This is one of those recipes that I have been saving for a special occasion. Christmas seems as good a time as any for revealing the recipe for the BEST. COOKIES. IN. THE. WORLD.
(In my humble opinion).
OK so these cookies. The thing that makes them the best cookies in the world? They are made with fresh ginger. Which, when paired with rich molasses and sweet dates, produces the most awesome sweet and spicy and chewy treat ever. The PERFECT morsel for an after-dinner treat.
I may or may not have consumed seven of these today. Oops. I need to exercise more self control. Or leave my house and run far far away and never look back. One of those two things.
Actually, I don’t feel THAT bad about eating seven, because these are healthier than most cookies. They are made with whole wheat flour, and half the amount of sugar than your average cookie. Yet, they are still delightfully sweet because of the natural sugars in the dates, fresh ginger, and molasses (without being TOO sweet). Not to mention, ginger is really (REALLY!) good for you. These ain’t no salad, but as far as cookies go… pretty healthy!
Also, they are sparkly. Because you roll them in turbinado sugar before baking them. Which gives them an awesome crunchy and sweet outer layer to compliment the spicy, chewy, melt-in-your-mouth inside and makes them a beautiful treat to bring to a Christmas party or give as a gift. What’s Christmas without sparkles?
If you can’t find dates, I’ve made these with other dried fruits before (apricots, figs, and a combination of both). You can use another kind of dried fruit if you want (I bet golden raisins would be delicious!), or you can omit them. OR, you can add pieces of chocolate! These cookies are flexible… as long as you have the base dough, try mixing in other fun ingredients. You can’t go wrong.
Make too many? Sugared out after all the sweets of the holidays? Freeze the extra and enjoy individually for a bite-sized after dinner sweet treat.
And without further delay, I present to you, the recipe for the BEST. COOKIES. IN. THE. WORLD! Enjoy, and merry Christmas, everyone! I hope you have a restful week full of family, fun, food, and sparkles :-)
Other cookie recipes
- Salted almond chocolate chunk cookies
- Orange chai cookies
- Norwegian Butter Cookies
- Maple Oatmeal Raisin Cookies
Spicy Ginger Date Cookies
Ingredients
- 2 cups whole wheat pastry flour spelt flour can also be used
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon ground ginger
- 1/2 cup butter (one stick)
- 1/2 cup dark molasses
- 2 tablespoons fresh ginger minced (from about 2")
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 cup dried dates pitted and chopped
- 1/2 cup turbinado sugar for rolling
Instructions
- Mix together the whole wheat flour (2 cups), baking soda (1/2 teaspoon), kosher salt (1/2 teaspoon), and ground ginger (1 tablespoon) in a medium bowl. Set aside.
- In a medium saucepan, melt together butter (1/2 cup), molasses (1/2 cup), sugar (1/2 cup), and fresh ginger (2 tablespoons). Allow to cool for a bit, and whisk in the egg. Stir in the dates (1 cup).
- Add butter mixture to flour mixture, stirring to just combine.
- Refrigerate dough for at least 30 minutes.
- When ready to bake, line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- Put the turbinado sugar (1/2 cup) in a small bowl.
- Using a small kitchen scoop or spoon, get small portions of the dough and roll into no bigger than 1-inch balls.
- Coat each ball in turbinado sugar and place on prepared baking sheet.
- Bake each batch for 7-9 minutes. Allow to cool on a cooling rack.
Notes
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Recommended Equipment
- Parchment Paper
- small cookie scoop
Dan
Very much liked the crunchy exterior and general texture. I would reduce the amount of molasses and increase the dates and ginger.
Elizabeth Lindemann
Thanks for the feedback- would love to know how they come out with these different amounts, if you try it!
Disha
Can I leave out the egg from the recipe?
Elizabeth Lindemann
Hm, I’ve never tried it, and the egg helps bind everything together. You may want to try a “vegan” egg- such as a chia or flax egg (chia or flax seeds mixed with water to create an egg-like binder). Here’s more on that. If you try it and it works, I’d love to know so I can add a recipe note for the egg-free readers! https://minimalistbaker.com/how-to-make-a-flax-egg/
Ingrid
Made these and they were a hit. I added in addition some chopped up crystallised ginger as well. Thanks for the recipe! As a tip when rolling, and I do this for any mix like rum balls, cake pops etc, wear disposable gloves and the mix doesn’t stick to your hands, bonus of clean hands and importantly no wastage of the yummy mix
Elizabeth Lindemann
LOVE that tip about disposable loves! Definitely trying that next time. So glad you liked it!
Julia
Thanks for your quick reply -I figured it was 2 cups so went ahead with that – oven is heating up now – they smell delicious! Thanks for the recipe :)
Julia
Hi, just want to clarify how much flour. In the ingredient list it says 2 cups but the instructions refer to only 1 cup of flour. Thanks!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Gah! Thanks so much for catching that. It’s 2 cups :-) I’ve been going back through my old recipes and adding the ingredient amounts in the directions so people don’t have to scroll up and down so much… but that also opens the door up for more mistakes! It’s fixed now. Thanks again, and if you make these cookies, I hope you like them!
Kalene
Do you mean 1/2 stick butter AND one cup butter? Or did you just mean 1/2 stick of butter? Also did you mean one cup chopped date’s or one cup of dates full sized and then chop them up? This was confusing to me and I think I might have put the wrong measurements. Please let me know so I can make these right. Thanks!
Elizabeth Lindemann
Good questions! You need one stick of butter, which is the same as 1/2 cup (I’ll fix the recipe wording now- I’ve been finding a few errors lately after changing some things around, so thanks for putting this on my radar!). As for the dates, either will work honestly, but I’d chop them up and then measure them, to get more :-) Hope that helps, I’ll adjust the recipe card!
eve
if you put the mixture in the fridge overnight would that be ok?
Elizabeth Lindemann
I think so! It might be a little harder to scoop but just put some muscle into it (or use a good cookie scoop) :-)
emma roberts
Fantastic, loved them. Thank you for the recipe x
Elizabeth Lindemann
So glad you liked them! :-)