Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies with Orange Glaze

I ran into my neighbor, Pam, and she told me that tomorrow is her birthday. So I decided I'd whip her up a quick treat.

I thought to myself, gingerbreads would be good. Hmmm, what could be tastier than gingerbreads? And then it hit me, of course, chocolate gingerbread! These cute cookies were the result.

The orange glaze is a nice compliment to the spice and the chocolate. I use minced ginger instead of ground for a fresh gingery taste. This dough expands and puffs up a little during baking. Be sure to chill it or it will be difficult to cut rolled cookies nicely.


Chocolate/Gingerbread Cookie Dough:

2 3/4 cups All Purpose Flour
1/2 cup Dutch Process Cocoa
1 1/2 inch piece of Ginger, finely minced
1 1/2 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Cloves
1/4 tsp freshly grated Nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
2 sticks/ 1 cup Unsalted Butter (room temp)
3/4 cup Darkest Sugar you can find
3/4 cup Granulated Sugar
1 large Egg (room temp)
2 tbsps Hot Water
2 tbsps Dark Molasses
1 tsp Baking Soda

In a large bowl wisk the dry ingredients together (the first seven ingredients) and set aside.

In another large bowl cream the butter. Beat in the sugars a little at a time until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes, and then beat in the egg on low speed until incorporated.

In a small bowl, or cup, mix together the molasses, baking soda and water. Add this to the creamed butter and beat for a few seconds at low speed. Stir in the dry mixture in several additions, remembering to scrape down the sides of the bowl, until just combined. The dough will be a little soft and should be chilled until it is firm enough to roll out. I divide this into three disks which I then wrap separately and remove from the fridge as I need them.

Roll out the dough on a floured surface with a floured rolling pin. Any scraps should be gathered up and chilled as you move on to the second and third portions of dough. This dough is dangerously tasty, try not to eat too much of it. I bet if you removed the eggs and used a safe substitute this would be a mean addition to homemade ice cream.

Baking:

Preheat oven to 300f (dark/non-stick pan ungreased) or 350f (shiny pan, greased). It is difficult to tell when dark cookies are done, and these burn easily. Touch the tops of the cookies with the pad of your finger tip, the tops should be set but with a little give. Check them often. They take about 8 to 10 minutes, depending on the size of your cookies.

The glaze:

1/2 cup of Unsalted Butter, just barely melted
2 cups of Icing sugar
Orange Oil to taste, or 1 tbsp Orange Zest
2-4 tbsps Orange Juice (room temp)
1 tbsp Meringue Powder

I tried a concentrated orange oil for this recipe, but you can use zest if you can't get orange oil. Melt the butter and stir in the remaining ingredients and one tbsp if the orange juice until it is smooth. Add more orange juice a little at a time until the glaze falls into itself without leaving lines or any peaks. It should be very thick, but runny. To test drop a tbsp into the bowl, if it sinks in slowly and leaves no trace of itself the glaze is the proper consistency.

Pour over cooled cookies on a cooling rack. Remember to put something under it to catch drips; a large cutting board, or waxed/parchement paper.

Decorate with a simple decorator icing. These will also make great Jack o Lantern cookies at halloween, just darken the colour with a little food colouring and get creative.