"You can be miserable before you eat a cookie and you can be miserable after you eat a cookie, but you can't be miserable while you're eating a cookie." (Ina Garten). That is one of my all-time favorite quotes from the Barefoot Contessa. So how exactly should you feel while eating a cookie? Or more specifically, how exactly should you feel eating this intensely spiced, textured Chewy Ginger Cookie w/ Cream Cheese Filling? Delirious, in seventh heaven, blissful, and/or obsessed? Yes, all of them. Because this cookie is so tantalizing to your taste buds you might remain on a cookie high for hours afterwards.
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I have been obsessed with wanting to replicate one of my favorite cookies at one of my favorite bakeries (Broken Tart in Oak Park) for a while now. And I think I have come really, really close to creating one worthy of competing with theirs. With its crispy edges and slightly underdone center, this chewy ginger cookie paired with a luscious cream cheese filling is seriously ambrosial. If you love a spicy gingery, chewy molasses cookie, this cookie just might be the ginger cookie of your dreams!
Unlike most ginger cookie recipes, this one does not require any chill time. This is a cookie you want to spread (rather than puff up) and be on the slightly thin side (but still have some heft to it). And because it is made with only butter and not shortening or a butter/shortening combination, the cookie retains a buttery flavor even with the competing flavors of the molasses and the spices. There are many different spice combinations for a ginger cookie. The 2 to 1 ginger to cinnamon ratio along with some ground cloves and allspice give this cookie a perfect depth of spiciness. Please don't be tempted to scale back on the amounts of any of the spices or eliminate any of them as its this combination that gives the cookie its etherealness.
If there was ever a time when a scale becomes more of a necessity than a nice to have, its in the making of these cookies. You want the cookies to all weigh the same (55g) so that when baked they come out the exact same size. This is important not only to ensure all of the cookies on the tray bake evenly, but to ensure the tops and bottoms of your sandwich cookies match up evenly. Note: This cookie uses the pan banging method and the use of a large round cookie cutter or bowl to shape them. Finished cookies should about 4" in diameter.
While the cookies are fabulous all on their own, they are next level when made into a sandwich cookie. The luscious cream cheese icing pairs perfectly with the cookies as it ever so slightly tempers the sweetness of the cookie. On a side note, a butter/confectionary sugar icing would make this cookie much too sweet.
This is a large (slightly larger than 4" in diameter) cookie. Some of you will be able to eat an entire cookie in one sitting, while others of you may be satisfied after eating only a half of a cookie.
Ginger cookie lovers are a diverse group of individuals. Some like a very crispy ginger cookie, some like a crisp around the perimeter and chewy in the center cookie, some like them thin and snappy, some like them thick and crunchy, and some like them dipped in white chocolate. This Chewy Ginger Cookies w/ Cream Cheese Filling will speak the ginger cookie love language to many ginger cookie aficionados. It might also redefine what Ginger Cookie Greatness should taste like.
Recipe
Chewy Ginger Cookies w/ Cream Cheese Filling
Makes 20 bakery sized (4" sized) cookies or 10 bakery sized (4" sized) sandwich cookies
Ingredients
Chewy Ginger Cookies
3 cups (420g) all-purpose unbleached flour (e.g., King Arthur)
3/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
2 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
3/4 cup (150g) granulated sugar
3/4 cup (155g) dark brown sugar
6 Tablespoons (120g) molasses (see notes)
1 large egg
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla
Additional granulated sugar for rolling
Cream Cheese Filling
1 cup (226g) unsalted butter, room temperature
8 ounces (226g) cream cheese, slightly softened
4 cups (480g) confectionary sugar
Pinch of Kosher salt
1 teaspoon vanilla
Directions
Chewy Ginger Cookies
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees (F). Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
2. In a medium sized bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, Kosher salt, ginger, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice. Whisk to blend. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a standing mixer, cream butter (about 1 minute).
4. Add in the granulated and dark brown sugars. Cream until creamy and fluffy (about 2-3 minutes).
5. Beat in the molasses.
6. Add in the egg and egg yolk, one at a time. Beat until well blended. Scrape sides of the bowl between egg additions.
7. Beat in the vanilla.
8. Add in the dry ingredients in 3 additions. Beat until well blended.
9. Make a small bowl filled with granulated sugar.
10. Create 20 balls of dough (55g each). Note: It's important that all balls of dough weigh the same.
11. Roll six balls of dough in the sugar. Place the six balls (well spaced) on one of the prepared baking sheets. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until set on the edges but still slightly soft in the middle. Remove from oven. Bang the pan on the counter. Use the bowl technique to round out each cookie (you want them as uniform as possible). Allow them to rest on cookie sheet for 3-4 minutes. Remove and place on a cooling rack. Let cool completely.
12. Repeat with remaining dough balls.
Cream Cheese Filling
1. In the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream the butter.
2. Add in the cream cheese. Beat until well blended.
3. Mix in the salt and the vanilla.
4. Add in the confectionary sugar in 3 to 4 additions. Beat until creamy and fluffy. Use immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready to use.
5. Fill a piping bag fitted with a round pastry tip. Pipe the icing on one side of the room temperature cookies. Top with another cookie. Press down slightly. Note: Pipe starting near the edge of the cookie and work inward.
6. Serve immediately or chill in the refrigerator until ready to serve. Note: Cookies are great chilled or at room temperature. Remove from the refrigerator at least 30 minutes before serving if you like less chilled cookies. If well wrapped in the refrigerator they will be good for at least 4 to 5 days (if they last that long).
Notes: (1) I generally use King Arthur unbleached all-purpose flour. (2) I used Grandma's Original molasses, not the robust molasses. (3) 6 Tablespoons of molasses is a little more than 1/3 cup, but recommend you weigh it (as it's easier). (4) No chilling time is required for these cookies. (5) You will have a little of the cream cheese icing left over. Buy a couple of unfrosted chocolate muffins from the grocery store and ice them. (6) My other favorite Ginger Cookie is this one.
Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, CT (May 2025)