Northern Ginger Cookies

This week marks five years since I hit “publish” on my first blog post! When I started this blog, I honestly thought I might do it for a year or two. But five years in, I’m still loving it and have no intention of stopping. To celebrate five years of baking and blogging fun, I decided to create a signature cookie recipe: one that reflects not only the name of my blog, but also the cozy vibes of this beautiful place I call home (and some of my favorite flavors). Everyone give a warm welcome to Northern Ginger Cookies!

A New Kind of Ginger Cookie

Northern Ginger Cookies are soft maple ginger cookies that are spiked with espresso (in two forms…I love my coffee) and dipped (or drizzled, if you prefer) in a maple-espresso glaze. In other words, you get your cookies and coffee all in one bite.

These cookies are a little different than traditional soft molasses cookies. While they’re still spiced with ginger, cinnamon, and a touch of cloves and cardamom, they have pure maple syrup in place of some of the molasses, which gives them a lighter flavor profile. I also added brown butter to enhance the flavor. Finally, I rolled them in a ginger-sugar mixture before baking, then added a glaze (which is flavored with more maple syrup, some vanilla bean paste, and a little espresso powder) after they cooled.

Honestly, this combination of flavors is everything I want to eat on a cold winter day while I’m wrapped up in cozy blankets inside.

I think you’re going to love these cookies.

Tips for Making Your Best Northern Ginger Cookies

Ok, let’s get down to the nitty gritty of baking these cookies. Here are a few things to keep in mind for this recipe:

• Brown your butter. Brown butter adds SO. MUCH. FLAVOR. to these cookies! I tried making them without browning the butter, and they were…underwhelming. So don’t skip this step (plus, when you brown butter, it evaporates the water in it, so if you make them without browning the butter they’ll turn out flat and sad). If you’re not sure how to brown butter, I’ve got you covered in this post.
• Let your browned butter chill. Once you brown your butter, pop it in the fridge to chill for about 40 minutes, stirring halfway through. When you mix up your cookie dough, you want the butter cooled down and preferably starting to thicken up again.
• Chill your espresso or coffee, or use cold press if you have it. Make sure your espresso is room temperature or colder when you add it to your cookie dough. I like to brew my espresso right after I brown my butter so it can chill in the freezer until the brown butter is cooled.
• Use pure maple syrup, not pancake syrup. Don’t have any or prefer a darker molasses cookie? swap the maple syrup out for more molasses.
• Use fresh spices. The spices add a lot of flavor to these cookies, so it’s worth it to use fresh spices. You don’t have to grind your own or anything (unless you really want to) — just make sure the spices you’re using haven’t been sitting in the cupboard for years.
• Roll your cookies in sugar AND glaze them. Yep, I know, it sounds like a lot of sugar, but trust me, don’t skip the rolling sugar. The cookies will be way prettier AND tastier!
• Add ginger to your rolling sugar! We’ve all done cinnamon sugar (and if you’ve made my Chai Spice Snickerdoodles you’ve done chai spice sugar). This is similar, but we’re using ground ginger instead. It really amps up the ginger flavor of these cookies.
• Use good quality vanilla bean paste for the glaze. I like Nielsen-Massey or Heilala Vanilla‘s. I’ve also seen VB paste at Trader Joe’s, though I haven’t tried theirs so can’t comment on the quality. I listed this as optional in the recipe, because I know not everyone has it and it can be kind of pricey (though definitely worth it in my opinion)…but the glaze is vastly better with it.
• Dip or drizzle…you choose! I like the look of these cookies half-dipped in the glaze, but if you’d rather have a little less glaze, feel free to drizzle it over the top instead. If you do this, you might want to thin out the glaze with a little extra milk. Also, you can probably get by with a half batch of glaze if you opt to drizzle.

Cheers to Five Years of Baking and Blogging!

I hope you all love these cookies as much as I do. I can’t wait to see your Northern Ginger Cookies all across the socials (don’t forget to tag me on IG or FB if you post photos!).

Thank you all for reading and baking along with me for the past five years! I love creating recipes, sharing them with you all, and seeing you bake them for your loved ones. Makes me a little teary, if I’m honest. 🥲 Cheers to five years, and hopefully many more! 🥂 Happy baking!

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