingredients. Add chopped crystallized ginger. Stir until combined. Mixture may be sticky. At this point you can put in refrigerator to chill for 10 minutes for easier handling. Or if your like me and didn't have time for chilling get right to work.
• Pour extra white sugar onto a platter or pie dish. Set aside.
• Shape dough into balls. I made the balls about 2-3 inches or big enough to fit into a 1/4 cup. Roll in white sugar until completely coated.
• I put four at a time on my cookie sheets, so they need to be spaced at least 2 inches for expansion. Flatten slightly with back of pan or flat cup.
• Bake large cookies for 14 minutes rotating pans half way through. Cool slightly in pan before removing to rack to let cool completely. If making cookies smaller adjust your baking time to 8-10 minutes.

Notes

Make sure your butter is softened, not melting. It is the key to getting a good chewy molasses cookie. It was a hot day when I made these cookies and as such a hot evening in the house. I recall the inside temperature reading 27 degrees at one point. As you can imagine, my room temperature butter would melt and as such I had to put it back in the fridge to firm up. Quite the game butter and I played the night I made these cookies. But I showed butter who was boss.