sticky date and ginger cookies

sticky date and ginger cookies

• 6 Mar 2023

Each month I travel between Brisbane and Sydney and if I'm very lucky, I get a cup of tea and a cookie on my flight. Recently I was given a sticky date and ginger cookie by the Byron Bay Cookie Company, and it was so delicious I thought it would be nice to recreate the cookies at home.

I turned to the internet and combined 2 recipes to come up with these cookies, the ingredients from here and the method from here. The cookies are chock full of ginger, dates and walnuts and as they baked, they filled the house with the scent of sugar and spice.

Here's the recipe for you, which makes 28 cookies. For all my recipes I use a 250ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon, unsalted butter and 60g eggs. My oven is a conventional gas oven so if your oven is fan forced you may need to reduce the oven temperature by 20°C.

Sticky date and ginger cookies
Ingredients
200g dried dates (1 1/3 cups packed)
175g unsalted butter
¾ cup (150g) soft light brown sugar
15 mls maple or golden syrup
½ tsp vanilla bean paste
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2¼ cups (335g) plain flour
1 tsp ground ginger
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
pinch nutmeg
½ tsp flaked sea salt

75g walnuts
75g stem or glace ginger
1 tbs plain flour

Method
Finely chop 100g of dates. Put the chopped dates, the butter, sugar, syrup and vanilla in a saucepan. Place the pan over a low heat, stirring until the butter has melted, the sugar has dissolved, and the dates have softened. Take off the heat and stir through the bicarb soda; the mixture will froth and bubble. Set aside to cool.

Sift the flour, baking powder, spices and salt into a large bowl. Add the cooled date mixture and stir well until a dough has formed. Roughly chop the remaining dates, walnuts and ginger. Place in a small bowl and stir through the tablespoon of flour until the fruit is well coated. Knead the fruit mixture into the dough until incorporated. Turn out onto a floured bench, roll into a 5cm diameter log then wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for at least an hour, but preferably overnight, until dough is quite solid.

Preheat the oven to 180°C, conventional. Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicone mats. Using a sharp knife, slice the dough into 1 cm thick discs. Place the discs onto lined baking trays slightly spaced apart and bake at 180°C for 12-15 min or until slightly brown but still soft (they will harden as they cool). Once completely cooled, store the cookies in an airtight container.

Just perfect served with a cup of tea.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian