When You're Rollin' Out the Dough...

Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies – Old Lunenburg Recipes, Pg. 24 – Belle Backman Mack (Mrs. S.E. Mack)





Ugh…feeling slightly nauseous...WAY too much cookie dough. We will likely slip into a temporary cookie dough coma when we complete this post. We feel it necessary to preface this blog post with a word of warning – This cookie dough is dangerously good! We mean sit down and eat it with a spoon good…not that we would ever do that…don’t judge. In fact, we think it’s safe to say that this cookie dough in its raw form is better than the actual baked cookie.

There’s something about Mary…and something about molasses cookies and the way the smell of the molasses and spices drifting from the oven transport you back to grandma’s kitchen. This particular cookie is a soft and airy variation of the molasses cookie with a strong molasses flavor…kinda reminds us of a homemade version of a bear paw cookie.

Not so surprisingly, this recipe doesn’t give any instruction on how to actually prepare the cookies for baking. We suspect the original method used was to roll the dough out and cut the dough into shapes. Although this isn’t a crisp gingerbread type cookie, these type of molasses cookies were often cut into circular shapes with a biscuit cutter and sprinkled with a little sugar. Well…as everyone knows…when you’re rollin’ out the dough, you must make sure to roll it slow (Bibbi Bobka style) – well we weren’t in a Bibbi Bobka kinda mood today. So instead we rolled the dough into small balls (I used a 1.5 tbsp scoop), coated them with sugar (why not), and gently pressed them down with the palm of our hand. While baking, the cookies formed a natural circular shape, rising slightly. The sugar created a nice sweet crunchy exterior with a soft, moist interior loaded with molasses-sy goodness.



If you’re looking for a chewy type of molasses cookie (which we actually prefer), this isn’t it. But for those looking for a great old fashioned molasses cookie that will remind many of the kind granny used to make – you’ve found it!

Old Fashioned Molasses Cookies

Ingredients:

2 Cups Molasses (that’s a whole lotta molasses)
1 Cup of Shortening
1 tsp Nutmeg
½ tsp Cloves
2 Dessert Spoons Cinnamon (I know right?! Figure it out, we had too!)
2 Desserts Spoons Ginger
2 Dessert Spoons Baking Soda
1 Egg (beaten)
5 Cups Flour (unsifted)

Directions:

Combine first 7 ingredients in a pot on the stovetop over medium heat. Allow to boil for one minute. Transfer mixture to electric mixer. Beat on medium speed for 5 to 10 minutes, allowing to cool. Once cooled the mixture will resemble chocolate frosting (mmmmm frosting…). On low speed, beat in the egg and flour. To prepare the cookies for baking you can use the method we chose above, or go with the more traditional method of rollin’ out the dough…just remember – when you roll the dough too quick, Bibbi Bobkas make you sick! Actually its more likely that eating too much raw cookie dough will make you sick.







Now entering cookie dough coma….ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz…

Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes. EAT.

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