I’m finally back! Feeling a whole lot better and ready to cook and eat real food again right in time for Christmas.:) I am a little bummed that the timing has kept me from trying out more recipes before the holidays are up, but oh well. I’m cramming now! As you may have noticed in the past, I’m completely in love with 101 Cookbooks. My current obsession has been her X-mas Cookie Recipe post. I’ve already tried out a few of them and I have yet to be disappointed. Yesterday I made these sparkling ginger chip cookies, and they were absolutely amazing. Unfortunately I ran out of turbinado sugar, so I used fine grain sugar, so mine weren’t quite so sparkly. I also used crystalized ginger in place of fresh. I wrapped some of these cuties up in parchment paper tied them with ribbon for gifts, and they are just adorable.

Madhava kindly sent me a great selection of their agave nectars to try out in some of my recipes and since my pantry lacked molassas, I substituted it with Madhava’s amber agave nectar. They came out great and the flavor was wonderful! (I also think I’ve officially found the perfect substitute for corn syrup… more on that later.) I can’t wait to try out more recipes with their agave!

 

Ingredients

1/2 cup  turbinado sugar
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate
2 cups whole wheat pastry flour or unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
4 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1/4 cup amber avave nectar (i used madhava)
2/3 cup fine grain natural cane sugar, sifted
1 1/2 tablespoons crystalized ginger, finely chopped
1 large egg, well beaten

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350F and place racks in the top and bottom third of the oven. Line a couple baking sheets with parchment paper, and place the large-grain sugar in a small bowl. Set aside. Finely chop chocolate into small pieces.

In a large bowl combine the flour, baking soda, ground ginger, and salt.

Heat the butter in a saucepan until it is just barely melted. Remove from heat and stir in the agave, sugar, and crystalized ginger. The mixture should be warm, but not hot at this point, if it is hot to the touch let it cool a bit. Whisk in the egg. Now pour this over the flour mixture, and stir until just combined. Fold in the chocolate.

Scoop out the dough in exact, level tablespoons. Tear those pieces of dough in two and roll each 1/2 tablespoon of dough into a ball shape. Roll in reserved corse sugar until well coated. Place dough a few inches apart on prepared baking sheets. Bake for 7-10 minutes or until cookies puff up, darken slightly, and become fragrant.

Yields about 4 dozen mini cookies.

Adapted from 101 Cookbooks