Chocolate Ginger Cookies and a Long-Ago Kindness
When Andrew I lived in Boise as newly-wedded, fresh college grads (i.e. kids who didn’t know what they were doing), I ended up working at a church daycare center. I experienced a great deal of personal growth during those years and felt, even at the time, that I was growing up right alongside the four-year-old “Dragonflies” under my care.
Lessons From Lisa
One girl named Lisa, didn’t interact with the other kids much during play time. She happily skipped around, lost and content in her own imagination. During our whole group activities, she’d often introduce something into the mix that I found interesting and insightful, but to the other kids, was kind of strange.
When I told my boss, a wonderfully wise woman, that I was concerned about Lisa, she said, “Thank goodness we have people who march to the beat of their own drum. What would the world be like if everyone’s goal was to be like ‘everyone else.’”
Little Lisa was happy and free, exploring the world and finding her place in it. I, however, “fit in” just fine but was chronically exhausted from trying to stuff myself into some mold that just didn’t fit.
The lesson I needed to learn from Lisa? “Fitting in” isn’t the ultimate goal. Be who God made you to be.
Christmas Kindness
At Christmastime Lisa and her mother gave me a small cloth basket filled with tasty chocolate ginger cookies. When I thanked them, I mentioned that I’d be interested in the recipe. The next day she brought me a large, handwritten recipe card filled with neat handwriting front and back that walked me through the steps of the recipe. I was even more touched by that kindness than I was by the cookies in the first place.
That card is taped in my recipe binder and every year when I flip open to it, I think of Lisa and the lessons I learned from her as I was growing up. I wonder where she is and how she is doing (now in her mid 20s). I think of the kindness of her mom and I wonder what she would think if she knew that her kindness lives on in my memory and is a part of our Christmas traditions. And I wonder if there are any kindnesses I have offered that have lasted longer than my memory of them.
I bake Chocolate Ginger Cookies and I wonder about all of these things.
And when the perfect chocolatey ginger goodness comes out of the oven soft and crinkled and just right, they taste all the sweeter to me for it.
Below you will find the recipe as I make it. It is a Martha Stewart recipe—find the link here—and I thought about simply sharing the link but then I decided that I should be like Lisa’s mom and write (or type) it out for you as well. I make it with whole wheat flour and prefer sucanat as my sweetener and both of those substitutes work great. And for the cookies in the photo shoot, I realized too late that I was out of molasses, so I substituted sorghum instead - and it worked! I most often use chocolate chips and sometimes skip the second fridge time. All that to say, I usually make recipes my own one way or another. But you can do it Martha Stewart’s way if you prefer perfection. I won’t be offended. Enjoy!
Chocolate Ginger Cookies
These Christmas cookies are my favorite - simple, soft, full of flavor and perfect with a glass of almond eggnog.
Ingredients
- 8 oz of semisweet chocolate or 1 cups of chocolate chips
- 1 1/2 c plus 1 Tbsp of whole wheat flour
- 1 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1 Tbsp cocoa powder
- 8 Tbsp (1 stick) butter, softened
- 1 Tbsp fresh grated ginger or and additional 1 tsp of ground ginger
- 1/2 c brown sugar or sucanat
- 1/4 c unsulfured molasses
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 1/2 tsp boiling water
- sugar or additional sucanat for rolling the dough
Instructions
- Chop the chocolate. A vairety of different sized pieces is good. Even when using chocolate chips I "chop" them buy putting them in the blender and pulsing a few times.
- Mix flour, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, and cocoa powder in a medium bowl.
- Beat the butter and fresh ginger or additional ground ginger until smooth.
- Add the brown sugar or sucanat and molasses to the butter and beat until combined.
- Put the baking soda in a small bowl and add the boiling water to it. Stir until the baking soda is dissolved,
- Beat half of the flour mixture into the butter and sugar mixture. Then add the baking soda and beat well. Then add the rest of the flour mixture and beat until combined.
- Add the chocolate to the dough.
- Turn the dough out onto a piece of plastic wrap. Pat the dough to about 1 inch thick. Wrap with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
- Heat oven to 325 degrees.
- Roll the dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and put them on a parchment lined cookie sheet. Put them back in the fridge for another 20 minutes.
- Roll each dough ball in granulated sugar of choice.
- Bake until the surface cracks slightly, 13-15 minutes.
- Let cool 5 minutes. Transfer the cookies to a wire rack to cool completely.
