Ginger Molasses Cookies: The Countdown to Christmas

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What’s the holidays without some holiday cookies?

With exams coming up and my bah humbug attitude taking over any Christmas cheer, I’m surprised I’ve already started early thinking about it. December 25th already in less than a month? Seems like yesterday that I spent my first Christmas with Cobalt’s family. Year two is coming up fast! I’m also surprised that my gift list is partly written because for the last several months I’ve wanted to skip this holiday all together. But my solution is that I’m determined not to spend much money this year; rather, I’m choosing to thoughtfully make each gift by hand. To clarify: it’s not that I don’t like spending money on people, it’s that marketing really makes me frown. Why buy something you/other people don’t really need? But then again, I’ll admit: I’m old-fashioned. Getting socks and toothpaste in my stocking is totally okay with me. Lastly, I much prefer the family getting together than the greedy gloat over gifting. Meh – that’s just me. Don’t let me spoil that for you!! :)

So anyways, I was talking about cookies. When I hear the word “holiday cookies,” I think spiced, iced or sprinkled. Molasses cookies are included in this list. For you recipe modifiers out there (like me), the cookie recipe I’ve shared below is basically a spiced, molasses sugar cookie. My friend, who came over to make them with me, agreed that more molasses is needed to truly call them “molasses” cookies. Otherwise these were super tasty! The sugar coating provided a crystal crunch to the outside of the cookies, followed by a soft cookie center. And the spices gave a slightness of flavor to make my tongue giggle a little. I will add that my friend and I refrained from listening to Christmas music whilst baking ;)

Believe it or not, I followed this recipe pretty closely; the only changes being that I reduced the sugar by a few tablespoons (I purposefully didn’t fill my measuring cup all the way), omitted the cloves (I didn’t have any), added extra cinnamon, reduced the salt by half, and used butter instead of margarine. I also had to use more sugar for dipping the cookies than the recipe called for. Oh! And I also didn’t press the dough balls down before baking them (this probably contributed to the soft inside :)).

Ginger Molasses Cookies
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Ingredients
  1. 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
  2. 2 tsp ground ginger
  3. 1 tsp baking soda
  4. 1 tsp cinnamon
  5. 1/8 tsp salt
  6. 3/4 cup butter
  7. 3/4 cup sugar
  8. 1 egg
  9. 1 TBS water
  10. 1/4 cup molasses
  11. ~1/4 cup white sugar
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. In a medium bowl, whisk the flour, ginger, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside.
  3. In a large bowl, cream together the butter and 1(ish) cup sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg, then stir in the water and molasses.
  4. Gradually stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients.
  5. Shape dough into one inch balls, and roll them in the remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar. Place the cookies 2 inches apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet.
  6. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes in the preheated oven. Allow cookies to cool on baking sheet for 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool completely (if you don't let them cool they'll crumble when trying to remove from the cookie sheet).
Notes
  1. Store in an airtight container or in a freezer zip bag and freeze.
Adapted from Big Soft Ginger Cookies from allrecipes.com
Oh My Foodness! http://oh-my-foodness.com/
YAY holiday food! :)

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