Loaded with spicy ginger and molasses, warm spices, and chai tea, plus a few chunks of dark chocolate, these Ginger Chai Chocolate Chunk Cookies are perfect for any holiday cookie box.

Ginger Chai chocolate chunk cookie dough ball scoops on a quarter sheet pan.

What’s the difference between gingerbread and ginger cookies?

Gingerbread comes in all different forms, but it is usually somewhat soft inside thanks to the addition of molasses. On the other hand ginger cookies are usually thin and crisp and get their flavor purely from ginger and not from thick molasses. These cookies are however more like a gingerbread cookie, chewy on the inside with a slightly crispy edge.

What type of molasses is used in cookies? Can you substitute molasses?

For most cookies you want to use dark molasses or blackstrap molasses. The dark the molasses, the more concentrated and cooked down it is giving more flavor and chewiness to the cookies. There are no perfect substitutes for molasses so if you want a similar cookie, I recommend my classic chocolate chip cookies and you can add all of the spices used in these cookies!

How do you get chewy gingerbread cookies?

The key to chewy gingerbread cookies is a combination of brown sugar, molasses, and not over baking them. These cookies use a combination of brown sugar for chewiness and flavor and white sugar for the crisp edge. Molasses keeps the cookies a little bit soft in the middle and most importantly don’t over bake these cookies. The edges should just barely become golden brown but the center should still be VERY soft.

Tips for making Ginger Molasses Cookies

Make sure the egg and butter for are both at room temperature. This will help the cookie dough meld more easily and keep it from splitting.
To measure out how much ginger to grate, I recommend weighing the piece first (give yourself an extra 5 grams for the end nub that you can’t grate) and then grate it. If you try to weigh it while grating, the scale will have a difficult time picking it up.
These cookies have a bit of spice to them, if you don’t like the kick of ginger as much, reduce the grated ginger to 10 grams and the ground ginger to 1.5 teaspoons.
If you want to see visible chocolate on top of the cookies once they are baked, chop an extra 100 grams of chocolate to press on top of the cookie dough balls before baking.
Wait to roll the cookie dough balls in sugar until just before baking so that it doesn’t completely dissolve into the cookie.
I like to sprinkle extra sugar on top of the cookies immediately after baking for both taste /texture and to make them visually a little more interesting! You can also use cinnamon sugar for a bit of a snickerdoodle twist.
Do not over bake these cookies. They will look almost underdone in the middle but as they cool on the baking sheet, the residual heat will finish cooking the inside and cause them to firm up but not become hard.
You can also leave the chocolate out or replace it with finely chopped candied ginger.

Ingredients

Butter: Salted or Unsalted butter will work for these cookies, just be sure to cut the salt amount in half if using salted butter.
Brown Sugar: I recommend dark brown sugar for ultimate flavor and chewiness but light brown sugar will work too!
White Granulated sugar: The white sugar is both in the cookie dough as well as used to roll the cookie dough in just before baking.
Fine Sea Salt: A bit of salt helps to enhance the flavors in the cookies and balance out the sweetness.
Vanilla Extract: A splash of vanilla also enhances all of the sweet flavors of the cookies.
Chai Tea: A bag of fine loose leaf black tea or masala chai tea helps give these cookies their flavor along with a bunch of other spices.
Cardamom, White Pepper, Cinnamon, and Ginger: Green or Black Cardamom, ground will work for these cookies along with the white pepper, cinnamon, and ginger, they help give the cookies their full spiced flavor.
Egg: One large standard egg at room temperature will work best for this recipe.
Molasses: The dark molasses or blackstrap molasses is best to use for these cookies because it is the most concentrated.
Fresh Ginger: Fresh (or frozen – I store mine in the freezer) is grated into the cookie dough to add a bit of fresh ginger kick and round out the flavor.
All Purpose Flour: Any all purpose flour will work for this! I have not yet tried any other flours with this recipe.
Baking Soda: A bit of baking soda helps give the cookies a little puff and softens the texture.
60%-70% dark chocolate: I like a darker chocolate in these cookies to really balance out the sweetness.

Image of a ginger chai chocolate chunk cookie broken in half so the chocolate is visible.

How to make a Ginger Chai Cookies

Preheat the oven to 350 F and place a rack in the center of the oven.

In the a large mixing bowl add in the butter, spices, tea, salt, vanilla, and both sugars. Beat with a mixer until light and fluffy about 2-3 minutes.
Add in the egg, molasses, and grated ginger. Beat again until combined.
Pour in the flour and baking soda and beat in until almost combined.
Roughly chop the chocolate and pour into the cookie dough bowl. If you want extra chocolate visible on top, chop an extra 100 grams and set aside.
Use a rubber spatula to fold the chocolate into the cookie dough.
Use a cookie scoop, I like big cookies so I used a 3 tablespoon (close to a 1/4 cup) scoop, and scoop the cookie dough.
I usually scoop them all first onto a smaller baking sheet and then move onto rolling and baking them.
Once scooped, line a baking sheet if not using this one from usa pan, with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
Pour 100 grams of granulated sugar into a small bowl and roll 6 of the cookie dough balls in the sugar, one at a time.
Once rolled place the cookies, evenly spaced on the prepared baking sheet. If you chopped more chocolate, press it on top of the cookies now.
The rest of the cookie dough can sit out at room temperature while the first batch bakes.

Bake the cookies

Place the first tray of cookies in the oven and bake for 8 minutes.
Then rotate the pan 180 degrees and bake for another 6 minutes until the edges just begin to turn golden brown but the centers still look quite soft.
Take the pan out of the oven and sprinkle each cookie with a bit more sugar. Allow the cookies to cool for at least 5 minutes before transferring to a cooling rack to cool completely.
Continue baking until all the cookies have been baked!
Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Ginger Chai Chocolate Chunk Cookies baked on a baking sheet and sprinkled with sugar.

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