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White chocolate gingerbread swirl cookies on a cooling rack with a bowl of chocolate buttons next to it.
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5 from 3 votes

White Chocolate Gingerbread Swirl Cookies

These gingerbread swirl cookies are packed with white chocolate buttons and are perfectly chewy and gooey inside, with lots of gingerbread flavour.
Prep Time25 minutes
Cook Time10 minutes
Total Time35 minutes
Course: Cookies, Dessert
Cuisine: American, British
Servings: 16 cookies
Calories: 278kcal
Author: Sasha Hooper

Equipment

Ingredients

Gingerbread add-ins:

Instructions

  • Preheat the oven to 180°C/350°F. Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper or a silicone mat.
  • Heat the butter in a saucepan or small frying pan over medium heat and whisk continuously until the butter begins to foam and darkens and smells nutty. Be very careful not to burn it! It changes very quickly - so it is worth only focusing on this one thing whilst doing it. Set aside to cool for a few minutes whilst you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
    ¾ cup unsalted butter
  • In a medium mixing bowl, combine the all-purpose (plain) flour, cornstarch (cornflour), baking powder, baking soda (bicarbonate of soda) and fine sea salt. Stir together using a whisk, to ensure all the ingredients are evenly distributed.
    2 ½ cups all-purpose (plain) flour, 2 teaspoons cornstarch, 1 teaspoon baking powder, ½ teaspoon baking soda, ¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
  • In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the brown sugars and granulated sugar with the slightly cooled (but still warm) brown butter. Mix on medium speed, just until well combined. (Alternatively use a large mixing bowl and an electric hand mixer).
    ¾ cup packed dark brown sugar, ¼ cup granulated sugar
  • Add the egg and vanilla to the butter and sugar mixture and continue to mix on medium speed until well combined.
    1 medium egg, 1 ½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • Add the flour mixture and mix on low speed until no streaks of flour remain.
  • Add the chocolate chips to the cookie dough. Mix on low speed until evenly distributed throughout the dough.
    1 cup white chocolate buttons
  • Divide the dough in half, keeping one half of the dough to one side in a medium mixing bowl. To one half of the dough, add the molasses and the ground spices and extra flour, stir well until combined.
    2 tablespoons molasses, 1 ½ teaspoons ground ginger, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, ¼ teaspoon ground nutmeg, ⅛ teaspoon ground cloves, 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • Use a small cookie scoop to scoop the dough into approximately 1 tablespoon-sized balls of each half of the mixture. Press them together and swirl them slightly if you can. Roll into balls and place on the prepared baking tray. You should get 6-8 on a tray at a time.
  • Bake in the preheated oven for 8-10 minutes (mine are perfect after 9 minutes in a fan-assisted/convection oven) until lightly golden at the edges. They should still feel soft and underbaked in the centre – that’s what you want! They’ll continue to bake as they cool. Makes 16.

Notes

Accuracy - I will always provide cup measurements for baking recipes, but categorically this is the most inaccurate measurement you can use in baking. Sure, it’s helpful for ratios, but everyone will spoon, level, scoop and measure their flour differently. For consistent results every time I highly recommend investing in a set of digital scales which will be the most accurate way for baking. Baking is a science after all and accuracy is needed. 
Splitting the dough - I highly recommend splitting the dough slightly unevenly, the non-gingerbread side being about 20-25g more in weight than the side you will be mixing in the extra add-ins into. This is so you won’t have a leftover little bit of the gingerbread side as the add-ins make up the difference.  
Molasses - this recipe calls for the addition of molasses to make the gingerbread half of the dough. In doing this, we add more moisture to the dough and it will spread further so don’t forget to add in the 2 tablespoons of extra all-purpose flour to counteract this. You can just use blackstrap or treacle, but these can be more bitter than standard molasses.
Brown butter - using the brown butter when it is still really hot will make the sugar/brown butter mix split. This is no issue as it comes back together later when adding in the eggs. I do however recommend letting it cool for 10-15 minutes before adding in to the sugar. When whipping cooler brown butter with the sugar the mix actually blends together and combines fully before even adding any eggs in. It also means you can add your egg in to the mix and it won’t curdle or cook as it might if the butter is still too hot.
Freeze - These cookies freeze well. Either freeze the cookie dough balls before baking on a baking sheet then place them in a freezer bag that you can dip into whenever you want one. You can also freeze them post baking and store them for up to 3 months in the freezer. I recommend letting the frozen cookie dough defrost for a little bit at room temperature before baking, otherwise the cookies won't spread as much (but will still be delicious!)

Nutrition

Serving: 1cookie | Calories: 278kcal | Carbohydrates: 37.8g | Protein: 3.2g | Fat: 13.1g | Saturated Fat: 7.9g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 0.6g | Monounsaturated Fat: 3.7g | Cholesterol: 35.7mg | Sodium: 94.1mg | Potassium: 166.8mg | Fiber: 0.7g | Sugar: 21.9g | Vitamin A: 78.2IU | Vitamin C: 0.1mg | Calcium: 66.2mg | Iron: 1.2mg