January 4, 2021

Molasses Cookies

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These cookies have been a staple in my life forever. Seriously. I can’t ever remember a time without them. According to my mom, they’re the first cookies that I ever ate so much of the dough that I made myself sick and threw up everywhere on a Christmas eve once upon a time. But in my defense, I was only 1. And like 1 year olds have lots of self control, right? Who am I kidding? I still have trouble with self control and this cookie dough 37 years later.

These cookies came from my great Grandma. I never got the chance to meet her because she passed away when I was 2. But man, her daughter, my Grandma, told us so many stories about her, that I grew up feeling like I knew her. I can’t wait to actually meet her when I get to Heaven someday. I can picture my great Grandma making these as a young woman in the early 1900s in her tiny log cabin in the Appalachian mountains of Kentucky. To hear my Grandma talk, her mom didn’t make these cookies often. They were poor, and things like sugar were hard to come by back in the early 1900s. But they always appeared around Christmas time.

A Rich Family History

Grandma always made sure to make these cookies at Christmas too, but growing up, I remember my Grandpa liking them so much that Grandma began making them at other times of the year. I discovered that when I was about 8 or 9 years old and had walked across the field to visit Grandma and Grandpa one summer evening. I’ll never forget that recognizable and oh so comforting smell of ginger and molasses that embraced me like a warm, comforting hug as soon as I opened the back door to her house that evening. I learned that Grandpa liked these cookies as much as I did, and he liked them a little under done, so that they were still kind of gooey in the center. That summer evening I got to sit out on the swing with him and enjoy two warm, gooey, hot out of the oven molasses sugar cookies with a big glass of iced cold milk while the tree frogs began croaking their summer song in the swamp just south of their property.

This was the first recipe my mom gave to me when I moved out on my own. These were the first cookies I made for our first Christmas together in our tiny apartment. I proudly took them to my in-laws house that first Christmas after I was married. And they were the first cookies I made with each of my boys as soon as they were big enough to help.

On My Own

Nothing has changed. I made these cookies with the boys right before Christmas this year. And just like my sister, brother, and me, they fight over who gets to help roll the cookies in the sugar and place them on the cookie sheet. If it’s getting a little late in the season and I haven’t yet made them, Tristin asks when we’re going to make them because as he told me this year, “It doesn’t feel like Christmas until you’ve had them.” Ah! Great Grandma would be so happy!

To Make Them

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees. Measure 3/4 cup of shortening into a bowl. Below is my favorite shortening to use, and it’s what I remember my mom using when we were kids. If I remember correctly, Grandma may have even used lard when she made her cookies, but then again, I think Grandma may have used lard for everything.

Side note, excuse my pictures. I had a very eager 8 year old who wanted to help Mommy make cookies AND take pictures for her blog. The fight wasn’t worth it. And it’s all about the memories anyway, right?

Add 1 cup of sugar.

Add 2 teaspoons of baking soda.

Add 1/2 teaspoon of ground cloves.

Add 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger.

I really like the ginger from the little market up the road. But any kind of ground ginger will work.

Add 1 teaspoon cinnamon.

Add 1 egg.

Add 1/2 teaspoon salt.

Add 1/4 cup molasses. My mom and Grandma both use the green label of Brer Rabbit molasses. It’s important to note that it is the FULL flavor of molasses. However, I can’t find it in the area where we live, so I’ve found other brands of molasses to work better. Don’t use the dark molasses. I’ve burnt the cookies before using that kind.

Finally, add 2 cups of flour. I’ve found that if the dough is super sticky, I can just add a little more flour at a time until I have a cookie dough. It hasn’t happened often, and I’m not sure why it has in the past, but that’s the fix in case it happens to you and you find that you can’t even roll the dough into balls.

That’s it. The beautiful thing about this dough is that you can just mix it all together. I usually take my rings off and use my hands to really mix it well.

Then you’ll roll the dough into balls. The bigger the balls you make, the bigger the cookies you’ll have. Find a helper, or two, or three, to help you roll the balls in sugar. But beware! This seems to be a much sought after job, so be prepared for some fighting. I solve this problem by giving each kid their own bowl of sugar. Then I alternate placing balls of cookie dough in each bowl. Problem solved! Place the cookies on a cookie sheet. Bake at 375 degrees until the tops just start to crack. But don’t overbake. Blek!

All rolled in sugar and ready to go. I prefer to make my cookies on parchment paper. It makes clean up easy breezy! You’ll want to space your cookies farther apart than this. Trust me! This might be perfectly acceptable if you’re 8 years old, but you won’t have very pretty cookies once they bake.

See what I mean? These cookies needed more space between them so the wouldn’t have baked together.

Cool on foil or fancy cooling racks if you have them. I have them, but I need some new ones. Getting mine out often involves cussing, so it’s just not worth it. Make sure you enjoy at least one, or two, or ten warm cookies with an ice cold glass of milk. You can even leave some out for Santa next year if your family enjoys them as much as ours has for over the last 100 years.