Commonly associated with savoury dishes, spices can add a warmth and complexity to your sweet desserts… like these garam masala and chocolate chunk cookies.
In sweet cookery, spice can provide a delicate fragrance, hard to put your finger on but one that gives backbone to a dish. It can balance tartness and tone down things that are overly sweet.
Flavours can be enhanced by a thoughtful addition from the spice cupboard, making chocolate more chocolaty and fruit taste more of itself. Added not in shouts but in whispers, an intrigue of spice deepens allure.
You can’t enjoy spices in isolation, they need foods to bounce off, so cooking with them is an art of creating relationships. Like any successful marriage, when paired with the right ingredients they will bring out the best in each other.
Garam Masala & Chocolate Chunk Cookies Recipe
Makes 18-20 cookies
Ingredients:
- 250g plain flour
- 1 tsp garam masala
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
- 1⁄2 tsp fine sea salt
- 150g dark chocolate, cut into chunks
- 100g crystallised ginger, cut into chunks
- 140g unsalted butter, at room temperature
- 140g dark muscovado or soft dark brown sugar
- 100g caster sugar
- 1 egg
- Sea salt flakes, for sprinkling
Spice switch: Trade in the garam masala for other sweet and complex spice mixes such as hawaij, baharat, ras el hanout or advieh.
Method:
Line two baking sheets with baking paper. Whisk together the plain flour, garam masala, ground ginger, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and fine salt in a bowl. Stir through the chocolate and ginger chunks.
In a stand mixer with a paddle or bowl with a wooden spoon, cream together the butter and both sugars until well mixed but not aerated and fluffy.
Beat in the egg well, then add the dry ingredients and mix through. Using an ice cream scoop, scoop out balls of the dough and space well apart on the baking sheets to allow room for spreading. Chill in the fridge overnight or up to two days.
The next day, heat the oven to 180°C (160°C fan), sprinkle a little flaky salt over the top of each cookie ball. Still cold from the fridge, bake for 12 minutes. Cool on the sheets then store in an airtight container.
Want to know more about using spices in your sweet desserts?
In Issue #31 of Pip Magazine, we bring you our in-depth article on infusing your dessert cooking with spices.
- How to choose and store your spices.
- Advice on grinding and toasting spices.
- Recipes for stone fruit galette with marzipan and long pepper, and lavender and raspberry crème brûlée.
You can access this article online here as part of our digital subscription offering, or subscribe to the print version of Pip Magazine here.
This is an edited extract from the ‘A Whisper of Cardamom’ (Murdoch Books, 2024) by Eleanor Ford.
