Spiced Chocolate Molasses Cookies

Spiced Chocolate Molasses Cookies - a chocolate cookie spiced with cinnamon, ginger, and allspice, and filled with a dark chocolate and molasses ganache. 

These spiced chocolate molasses cookies will please both the chocolate lover and the spicy Christmas cookie lover in your life. These cookies are fabulous for a Christmas cookie platter or cookie exchange.

If you, like me, have trouble making pretty cookies, you will love these. They will make you feel like a professional. 

These cookies have two kinds of natural sugar, dark muscovado for the dough and turbinado for coating the cookies. Of course, if you don't want to hunt down the special sugars, you can easily substitute dark brown sugar for the muscovado and sparkling or granulated sugar for the turbinado.

Here's the trick to creating the indentation in the cookie for the ganache:

You bake the cookies for ten minutes, remove them from the oven while they are still soft, and then press the middles down with a round measuring spoon (my half teaspoon one worked perfectly). Then you bake the cookies for an additional five minutes, until set. 

Just pipe in the ganache after the cookies have cooled. 

For the vanilla in these cookies (because vanilla makes everything better), I used Adams Best "Twice as Strong" Vanilla.

I was really happy with how these cookies turned out, and so were all of my taste testers!

Where do I buy the sugars and the molasses?

These days, a well stocked supermarket will usually have most of the ingredients. I found the turbinado sugar and molasses at Ralph's (Kroger). I've heard that the molasses can also be found at health food stores. 

I ended up buying the dark muscovado sugar at Amazon. You can always substitute dark brown sugar. 

Welcome to Christmas Cookie Week, hosted by Ellen at Family Around the Table and Christie at A Kitchen Hoor’s Adventures, where 35 bloggers share cookie recipes all week long.

#ChristmasCookiesWeek Monday Recipes

• Ach Tannebaum' Iced Sugar Cookies by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Brown Sugar Ornament Cookies by Jolene's Recipe Journal
• Butter Pecan Nuggets by Grumpy's Honeybunch
• Chocolate Espresso Brown Sugar Cookies by Faith, Hope, Love, & Luck Survive Despite a Whiskered Accomplice
• Chocolate Snowball Cookies by Hardly A Goddess
• Chocolate-Cherry Snowballs by Red Cottage Chronicles
• Christmas Macarons by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Christmas Rosette Sugar Cookies by Love and Confections
• Christmas Sprinkle Pudding Cookies by Jonesin’ For Taste
• Classic Spritz by Books n' Cooks
• Gingerbread Macaron by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Skillet Cookie by Caroline's Cooking
• Peanut Butter Cutout Cookies by Bear & Bug Eats
• Peppermint Cookie Dough Truffles by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Peppermint Meltaways by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Peppermint Thins by Palatable Pastime
• Sour Cream Decorated Cookies by The Freshman Cook
• Frosted Sugar Cookie Bars by The Baking Fairy
• Chocolate Dipped Gingerbread Shortbread by Kate's Recipe Box
• White Chocolate Gingerbread Blondies by The Redhead Baker
• Whoville Cookies by Strawberry Blondie Kitchen

cookies, chocolate, cinnamon, Christmas

Cookies, dessert, Christmas

American

Yield: 48 cookiesAuthor: Karen Kerr

Spiced Chocolate Molasses Cookies

ingredients

Dough

• 1 1/2 cups plus 2 tablespoons (6 7/8 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
• 6 tablespoons (1 1/4 ounces) unsweetened natural cocoa powder
• 3/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon
• 3/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt (or table salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
• 10 tablespoons (5 ounces) unsalted room temperature butter
• 1/2 cup (4 ounces) packed dark muscovado or dark brown sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 1 large egg
• 1/4 cup (3 ounces) unsulphured molasses
• 1/2 cup turbinado sugar for coating the cookies

Filling

• 1/3 cup (2 ounces) chopped bittersweet chocolate (60 to 70 percent cacao)
• 2 tablespoons (1 ounce) salted butter, diced
• 1/2 teaspoon unsulphured molasses

instructions

To Make the Dough

1. Mix the flour, cocoa, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, ginger, and allspice together and then run them through a fine mesh sieve into a medium bowl. 
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the butter, muscovado sugar, and vanilla on medium high until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg until it's been absorbed. Beat in the molasses. 
3. Stir in the dry ingredients and then mix on low until blended. Scrape the bowl and mix for another 30 seconds. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate the dough for two hours. 
4. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper. 
5. Fill a small bowl with the turbinado sugar. Measure the dough with a  tablespoon and shape each piece into a ball. Roll each ball in the turbinado sugar and place on the baking sheet, about 2 inches apart. 
6. Bake the cookies, one sheet at a time, on the center rack of the oven. See the next instruction regarding adding the indentation for the ganache. 
7. Bake the cookies for 10 minutes, remove the pan from the oven, and then immediately make a deep indentation in the middle of the cookie. I used a round measuring spoon. Return the cookies to the oven and bake for an additional five minutes. Cool the cookies on the pans on wire racks. 

To Make the Filling

1. In a heatproof bowl, add the chocolate and butter. Cook in the microwave in 15 second bursts, stirring in between. Add the molasses and stir. 
2. Place the ganache in a small zip-lock sandwich bag and seal. Snip a tiny hole in one corner and pipe the ganache into the centers of each cookie. 
3. Let the ganache harden at room temperature before serving. 

https://www.karenskitchenstories.com/2018/12/spiced-chocolate-molasses-cookies.html

Karen's Kitchen Stories

Recipe adapted from Epicurious - from the book Real Sweet: More Than 80 Crave-Worthy Treats Made with Natural Sugars