Soft Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies are the perfect holiday cookie! They’re a great blend of chocolate and gingerbread flavors, with a chocolate star in the middle, and they keep their soft and chewy texture for days.
I first shared this recipe four years ago, and since then, these cookies have become a yearly tradition with my family. This year, I’ve updated the post with bigger photos and a video recipe showing how to make them. I hope you’ll check out the video showing how it’s done, and then try them yourself–I know you’ll love them!
Put down the cookbooks! I have found the perfect Christmas cookie. Bold words, I know. But hear me out.
First of all, they’re cute. Some might even say “cute as a button.”
Second, they’re packed with holiday flavors like cinnamon, ginger, molasses, chocolate (chocolate is an every-time flavor!), and orange zest.
Third, one batch make a ton—about 5 dozen cookies. That’s going to go a long way toward filling holes in your cookie plates!
And finally, these cookies have the most desirable holiday trait of all, which is that they stay moist for a crazy long amount of time. Like, a week later, after being stored at room temperature in a plastic tub, they’re still soft and delicious with nary a stale crumb. If I didn’t make them myself, I would suspect preservative shenanigans.
But I did make them myself, and I practically ate all of them myself, so I can vouch for the stay-softiness, and easy-of-makingness, and just general deliciousness of these cookies.
They may not look like the fanciest cookie—in fact, Jason said several times, with an almost insulting amount of surprise in his voice, “Wow, these taste way better than they look!”*—but they do have a certain sweet charm to them, especially when topped with a star-shaped chocolate button. I used Brach’s milk chocolate stars, which can usually be found in the Baking aisle around the holidays. If you can’t find them, then unwrapped Hershey’s kisses would be a good substitute.
*A classic example of the complisult, the love child of a compliment and insult. Hurts so good! However, Jason does an unholy amount of dishes for me, so he gets a complisult pass every now and then.
The flavor of these cookies is heavy on the gingerbread, and lighter on the chocolate. I based them on a gingersnap molasses cookie recipe from Sally’s Baking Addiction, but added cocoa to the dough, as well as a little orange zest. The orange may seem out of place, but I think it ties together the ginger and chocolate elements, while adding a light, fresh flavor that keeps the ginger taste from becoming too intense. If you’re suspicious, you’re welcome to leave it out…but really…don’t you trust me?
And thus ends the quest for the perfect holiday cookie. Now you’ll just have to take all that time you were going to spend testing recipes and devote it to online shopping instead. You’re welcome!
P.S. Just can’t get enough of that chocolate-gingerbread flavor combination? You’ve got to try these Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies!
❤️ MUST-MAKE CHRISTMAS RECIPES:
- Christmas Pinwheel Cookies
- Gingerbread Cookie Mug Toppers
- Chocolate Truffle Peppermint Crunch Cookies
- Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Big Soft Sugar Cookies
- Pecan Snowball Cookies
- Candy Cane Cookies
Gingerbread Cheesecake
Gingerbread Chocolate Chip Cookies
Soft Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies
Ingredients
- 12.3 oz all-purpose flour, (2 3/4 cups)
- .75 oz unsweetened cocoa powder, (1/4 cup)
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 2 tsp ground ginger
- 1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/4 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ground allspice
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 6 oz unsalted butter, (3/4 cup), at room temperature
- 5.6 oz brown sugar, (3/4 cup), packed
- 1.75 oz granulated sugar, (1/4 cup), plus extra for rolling
- 4.5 oz unsulphured molasses, (1/3 cup), unsulfured
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 2 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 tsp packed orange zest, (from 1/2 large orange)
- 60 milk chocolate stars, or chocolate kisses
Instructions
- In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, all spices, and salt. Set aside for a moment.
- Place the unsalted butter and both sugars in the large bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Beat them together on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 1 minute.
- Add the molasses, egg, vanilla extract, and orange zest, and beat until well-mixed. The mixture might look a little broken at this point. Stop the mixer and add the dry ingredients. Mix on low speed until just a few streaks of flour remain. Finish mixing by hand, scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl well with a spatula.
- Turn the dough out onto a piece of cling wrap, and wrap it well. Chill for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F. Pour some granulated sugar into a shallow bowl. Roll the chilled cookie dough into small 1-inch balls and roll the balls in granulated sugar. Place them 2 inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake at 350 F for 7-8 minutes, until puffed and dry in the center, but still soft.
- Remove the tray from the oven, and immediately press a chocolate star or unwrapped chocolate kiss into the center of each cookie. Let them cool completely on the baking sheet. These cookies keep amazingly well and, if stored in an airtight container at room temperature, will be soft and moist for up to a week after baking.
Video
Recipe Notes
Measuring Tips
Our recipes are developed using weight measurements, and we highly recommend using a kitchen scale for baking whenever possible. However, if you prefer to use cups, volume measurements are provided as well. PLEASE NOTE: the adage “8 oz = 1 cup” is NOT true when speaking about weight, so don’t be concerned if the measurements don’t fit this formula.
Want to learn more about baking measurements and conversion?
These cookies are taunting me with their deliciousness!
They’re totally sticking their tongues out at you…rude! 😉
I’ve never combined chocolate and gingerbread before. . . now you have me curious.Would that be choclingerbread? Hmmmm. Wish we could do a cookie swap. Wait, no I don’t. I don’t have time to be baking any more cookies. I wish you’d just mail me some and I’d sit and enjoy them while I internet shop. There. That’s better.
Ha! I ended up basically throwing these at my friends, begging them to take the rest from me…so yes, a one-sided cookie swap would be perfect! And I assume some of that internet shopping is buying me all sorts of gifts, right? Fair trade!
Wow!! These look deliciously beautiful!! YUM! Perfect for the Christmas cookie season!
Thanks Cailee! I so love Christmas cookie season!
I´m one of “those” that would say these are cute as a button!! I love the combination of cinnamon, chocolate & ginger.. a perfect combination..
ps. What do men know about good looking cookies.. (seriously). My husband would consume 5 consecutively before noticing..lol
Xx
Thanks Johlene! What’s funny is that Jason left a comment on my facebook post that said something like “These taste even better than they look!” before he even read the blog post…ha. The kind of complisults strikes again!
Ooh God these look amazing…so intresting compination of gigerbread and chocolate!
Thank you! Chocolate makes gingerbread even better…well, actually, chocolate makes EVERYTHING better!
I wouldn’t have thought to put chocolate and gingerbread together, but these cookies look amazing! I’ve never seen chocolate stars; at first I thought maybe you piped the chocolate. But I love the way they look on these cookies!
Thanks Beth! The chocolate stars are so cute, and really cheap (like $1.50ish?) and I think they’d also be great in chocolate chip cookies! It’s a shame I only see them around Christmas-time.
Both these cookies look fantastic! Ha, cute as a button … I am guilty of saying that more than once! But it fits these perfectly. I am really curious to try the orange zest, ginger, and chocolate combo. I trust you on this one!
Thanks MF! Definitely give orange/ginger/chocolate a try–it’s so seasonal and so good!
These look like the perfect Christmas cookie!! I have to add them to my already endless baking list lol. Pinned 😀
Sorry (not sorry) about it! 😉
I LOVE the way those chocolate stars look. Jason is craz-ay! It looks like piped out ganache or something. Sign me up.
He is craz-ay! I tell him that every day. Thanks for the backup, sister.
I loooove gingerbread and chocolate! These look so so sooooo good!
Thanks Ari! It’s my new fave combination for the holidays!