If you are anything like me, you love to peruse different food blogs and droll over the beautiful photography until you can’t take it anymore and run head first into the kitchen looking for a fork and knife. Foodbuzz made it really easy for everyone to check out as many food blogs as their taste buds desire. They are a social networking, food blog aggregator (at least that’s the name I gave them). Basically they sort through thousands of food blogs for your viewing pleasure. I am very excited to be working with Foodbuzz as a featured publisher. What does that mean exactly? It means that I will be in contact with more foodies than I can imagine. Admittedly I still need to figure out all there is to know about this Foodbuzz site. All in due time.
This week has been cookie week. I was on a mission to make some sugary goodness in order to combat the small funk I felt coming on. I wanted something familiar and comforting and then I remembered! In college my roommate and I were obsessed with these molasses cookies she found at the store one day. Let me tell you, there was nothing fancy about these cookies, but boy were they incredible. You could get them at your local Duane Reed and living in NYC they were everywhere. We spent many nights avoiding the temptation of eating the whole box in one sitting, but then the worst thing happened. They stopped selling these molasses cookies! Naturally we were devastated. Lucky for her she went back home to LA during the holidays and for some reason they were still selling them there. She had to store up for us.
After contemplating our love for these molasses cookies I decided to make some of my own. Surprisingly enough I have never made molasses cookies before. I got the recipe from epicurious. My little secret for extra soft cookies is to take them out a little bit earlier than recipes usually call for. You have to make sure they aren’t raw of course, trust me you will get sick of eating raw cookie dough eventually. You will need to eyeball the cookies to make sure they are ready. Practice makes perfect. I like to use Grandma’s Molasses because it is unsulfured, meaning it is darker and richer in flavor.
Molasses Cookies
Adapted from molasses crinkle cookies on Gourmet 2004.
Ingredients
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
3/4 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1/2 tsp ground cloves
Pinch salt
1/2 cup vegetable shortening at room temperature
1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup molasses
sanding or granulated sugar for tops of cookies
Whoa that’s a lot of ingredients, but worry not, this is a very easy recipe. In one bowl whisk together the flour, baking soda, and all the spices (cinnamon, ginger, allspice, cloves, and salt).
In another large bowl beat together the softened shortening, butter, and brown sugar with an electric mixer or hand held beater. If you use a hand held beater you will need to beat it a little longer until the mixture gets fluffy. After 5 minutes of so the mixture will be fluffy and you can add the molasses and the egg. At a very low speed slowly mix in the flour.
The dough is finished! Roll one large teaspoon of dough (I made mine slightly larger). The mixture will be very sticky so you should roll up the ball with wet hands. Take the dough ball and dip it into a small plat of granulated sugar. The top part of the ball should be covered in sugar and placed sugar side up on a baking sheet. You don’t need to grease the sheet. Give the ball some room (about 2 inches apart). Bake for 5 minutes before switching the sheet’s position in the oven, to make sure the cookies are evenly baked. Bake for an addition 5 or 6 minutes. Let the cookies cool for a minute on the sheets when you take them out and then transfer them to a rack to cool.
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