Dark Chocolate, Pistachios, and Sweet Candied Ginger...these are a few of my favorite things!

So I thought, why not put dark chocolate, pistachios and candied ginger together in cookie form. I basically morphed a regular chocolate chip cookie recipe into a dark chocolate chip cookie recipe, and added finely diced candied ginger, which adds a zippy spiciness, and chopped roasted pistachios for a salty crunch.  These actually got a great review from my panel of tasters.  Monkey even thought they were awesome.  I told him, "But, there are nuts in them!  I thought you don't like cookies with nuts." To which he answered, "I like this kind, though!"

I started with 1 cup each of DARK brown sugar (to add to the dark color of the cookies) and regular sugar and creamed them with a couple of sticks (+1/2 a stick) of butter.  Then I added 2 eggs and 1 teaspoon of vanilla.

Since I don't own a sifter, and I don't plan on purchasing one in the near future, or maybe ever, I just measure my dry ingredients into a bowl and fluff it around with a whisk.  In this case, I fluffed up 2 1/4 cups of flour, 1 1/4 cups of unsweetened cocoa powder (Dutch Process), 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 1/4 teaspoon of salt (less than usual since the pistachios were salted).

Mix that all until combined, then add a cup at a time to the creamed mixture.

Coarsely chop the pistachios...

...and gently dice the ginger...

...and add them both to the mixture in the mixer. 

(Try saying that 5 times fast! Mixture in the mixer.  Mixture in the mixer...)

Next comes the most important part.

Very carefully pour in the dark chocolate chips.  Try not to drop too many of them into your mouth.

TAh-dAH!!

And from another angle...

Just ignore the eggs in the background, please.

Darker Chocolate Chip Cookies

with Pistachios and Candied Ginger

1 cup dark brown sugar

1 cup granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups butter (2 1/2 sticks)

1 teaspoon vanilla

2 eggs

2 1/4 cups flour

1 1/4 cups unsweetened Dutch Process cocoa powder

2 teaspoons baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup finely diced candied ginger

1/2 cup to 1 cup coarsely chopped pistachios

12 ounces dark chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.  

In a medium bolw mix together the flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt.

With an electric mixer, cream the butter and sugars until fluffy.  Add the eggs and vanilla and beat until combined.  Add the flour mixture a cup at a time until just combined.  Mix in the ginger, pistachios, and dark chocolate chips just until incorporated into the dough.

Form balls or use a scoop and bake on cookie sheet until slightly puffed and cracked, about 9 minutes.  Do not overbake.

Here's a peek at our tree.  It's striped with white and red lights, and has many years' worth of a hodge podge of ornaments.  The two little boys did the majority of the decorating, and I think it's adorable.