With crisp edges, chewy centers, and bursts of spicy-sweet ginger in every bite, these ginger cookies with fresh ginger balance comforting nostalgia with bold flavor.
These cookies exist somewhere between a ginger snap and a molasses cookie. They have a little crunch, a slight chew, and no shortage of ginger flavor.
🥰 Why You'll Love These Cookies
- They're super gingery. With fresh, ground, and candied ginger, these cookies pack of punch of flavor. There's even a little pepper and cinnamon in them, too.
- The edges are crispy, while the centers are chewy. It's the best of both cookie worlds.
- They'll remind you of childhood. If, like me, you ate molasses cookies as a kid, these ginger cookies will take you back.
Love cookies? Me too. You'll want to try these ones next:
- Raspberry Rugelach
- Chamomile Cookies
- Homemade Fig Bars (not quite a cookie, but close enough)
- Limoncello Biscotti
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🫚 Ingredients
Here's everything you need to make fresh ginger cookies.
Key Ingredients
- Fresh ginger, candied ginger, and ground ginger: Why three gingers? I say, why not? Three kinds of ginger add multiple layers of flavor and create a more encompassing experience. Fresh ginger brings brightness and adds aromatic notes, ground ginger infuses warmth and makes your typical ginger cookie base, and candied ginger adds small bursts of intensity and chewiness when you bite into a piece.
- Molasses: For creating a deep, rich, and warm cookie.
- Cinnamon and pepper: These add some more spice and warmth to the cookies.
- Sparkling sugar: Adds that classic crunchy sugar topping. My favorite is from King Arthur Flour.
See the recipe card below for the full list of ingredients and quantities.
✨ Substitutions
- Ginger: These cookies certainly need some ginger; otherwise, you're not making ginger cookies. But if you don't have one of the three kinds used (such as the candied ginger), just use more of the others to compensate.
- Fresh ginger: If fresh ginger isn't handy or isn't easy to find in your local store, try keeping a jar of The Ginger People's minced ginger in your fridge. It keeps for a reasonable amount of time, has excellent flavor, and can be used equally to replace fresh ginger in a recipe like these cookies.
- Sparkling sugar: In place of the sparkling sugar, use any kind of cookie decorating sugar.
🔪 How to make ginger cookies with fresh ginger
- Step 1: Cream the butter, sugars, and molasses. When light and fluffy, add the egg and fresh grated ginger.
- Step 2: Whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
- Step 3: Finely chop the candied ginger.
- Step 4: Mix the candied ginger and flour mixture, a little at a time, into the wet ingredients until incorporated.
- Step 5: Dump the dough onto a lightly floured surface and shape it into two eight-inc pieces. Pop them in the fridge to chill and firm up for at least 30 minutes or up to three days.
- Step 6: Take the dough out of the fridge. Let it sit for a couple of minutes, then roll both pieces of dough into a round log.
- Step 7: Slice the cookies into ¾ inch pieces (or thinner for smaller cookies).
- Step 8: Press the top of each piece of cookie dough in the sparkling sugar and then place them a baking sheet lined with parchment.
- Step 9: Bake the cookies at 350 degrees F for 14-15 minutes.
- Step 10: Let the cookies cool for 5 minutes on the pan before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
🥣 Helpful Tips
- Letting the cookie dough rest in the fridge before shaping into cookies is essential. The dough will be too soft otherwise.
- As written, the recipe will make about 18 large cookies that are about 3-4 inches wide. To make smaller cookies and more of them, slice the dough into ½-inch pieces.
- For the full crunchy sugar experience, save some of the sparkling sugar and sprinkle it over the cookies when you take them out of the oven.
🔪 Equipment
Cookie or baking sheet: For baking the cookies.
Parchment paper: For lining your baking sheet and preventing the cookies from sticking.
Bench scraper: Helps move and cut the cookie dough around your surface.
🫙 Storage
Baked: Store cooled cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.
Unbaked (freezer): Freeze the log of unbaked cookie dough (before slicing) by wrapping it with plastic wrap or foil, then placing it in a freezer bag and freeze for up to three months. Cookies may be sliced off from the frozen log and baked, adding 2-3 extra minutes to the total baking time.
Unabaked (fridge): Logs of unbaked cookie dough may be stored in the refrigerator for 3-5 days before baking.
🤔 FAQ
The best way to incorporate fresh ginger into cookies is to add it to the wet ingredients, such as the butter, sugar, and eggs.
Use multiple kinds of ginger in your cookies, such as fresh, ground, and candied ginger.
Yes, you can use fresh ginger instead of ground ginger in cookies. The flavor may be a little different, but it'll still taste of ginger. Use a tablespoon of fresh grated ginger and add it when combining the wet ingredients.
Both fresh and frozen ginger are good for cooking and baking. One isn't necessarily better than the other as long as the frozen ginger isn't too old, as it will lose flavor over time. Use an equal amount of frozen ginger for fresh in your recipes.
🍵 Pairing
Try serving the cookies with any of these drinks:
Print
📖 Recipe
Ginger Cookies with Fresh Ginger
- Total Time: about 75 minutes
- Yield: About 18-20 cookies 1x
- Diet: Vegetarian
Description
With crisp edges, chewy centers, and bursts of spicy-sweet ginger in every bite, these ginger cookies with fresh ginger balance between comforting nostalgia with bold flavor.
Ingredients
- 2 sticks butter, room temperature
- ½ cup molasses
- 1 cup sugar
- ½ cup brown sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 tablespoon peeled and grated fresh ginger root
- 3 cups flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 3 teaspoons ground ginger
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon ground pepper
- 2 tablespoons chopped candied ginger
- ¼ cup coarse or sparkling sugar
Instructions
- Start with the wet ingredients. Add the butter, molasses, and sugars to a large bowl and use a mixer on medium speed to beat until creamy. After a couple of minutes, stop the mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl and then continue for another minute or until smooth and fluffy. Then, add the egg and the fresh grated ginger to the bowl and mix until combined.
- Now prep the dry ingredients. In a second bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, ground ginger, cinnamon, and pepper. Add this flour mixture and the candied ginger to the wet ingredients, a little at a time, as you mix on low or by hand with a sturdy wooden spoon. Stir the dough until the flour is completely incorporated.
- Shape the dough. Dump the cookie dough out onto a lightly floured counter. It'll be soft, but that's ok. Divide the dough into two equal pieces and shape them into rough logs about two inches wide and eight inches long. Set them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and stick in the fridge for at least 30 minutes to chill. If you want to prep the dough and bake the cookies later, cover the dough with plastic wrap and stick it in a bag or container until ready to use.
- Prep and slice the cookies. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and arrange the two oven racks in the top third. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and pour the ¼ cup of sparkling sugar onto a small plate. Remove the cookie logs from the fridge, roll them around on the counter to round them out, then slice them into rounds about ¾ inch wide. Press the top of each cookie into the sugar, then place on the baking sheet. You should be able to fit about eight per sheet.
- Bake. Bake the cookies for 15 minutes for a cookie that's crisp on the edges and chewy in the center. Bake another couple of minutes for a more crisp cookie. Either way, they'll be soft at first, so let them cool on the pan for about 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely. They’ll continue to crisp as they cool. Store the cookies in an airtight container for up to a week.
Notes
Don't need all these cookies at once? Store the logs of dough in the freezer, slice off cookies, and bake as you like. Just add two to three minutes to the baking time.
Instead of sparkling sugar, try any kind of coarse decorating sugar.
You can save some sparkling sugar to sprinkle on the cookies after they are out of the oven for even more crunchy sugar.
- Prep Time: 30 minutes (plus 30 minutes resting time)
- Cook Time: 14 minutes
- Category: Baking
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
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