Soft Chewy Ginger Cookies (with Molasses + Sparkling Sugar)
Ginger Cookies are loaded with molasses and warm spice and coated in crunchy sugar for soft, chewy, crinkly, sparkly Christmas cookies that are as pretty as they are delicious!
1cupsugar for rollinggranulated, turbinado, or sparkling sugar
Instructions
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, ginger, cinnamon, salt, and cloves until well combined. In another large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat the butter until creamy. Add the 1 ½ cups sugar and beat on medium-high for a few minutes until light and fluffy. Mix in the eggs and molasses until smooth. With the mixer on low speed, gradually blend in the flour mixture until just combined. Cover and refrigerate the cookie dough for at least 1 hour.
Adjust oven rack to center position and preheat oven to 350°F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Pour remaining 1 cup of sugar into a bowl. Use a tablespoon (or a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop) to scoop a heaping tablespoon of cookie dough and form it into a ball. Roll in sugar until evenly coated on all sides and place on the cookie sheet. Repeat until the cookie sheet is full, with cookie dough balls spaced 2 inches apart. Place the cookie sheet in the freezer for 5 minutes, and then bake for 8 to 11 minutes until the cookies start to crinkle in the center and darken around the edges. Cool on the cookie sheet for 5 minutes before using a thin spatula to carefully transfer them to a rack to finish cooling. (Repeat this process on fresh cookie sheets until all of the dough has been used.)
Notes
These cookies will spread a good bit, so be sure to space them 2 inches apart (I was able to fit 10 to a cookie sheet).
The cookie dough balls do not need to be flattened before baking or they will spread too thin.
To expedite the process, overlap the steps using multiple cookie sheets. While the first cookie sheet is in the freezer, roll the dough balls for the second cookie sheet. Move that cookie sheet to the freezer and transfer the first cookie sheet to the oven. Repeat until all of the cookies have been baked. If you only have one or two cookie sheets to work with, you'll need to allow the cookie sheet(s) to cool before starting the next pan of cookies so that the cookie dough balls don't get too warm and spread too thin.