Gingery Brownie Crinkle Cookies

Recipes like this (unfussy cookie recipes) call for mixers because the people who write them think it's easier, and they all own mixers. I make a very similar cookie every year with a bowl and a wooden spoon and it works marvelously.

We added cayenne pepper and ground ginger to add a little more heat and gingery flavor. "This was a life-changing cookie. I ate it yesterday and quit my job, broke up with my boyfriend of 9 years, and will be moving to Tucson to raise llamas in the mountains." - Heidi F.

Just made these. Outstanding. Took a little longer than 30 min with prep but worth it. Cooking time was 9 min. Made about 20 biggish cookies. They are so rich that next time I’ll make 40 little ones.

My grocery store didn’t have any candied ginger so I made my own - used a vegetable peeler for very thin strips and put them in a small pan with 1:1 white sugar and 1/3-1/2 cup of water. Simmered/boiled until they were soft and most of the water had evaporated, then laid them out on a sprayed cooling rack to set. So yummy! Also made candied lemon strips about the same size (candied the lemon slices, then cut them.) Both were perfect. One thing to note - the bottoms burned quickly. Top rack!

You get a much lighter, "melty" texture if you wisk the eggs and sugar first, as the recipe calls for. The cookies are still fudgy, but not dense or cakey -- they have a softness that's distinctive to this technique.

After one abject failure, ran this again. As noted previosuly I was pretty sure that the problem arose from taking too long to assemble the dough, so this time, full mise en scene prepped and ready to assemble *quickly*. Worked like a charm. This recipe relies on two time-sensitive features - the temperature of the choc/butter and the whipping of the eggs/sugar. Prep *everything* fully, then assemble *fast*. This recipe really should say this, since so cookies are so often lenient on this.

Enjoyed these cookies, but the "gingery" part is somewhat understated. In fact, I could barely taste any ginger at all! (I grated a heaping tablespoon of fresh ginger too!) So next time, I'm upping the ginger and maybe augmenting with ground as well.

Yes, definitely freeze before baking if it's hot out. You can freeze shaped cookie balls on a baking sheet lined w parchment. Freeze for 20-30 mins and bake direct from freezer, just make sure oven is preheated well. That should help with shape and also will give you a taller cookie as they'll spread less.

Not crazy about ginger -- wondering about deleting all ginger but putting bits of candy cane on top. Thoughts, anyone?

Made them gluten free so my dad could have some and sub’ing a GF flour 1:1 worked and they tasted great.

Has anyone tried regular, or dark choc chips in place of bittersweet? For those with a Trader Joe's nearby, their candied ginger is the best I have ever used; in the dried fruit section.

I made these gluten free by using buckwheat flour and less sweet by using half the sugar and not adding the chocolate chips. The chocolate and ginger flavors were enhanced and the cookies were delicious, very pretty and not intensely sweet.

Delicious! Made these without the added chocolate chips and did not miss them in the least. Still very rich and super chocolatey.

My lord these are good cookies. I'm not a big fan of mixing ginger & chocolate, and I almost substituted these cookies for a purer chocolate one on my tray this year but I'm so glad I didn't. I am fully committed to making the whole array Spungen compiled. The only feedback I'd give is that the smaller the better: I used my tiniest cookie scoop and just a few slices of crystalized ginger. The cookies are very very delicate! Two of them broke as I was transferring to a cookie sheet. Be careful!

I mixed the toppings: candied ginger, candied orange, candied lemon, some I left topless. Everything else the same.