This afternoon, I fully embraced the summer sunshine and went on a glorious (though fairly monotonous) bike ride through Central City Park. As a logical reward for my mild exercise and Vitamin D intake, I of course came home, drank a beer on my porch, and baked a batch of cookies. Makes sense, right? Right.
Some friends and I got into a discussion of our favorite types of cookies, which is always a dangerous thing but especially so on an empty stomach, doubly so when you have the ingredients on hand to bake said cookies. I went for a tried and true favorite of mine – molasses cookies. Usually I’m a softer cookie kind of gal. I like my chocolate chip cookies crispy on the bottom but still soft enough to bend instead of break in half. Not so with molasses cookies, though. These babies I like extra crunchy, which is exactly what this recipe will give you. I find molasses to have an incredibly intoxicating smell, to the point where it raises the hairs on my arms. If you, like me, can manage to set the jar aside long enough to complete the recipe, these tasty morsels will be well worth your effort.
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp. molasses
- 4 tbsp. butter
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 tsp. baking soda
- 1/2 tsp. ground ginger
- 1 tsp. ground cinnamon
- 1 1/2 cups dark brown sugar, packed
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 tbsp. ground almonds (optional, but adds an interesting texture)
Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Try to ignore just how much sugar is used in proportion to everything else.
Not a low-calorie food…
Warm the molasses and butter in a small pan just until the butter has melted. Inhale the glorious molasses fumes.
Is it just me here?
Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and insert egg yolk and molasses-butter concoction. With a spoon, vigorously mix your ingredients together. You’ll have to smoosh the spoon against the side of the bowl for a while to get a consistently blended mixture. The dough should be soft enough that it sticks together when you press it but still dry enough that it appears crumbly.
Like so.
Flour a large surface, form the dough into a rough ball with your hands, and roll it out to between 1/4″ and 1/2″ thick, depending on how crunchy you want your cookies to be in the end. Free-hand if you will, or use a cookie cutter to make amusing shapes. I used a 2″x1″ owl-shaped cookie cutter and ended up with 24 cookies. Line your cookies up on a greased baking sheet, prick them gently with a fork, and chill for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 375*.
Once the cookies have chilled up, bake them for 12 minutes or until they’ve just set up, no more. Quickly transfer the still-warm cookies to a cooling rack, where they will harden up rapidly.
Crunch crunch. See those bits of almond?
Once they’re totally cool (it doesn’t take long), you can throw some glaze on them if you want. Mix 3/4 cup of powdered sugar with 2-3 tbsp. milk, half and half, heavy cream, whatever you have until smooth. Adjust the consistency so it drizzles slowly off the back of a spoon but doesn’t run straight off. Decorate at will. Savor as is or dunk quickly in coffee or tea for a real treat.
m”owl”asses cookies (stop me, please)
Cooking Up Happy 