Recipe: Grant Hermes’ chewy ginger-molasses cookies

DETROIT – When I was asked to make my favorite holiday recipe, I honestly wasn’t quite sure where to start. Every family has their holiday tradition foods and mine is no different.

First, I thought maybe I’d make the caramel rolls that my dad would make every Christmas morning. I started making my own a few years ago after not being able to spend the holidays with family. I always felt like it was a good way to feel connected to my family even though they were far away. But the recipe is a little complicated and I thought it might be biting off more than I could chew (not sorry about the pun) for my first post for Insiders.

Next, I thought about getting my father-in-law’s recipe for smoked, glazed bologna on the grill. Bologna is just sausage after all, and my wife’s family lives in the South, so taking a crack at some holiday BBQ sounded like fun. But we live in a Downtown Detroit apartment and don’t have a grill, which seemed kind of necessary so that idea was out the window.

There were a few others too: the chest potato and cornflake casserole my mom’s family would always have, but that honestly felt a little basic. Delicious, but basic. The homemade bread from my dad’s side? It’s an old family recipe that none of us have ever quite been able to get right since my grandma passed away a few years ago. Apparently, she left out the secret ingredient from the recipe.

Finally, I landed on one that was my own. For the past few years, I’ve been making chewy ginger-molasses cookies for the holidays. It’s a cobbled-together recipe from doing a lot of trial-and-error with recipes from around the internet, but I finally landed on just the right amount of spice, heat, snap and chew. A perfect warming cookie for when the nights turn colder.

The recipe makes about 2 dozen cookies, but I usually double it. It sounds like a lot, but these little guys have a way of disappearing.

I hope you enjoy the cookies! Don’t forget to tag me and Local4/ClickonDetroit on Facebook and Instagram with your pictures!

From my kitchen to yours, Happy Holidays

-Grant

Chewy Ginger-Molasses Cookies

Makes 2 dozen cookies

• 2 ¼ C All-purpose flour
• 2 ¼ tsp Ground ginger, divided into 1 ¼ tsp and 1 tsp
• 1 tsp Ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp Ground cloves
• ½ tsp Kosher salt (I use Morton, if you use Diamond Crystal double the salt)
• 1 ¼ tsp Baking soda
• 4oz (1 stick) Unsalted butter
• 1 C Sugar, divided into ½ cups (half for the dough, half for rolling)
• ½ C Brown sugar (light or dark)
• 1 Egg
• ½ C Molasses

1. Preheat oven to 350F/177C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Whisk together flour, ground ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt and baking soda in a medium bowl. Set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or a hand mixer (or in a large bowl by hand) cream ½ cup of the regular sugar, brown sugar and butter together on medium speed. This should take about 5 minutes until the butter is fluffy and light in color and there are no streaks of sugar or butter (be sure to scrape the bottom and sides of the bowl!).
4. Add the egg and continue to mix together until it’s fully incorporated.
5. Add the molasses. Mix until incorporated.
6. Slow down the speed of the mixing, add the flour and spice mixture one spoonful at a time until only a few bits of flour remain.
7. Stop the mixer and fold the rest by hand.
8. In a medium bowl, whisk together with the remaining ½ cup sugar with 1 tsp of ground ginger, try to minimize the number of big clumps (you can finely chop these too. You’ll just have bigger chunks of ginger on top. You can also omit them all together if it’s too much ginger flavor).
9. Using a spoon, a cookie scoop or your hands, scoop about a tablespoon of dough and roll it into a ball. Place each ball roughly 2 inches apart on the baking sheets.
10. Place the baking sheets with the balls into the fridge for 30 minutes and allow to firm up (don’t skip this step. I know it’s a bummer waiting, but, not only will it prevent the cookies from spreading too much, it will also allow the spices to combine a little more and any dry bits to absorb more moisture leading to a more even bake).
11. After the resting time, roll the dough balls in the ginger-sugar mixture and coat evenly.
12. Place sugar-covered dough balls back on the baking sheets and bake for 9-12 minutes until the cookies are evenly browned and the tops have cracked.
13. Allow to cool and store in an airtight container. They’ll stay good for a little over a week before going stale. You can also freeze them for up to 2 months.