For this week’s bake, I decided to do a holiday favorite at my house (not for any upcoming holiday, I just really wanted these cookies). I baked my grandma’s molasses cookies recipe. I hadn’t made these cookies since I was really young, so it was fun to make them again. One small issue I forgot about was that the dough for these cookies was supposed to be chilled overnight, and I didn’t start making the dough until late last night. So, I baked the cookies today. 🙂

This recipe has quite a few ingredients in it and some of them are a bit uncommon, so you may have to make a grocery run before being able to bake these cookies. To start baking, you’ll want to measure out your dry ingredients into a large bowl. Measure out 2 and 1/4 cups of flour, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of baking soda, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ground ginger, 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ground cinnamon, 1/4 teaspoon of ground cloves, 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, and 1/4 teaspoon of salt. Use a fork or butter knife to stir the dry ingredients around, so they are somewhat mixed in with each other.

The next step is to cream together 3/4 cup of softened butter (1 and 1/2 sticks), 1/2 cup of backed brown sugar, and 1/4 cup of granulated (regular) sugar. Do this on a medium speed in a mixing bowl until the mixture is smooth looking. Then add in 1/4 cup of molasses and continue to mix. When the molasses is all incorporated, add in 1 egg and 2 teaspoons of vanilla extract and mix on a medium-high speed until the mixture is smooth and creamy.

Now you can add in the dry ingredients. Do this while beating the mixture on a low speed, adding small amounts of the dry ingredients at a time. When all of the dry ingredients are in, turn the mixer up to a medium-high speed and let the batter blend for another minute or two to make sure all of the ingredients are evenly mixed. The dough should turn out sticky (see left), which is why it needs to chill. Put some plastic wrap over the mixing bowl and set it in the fridge for at least 1 hour, but overnight is best.

When the dough has chilled enough, you can bake the cookies! If your dough only chilled for 1-2 hours, take it out of the fridge right when you want to start baking the cookies. If your dough was in the fridge overnight, take it out of the fridge 30 minutes before you’re ready to bake the cookies. Use a spoon to scoop out the dough, and roll it into a ball with your hands. Then, roll that dough ball in a bowl of sugar, so that the cookie is coated with a layer of sugar. Place the dough balls onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake the cookies for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees Fahrenheit. When the cookies are done, you should be able to see cracks on the top of them (see the first picture of this blog post).

This recipe has some slightly unusual ingredients, but overall I think it is an easy recipe to make, and one that I certainly enjoy eating! I hope I have inspired some of you to try out these cookies yourselves. Thanks for reading!