Clearly, it’s becoming evident that I adore ginger. After watching a short film called Lemonade about making the most out of life, even when things seem sucky, I decided to combine lemon and ginger into a cookie. At first thought, it seemed that a delicate, crispy sugar cookie would be the best match for lemon and ginger. But, I heart chocolate-covered ginger and chocolate-covered lemon peel and soft-chewy chocolate chip cookies. So I went this route instead. YUM! If I knew then what I know now, I would have a) doubled the amount of ginger in the recipe and b) cut the ginger into bigger pieces. But, as a first shot, I’m pretty happy with the flavor and texture!

Lemon Ginger Chocolate Chip Cookies

1 cup earth balance ‘butter’
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs or equivalent egg replacer
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons hot water
zest of one lemon
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup crystallized ginger–chopped
1 cup chocolate chips (I used semi-sweet)

*Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
*Cream butter and sugars with electric mixer. Add eggs/egg replacer and beat with electric mixer. Stir in extracts.

*Dissolve baking soda in hot water. Add to cookie mixture, stir.
*Add flour, salt, lemon zest, ginger, and chocolate chips.

*Drop onto cookie sheet. Bake 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

-For half of the cookies, I melted chocolate chips, dipped half of the cookie into the melted chocolate, and sprinkled with lemon zest. They were pretty. If I go the dipped chocolate route again though, I think I’ll leave the chocolate chips out of the cookie batter and increase the lemon extract to 2 teaspoons (so that the chocolate does not overwhelm the ginger/lemon combo).
–Cookies can be made vegan by using egg replacer and carob.