Dark Chocolate Gingersnap Cookies with Holiday Stencils
Our favorite chocolate gingersnap cookies are super festive and easy to make. Holiday baking and cookie making is so much fun. This recipe was originally published in 2012 and still remains a holiday favorite.
Cravings for Easy Soft Gingersnap Cookies
Our go-to cookie cravings are always for soft and chewy cookies and if there’s chocolate involved, even better. So when the Holidays rolls around and everyones making gingersnap cookies, we reach for these yummy dark chocolate ones. They’re satisfying and loaded with flavor and best of all, they’re soft and chewy.
Video: Chocolate Gingersnap Cookies Recipe:
Dark Chocolate Gingersnap Cookies
We adapted these chocolate gingersnap cookies from Alice’s cookbook, Savory Sweet Life. Visit Alice’s blog and you’ll be treated to some incredible family recipes, including her spot-on dessert creations. Alice’s original recipe is the soft chocolate gingersnap cookies. To make them extra chocolate-y, we added an extra-dark cocoa, along with some freshly grated ginger. What lies before you is a perfectly soft & chewy cookie that you can sink your teeth into.
Holiday Stencils for Festive Holiday Cookies
To make them extra fun and holiday festive, we used sprinkled powdered sugar and Martha Stewart’s cookie stencils (the original we bought isn’t available anymore but there is this updated Martha Stewart stencil set. We were also able to find a similar, fun seasonal stencil sets over at amazon. This is the first time we’ve ever decorated with cookies and were curious how they’d turn out. The dark color of these gingerbread cookies provided the perfect base for the whole stenciling.
Each cookie became so much more festive with all the different holiday icon designs. Now these cookies had so much more visual interest and personality. That’s why it was so easy for me to eat two back to back. On top of that, we busted out the box of See’s candy to celebrate Thanksgiving so there you have it, the reason why I had a chocolate hangover.
Some of our Favorite Holiday Stencil Sets
Soft Dark Chocolate Gingersnap Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups (250 g) all-purpose Flour
- 3 Tablespoons (16 g) unsweetened Cocoa Powder (special or extra dark if you can find it)
- 1/4 teaspoon Salt
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) Baking Soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoons (8 ml) ground Cinnamon (or freshly grated cinnamon if desired)
- 1 Tablespoon (15 ml) freshly grated Ginger (or 1 teaspoon ground Ginger powder)
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) freshly grated Nutmeg (or 1/4 teaspoon ground Nutmeg)
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) ground Cloves
- 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 ml) Cream of Tartar
- 1/2 cup (114 g) unsalted Butter , at room temp.
- 3/4 cup (165 g) firmly packed Brown Sugar
- 1/2 cup (100 g) Sugar
- 1 Egg
- 1/4 cup (85 g) Molasses
- Confectioners Sugar for dusting
Equipment
- Parchment Paper optional
- Medium Cookie Scoop optional
- Seasonal Stencils optional
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Line sheet pans with parchment paper.
- Whisk together flour, cocoa powder, salt, baking soda, spices (cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove), and cream of tartar for 20 seconds or until well combined. Set aside.
- In a mixing bowl cream the butter, brown sugar, and sugar on medium-high until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes). Slow down mixer speed and beat in egg and molasses until combined, scraping bowl sides and bottom at least once.
- Slowly stir dry ingredients into butter mixture until just combined.
- With an 1 1/2" cookie scoop (or similar sized scoop or spoons) form balls and place 2 inches apart on lined sheet pans.
- Bake for 14-16 minutes or until set. Allow to cool for 5 minutes on sheet pan, the carefully lift onto a wire rack to finish cooling.
- After cool, if using stensil, place stencil over cookies and dust with confectioners sugar or just dust with confectioners sugar.
Wow, these are absolutely beautiful! I’m not a huge fan of gingersnaps, but I can totally get on board with chocolate ones. 🙂
So inviting!
I’m chocolate addicted and nothing works better for me than a fresh squeezed lemon to drink in the morning before you put anything else in your mouth to get rid off a chocolate hangover…
Hi Diane thanks for the post!
I would like to substitute mollassa with honey, should I stick to the 1/4 you suggested or go for less/more honey instead?
Thank you again
roberta
Hi Roberta. If you need to sub in honey for the molasses, we would cut back on the amount and use just 2 or 3 tablespoons of honey instead of the 1/4 cup of molasses (4 T = 1/4 c) since the honey is quite a bit sweeter than molasses. The cookies will also be lighter in color and the flavor will change by using honey, but it may be just the flavor you are looking for. Good luck! T & D.
Looks absolutely amazing. They would be a perfect Christmas treat for my kids.
What an awesome idea, the cookies look so cute.
This is such a brilliant idea!!!
Know exactly how you feel, I had a chocolate hang-over last week. I made a caramel and chocolate baked pudding, two bites did me in as it was so rich. I didn’t let that stop me, I had a couple more, and the next day I payed ….. These cookies sound amazing especially with the addition of ginger!
These sound absolutely lovely!
These look so cute that I don’t think I’ll even eat them. Thanks for sharing.
I love the idea of putting chocolate in a gingersnap cookie! Plus, that adorable little stencil is incredible…
Since molasses-ginger cookies are my go-to recipe to take to gatherings, but I am a chocoholic at heart, clearly this is going to become a major player in my rotation 😉
How cute are those stencils! I love them! Those cookies look absolutely heavenly
I love the stencils! The cookies look so beautiful and I love the use of the different spices with molasses.
These pretty much sound like my perfect ever cookie and the stencils look so pretty (and like they might not actually be too tricky for this cookie-design challenged girl!)
The stencil/sugar idea is fabulous! I love these – I made molasses-ginger cookies with chocolate in them last week! I love that flavor combo and yours look fabulous!
Love the powdered sugar snowflakes!