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Dec 2, 2018

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. 



Spiced Chocolate Molasses Cookies

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. 

Spiced Chocolate Molasses Buttons

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.

Spiced Chocolate Molasses Cookies with cinnamon, ginger, and allspice


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. 

Chocolate Molasses Cookies with cinnamon, ginger, and allspice

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. 

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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



cookies, chocolate, cinnamon, Christmas
Cookies, dessert, Christmas
American
Yield: 48 cookies
Chocolate Molasses Cookies with cinnamon, ginger, and allspice and a ganache center

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. 



Would you like to comment?

  1. I love that these cookies are rolled in two sugars. I bet the molasses in the filling really boosts the flavor.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I WANT TO MAKE THESE RIGHT NOW! My gosh, Karen you hit this one in the center of the target and they might be my favorite post of yours in the recent past.. that is saying A LOT.

    Now I am not sure if leaving a comment qualifies to enter the giveaway, but please don't enter me, I most of the goodies offered, and as to the sprinkles which truly tempt me... I cannot fit another bottle of sprinkles in my "Sprinkle Emergency Box", and I need to resist them. Must.

    oh, I love these cookies...

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. No worries about being entered. You'd have to enter the Rafflecopter thingie.

      Thanks so much!! P.S. I have the same "sprinkle situation."

      Delete
  3. I meant "I have" most of the goodies offered... (too early, caffeine has not kicked in yet)

    ReplyDelete
  4. I just love this cookie- the ganache I could eat all alone, I'd bet! Great tip on making the indent 1/2 way through- I am going to try that tip!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! I tend to leave the ganache for last, ha ha!

      Delete
  5. I can't get used to Kroger being called Ralph's. I'd be lost driving around looking for the Kroger sign. LOL! These look delicious.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks! Yes, when they bought Ralph's, they never changed the name!

      Delete
  6. I am a total sucker for a spiced cookie. Gingerbread cookies are my favorite, but I may have to update that. These look divine!

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  7. Chocolate, molasses, and spice...sounds pretty much perfect to me! And, they just look so cute!

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  8. This cookie sounds like the perfect balance between sweet and spice! All my favourite spices in fact. And the chocolate ganache is the “icing on the cake”!

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  9. Anything filled with ganache has to be good and these look fabulous!

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  10. Cookies are a big part of our Christmas traditions!

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  11. Molasses cookies are a favorite in our house! This chocolate version with the ganache looks so yummy!

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  12. Love your tip about making the indent - my thumbprint cookies never look that nice. I'm totally going to steal that tip.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I want to spread that ganache on everything!

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  14. My favorite cookie to make is my great-grandmother's sweetheart cookies.

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