Molasses Cookies

Ok. I've been baking since I was a kid, and over the years have discovered that I cannot follow a recipe exactly for the life of me. I always have to change SOMETHING to make it my own. So, I've decided to document which I've tried, what I've changed, and how AWESOMELY DELICIOUS they turn out. First recipe on the books? My new favorite cookie recipe EVER. It started out as the Pioneer Woman's Spicy Molasses Cookies. You can find the original recipe here. The original calls for regular sugar, which I was low on, and some spices that I don't generally keep on hand, so this was more of an "I REALLY want some molasses cookies so I'm going to MAKE it work" type of a deal. The result? A more molasses-y taste from using brown sugar instead of white, and less spicy from the lack of ginger. (Side note, I recommend using Brer Rabbit Molasses, not Grandmother's). 

Here's my version:

Ingredients

• 1 cup Brown Sugar (or 1/2 and 1/2 brown and white, it turned out good that way too!)
• 3/4 cups Butter (1 1/2 sticks)
• 1/4 cup Molasses (no one will know if you add an extra drizzle!)
• 1 whole Egg
• 2 cups Flour
• 2-1/2 teaspoons Baking Soda
• 1 teaspoon Baking Powder
• 1 teaspoon Cinnamon (give or take, i just dump "enough" in)
• 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon Ground Nutmeg
• 1/4 teaspoon Ground Cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt

Preparation Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Mix sugar, butter, molasses, and egg together until well combined. Dump in dry ingredients, stirring dry ingredients together lightly on top of wet ingredients. Mix together until dough is combined.

In your hands roll dough into walnut-sized balls, then generously coat each ball with sugar. You can do this right after you make the dough, but if you don't want as much of a mess, refrigerate them for maybe 20 minutes first. Place balls on a baking sheet and bake for 9 to 11 minutes, allowing to bake for about a minute after cookies begin to crack. (Make sure they crack before you take them out!)

Remove cookies from baking sheet and allow to cool. This is important. You CAN eat them while warm, but they won't have that nice chewy texture that we all love in a good molasses cookie.

My husband has always sworn to me that he does NOT like molasses ANYTHING. These cookies wound up disappearing faster than my Girl Scout Samoas he also claimed to not like (which he won't admit he ever said now of course..). I've had numerous requests to make these again from co-workers, and so I just made another batch to take with. If they last past my kids and husband. And maybe me. I can't help it, they're just so good! And by using butter instead of shortening as the original recipe called for, they've also got a great, rich, luxurious background to the molasses. EXCELLENT! Everything's better with butter, right Paula?

Sorry. Didn't mean to ruin your appetite. I DO love Paula Deen though, just sayin'. 

Alright, I think that's all I've got for this one, other than DO IT! I'll be back soon with more recipes! Have no fear!