Chocolate-Cherry Ginger Cookies

These are the kind of cookies that make you want to cozy up under a warm blanket with a cup of tea and a good book. Packed full of warming spices, they have soft, chewy centers and crisp edges, and are punctuated by melty puddles of milk chocolate and tart dried cherries. They come together quickly too; no need to soften butter or chill dough. Feel free to substitute dark chocolate for a more deeply chocolaty cookie, but in either case, use chopped bar chocolate and not chips for the meltiest, tastiest bites. You can also substitute dried cranberries for the cherries.

Ingredients

• ½

  cup/100 grams turbinado sugar

• ¾

  cup/150 grams granulated sugar

• 6

  tablespoons/85 grams unsalted butter, melted and warm

• 2

  tablespoons grapeseed or other neutral oil

• 2

  tablespoons Dutch-process cocoa powder

• 2 ¼

  teaspoons ground ginger

• 1

  teaspoon ground cinnamon

• ½

  teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

• ¼

  teaspoon ground cloves

• ¾

  teaspoon fine salt

• ¼

  cup/75 grams unsulfured molasses

• 1

  large egg

• 1 ¾

  cups/225 grams all-purpose flour

• 1 ¾

  teaspoons baking soda

• 1

  cup/140 grams roughly chopped milk chocolate bar

• ½

  cup/75 grams dried cherries or cranberries, roughly chopped

Preparation

1. Place racks in the top and bottom thirds of the oven and heat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 sheet pans with parchment paper. Put the turbinado sugar in a shallow bowl and set aside.
2. To a large bowl, add the granulated sugar, butter, oil, cocoa powder, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, and salt, and whisk to combine.
3. Add the molasses and egg to the bowl, and whisk until smooth. Add the flour and baking soda, and stir with a rubber spatula until a few streaks of flour remain.
4. Add the chopped chocolate and cherries, and stir until well-combined and the flour is completely incorporated and no longer streaky.
5. Portion the cookies into 24 balls that are roughly 2 tablespoons/35 grams each, roll them in the turbinado sugar, and place them on the prepared baking sheets, 12 cookies per sheet.
6. Bake the cookies for 15 to 17 minutes, rotating the sheets from front to back and top to bottom halfway through, until crackly on top but still quite soft in the center. Cool the cookies completely on the baking sheets, then store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 4 days.