Chocolate Ginger Cookies Recipe

With their sparkly, crinkly tops and super soft chew, these chocolate ginger sparkle cookies are as delicious to eat as they are beautiful to behold. Dip these spiced cocoa molasses cookies in dark chocolate, and finish each with finely chopped crystallized ginger for extra flavor.

This cookie recipe was, quite simply, a JOY to create. It only took a couple of test batches to get it right, and how often does that happen? (The answer is: not nearly often enough.) The flavors of chocolate, ginger, and molasses come together so perfectly—an underrated flavor trio!

This is a classic drop cookie dough that comes together with basic ingredients. Pick up a few holiday baking spices like ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves—all ingredients you need for a batch of gingerbread oatmeal cookies, too!

Here Are the Ingredients You Need & Why

• Flour: All-purpose flour provides the main structure in this cookie dough.
• Cocoa Powder: We’re adding just enough cocoa powder to the dough to give it a chocolatey flavor, while still letting the other flavors come through. Don’t expect a fudgy chocolate flavor like a batch of chocolate crinkle cookies; it’s mild here.
• Baking Soda: A touch of extra baking soda helps the cookies puff up in the oven, then fall and develop that crinkly texture when they cool..
• Spices: This careful blend of ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, and cloves is exactly what every molasses cookie needs! Fresh grated ginger is too strong for these cookies—in testing, we found that its sharp flavor overpowered the chocolate.
• Salt: To balance the sweetness.
• Butter: Creamed butter forms the base of these soft cookies.
• Dark Brown Sugar: Brown sugar is what helps produce the softest cookie ever. You can use light or dark brown sugar, but I like using dark for the extra molasses flavor it provides.
• Molasses: Make sure you’re using a dark molasses, aka “robust” molasses, but avoid blackstrap, which is too intense.
• Egg: For structure and richness.
• Vanilla Extract: Feel free to use homemade vanilla extract in these cookies.
• Granulated Sugar: To coat the dough balls before baking. Sweetness and sparkle!
• Chocolate: Melt chocolate once the cookies are cool, and dip or drizzle to take the chocolate-ginger flavor to the next level.

Plus, an optional garnish: Finely chop candied ginger for a dazzling (and flavorful!) finishing touch. I love using crystallized ginger in baking for that unexpected sweet-yet-spicy flavor, like in these lemon ginger cookies and this ginger pear galette.

Like many cookie doughs prepared with molasses (looking at you, gingerbread cookies) this is a sticky dough mixture and must chill in the refrigerator before you shape it into balls:

It solidifies after a 2-hour nap in the refrigerator, and a cookie scoop makes portioning the dough really easy. Use about 1.5 Tablespoons of dough per cookie, roll into a ball, and then coat generously in granulated sugar just as if you were making a batch of peanut butter blossoms.

Arrange 9–12 cookie dough balls on a lined baking sheet. If you’re shopping for new baking supplies, I use and love these baking sheets.

The cookies will puff up in the oven from all the baking soda, and then fall as they cool. The rising and falling helps create those beautiful crinkles. Some will have more cracks than others.

Don’t Forget the Chocolate Dip!

These neapolitan cookies and pinwheel cookies will tell you… a chocolate dip is the best finishing touch.

Once the chocolate has set, the cookies can be stacked, stored, transported, or gifted.

Can I use white chocolate instead? Absolutely! White chocolate is another delicious pairing with ginger, like in these soft white chocolate chip molasses cookies.

3 Success Tips for Perfect Chocolate Ginger Cookies