Soft Sourdough Discard Ginger Cookies with Molasses
Soft sourdough discard ginger cookies are the perfect treat for a cold winter day. Made with warm spices, indulgent blackstrap molasses and rolled in white sugar, these delicious cookies are perfect for gifting!These sourdough cookies are very easy to make. Unlike many sourdough recipes, they can be made with either sourdough discard or active fed starter. The cookies can be made within a couple hours of mixing up the dough or long fermented for the maximum benefits of fermenting sourdough.
Ingredients
- 2 teaspoons ground ginger
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup dark brown sugar
- 1 large egg
- 2 teaspoons vanilla
- 1/3 cup blackstrap molasses
- 1.5 sticks of butter softened 12 tablespoons
- 1/2 cup of sourdough starter at 100% hydration fed a 1:1 ratio
- Optional:
- 1 bag of white chocolate chips for dipping baked cookies in
Instructions
Mix Dry Ingredients:
- Whisk together flour, salt, spices, and baking soda in a separate bowl.
Mix Wet Ingredients:
- In the bowl of a stand mixer cream butter, white sugar and dark brown sugar.
- Next add the blackstrap molasses, vanilla, sourdough starter and egg to the sugar mixture and mix to incorporate.
Combine Dry Ingredients and Wet Ingredients:
- Slowly add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, mixing until just incorporated.
Chill the Dough:
- Chilled cookie dough can be tricky to scoop, so I prefer to pre-scoop my unbaked cookie dough onto a baking tray before chilling the dough. If you do not have enough available space in the refrigerator, cover the mixing bowl with plastic wrap or store the dough in an air tight container.
- Using a large cookie scoop (or a spoon) scoop dough and place each cookie dough ball 3 inches apart on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
- Chill the dough in the refrigerator for at least one hour, but preferably two. Unbaked cookie dough can be made ahead and stored in the fridge for several days before baking.
Roll the Unbaked Cookie Dough in Sugar:
- Once the dough has chilled, scoop cookies into dough balls if needed. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
- In a separate bowl, measure out 1/2 cup of white sugar.
- Roll each dough ball in white sugar to coat. Place on the baking tray, spacing apart evenly to fit about 12 cookies per tray.
- Work quickly to ensure the dough stays chilled. Place back in the refrigerator if needed to firm back up.
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Bake the Soft Sourdough Discard Ginger Cookies:
Bake the cookies at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Cookies will continue to spread out and set up, so allow them to cool for at least 10 minutes on the baking tray before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
- Once cookies are cool and set, decorate or serve them plain.
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Decorating Soft Ginger Cookies with White Chocolate:
- There are many ways to decorate these soft and chewy ginger cookies. My personal favorite is to dip half of each cookie in white chocolate.
- Warm one bag of white chocolate chips in the microwave in 30 second intervals stirring frequently until melted and smooth. Dip half of each cookie into the white chocolate and allow to drip dry on a wire rack.
- Optional: Sprinkle each cookie with edible white glitter over the side dipped with white chocolate before the chocolate sets up
- to look like snow.
Notes
Substitute pumpkin pie spice with 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon and 1/4 teaspoon cloves.