Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies (Pg 67)

I have to admit that I cut a corner on this cookie. I was supposed to use bittersweet chocolate chunks...meaning a full bar chopped into big chunks. Instead I used bittersweet chocolate chips, already made into little chips in the chocolate factory. I'm sorry, I was feeling lazy. The taste is the same.

Another thing I really wanted to cut corners on was this. After the dough is made, it's refrigerated for 2 hours until it's firm. Then you roll the dough into balls, then you put the balls in the refrigerator for 20 minutes, then you roll them in sugar. It all just seemed unnecessary.

I tried one batch without refrigerating the balls. It worked, but I didn't roll them in sugar. The rolling of sugar makes it look prettier.

I think, but I can't really be sure because I didn't test it, that if you don't refrigerate the balls, you can't roll them in sugar because the dough is too sticky. I think the refrigeration makes them firm enough that you can roll them into balls.

I had a casualty while I was making these. I was rolling one into a ball and my Mom was watching TV in the other room and she called me. "Come look at Mickey Rourke when he was young and hot!" she called. How could I resist? I ran into the other room with the cookie dough ball still in my hands and when I saw Mickey Rourke being so young and hot, I was in such shock that I dropped the cookie. I'm just saying, I wish I had had the foresight to put the cookie down before I ran to look at the TV.

I find these a bit too spicy, but that's just me. There's fresh grated ginger in them and ground ginger. I could've done with just the ground ginger. But they are good, and they're pretty. They're nice for Christmas.

Yield:

Recipe predicts: 2 dozen 

Actual: 2.5 dozen!

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