The words "molasses cookies" don't exactly make my mouth water. Instead, I crinkle up my nose at the thought of hard cookies that are too sugary and rather tasteless. Just imagine my surprise when I found a recipe from Carole Walter's "Great Cookies" cookbook promising "everything a molasses spice cookie should: spectacular flavor, snappy crispness, with a crinkly, sugary surface." I was ready to give molasses cookies a second whirl.
And how glad I was that I did. The recipe calls for ginger, ground cloves and cinnamon, all of which combine to give the cookies a nice kick of flavor. And the texture was everything I had been craving for in my hunt for the perfect chocolate cookies -- a little crispy around the edges, soft and chewy in the middle and a hint of a sugar crust. Who knew molasses cookies could be this divine?
Joanna Pruess's Molasses Spice Cookies (from Carole Walter's "Great Cookies")
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter
2 cups all-purpose flour, spooned in and leveled
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cloves
2 cups sugar, divided
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 large egg
Make the dough: Melt the butter in a 3-quart, heavy saucepan over low heat. (This cookie is mixed by hand in the pot.) Cool to tepid.
Strain together three times the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, salt and cloves. Set aside.
Using a wooden spoon, stir 1 1/2 cups of the sugar, the molasses and egg into butter, mixing until smooth. (NOTE: To have an easier time of getting the molasses out of the measuring cup, coat it with a layer of cooking spray.) Add the dry ingredients, one-half at a time and blend well. Cover with wax paper and chill of 30 to 45 minutes, until firm.
Bake the cookies.
Position the shelves in the upper and lower third of the oven. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Moderately butter the cookie sheets.
Shape dough into 1-inch balls between the palms of your hands. Place the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar in a shallow dish and roll the balls of dough in the sugar. Place the balls 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.
Bake the cookies for 8 to 10 minutes (8 minutes worked well for me) or until the tops begin to crack. Toward the end of the baking time, rotate the pans from top to bottom and front to back. Remove from the oven and let stand 2 to 3 minutes. Loosen with a spatula and transfer to a cooling rack.
Recent Comments