Last week my first college roommate, and dear friend, Ria, called from Florida needing a throw-down cookie recipe she could make for her team and it hit me that I had only posted two cookie recipes on the blog so far and BOTH used malted milk powder. Part of my original reason for starting this blog was to have a place to store favorite recipes to effortlessly share with family and friends. So, in Ria's honor I post this recipe for Old-Fashioned Molasses Cookies with a bit of a healthy twist.
These little morsels make a perfect after school snack.
The original recipe came from a book called Comfort Food written by Holly Garrison that I spied among the treasure-trove of books at my favorite store ever...Powell's Books. (Big surprise for those that know me, I'm sure). It was one of my first cookbooks purchased while in college and became a mainstay over the years. The author touts that "occasional indulgence in these [comfort] foods by adults is considered safer than drugs or alcohol and less expensive than compulsive shopping". Needless to say, it was a great purchase that kept me cooking comfort food as a guilty pleasure - and my wasitline reflected that indulgence, especially in college (a.k.a. the freshman fifteen)!
Old-Fashioned Molasses Cookies (a bit healthier)
Adapted from Comfort Food
Ingredients:
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup coconut oil (the original recipe uses lard or solid white vegetable shortening)
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsulphured molasses
2 eggs
4 cups flour
1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/4 tsp. baking soda
2 1/4 tsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. ground cloves
1 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Raw sugar or granulated sugar for coating cookies prior to baking
Instructions:
1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Cream butter, coconut oil (or gasp, lard, if you are using that instead) and sugar together until light and fluffy.
3. Beat in molasses and eggs until thoroughly combined.
4. Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl using a wire whisk. (I'll admit it. I have been known to skip this step and just add it all in.) Gradually add the flour mixture into the butter mixture until smooth and well blended.
5. Roll pieces of dough into 1 1/2 inch balls and dip them into the sugar placing them on an ungreased pan about 2 1/2 inches apart (as they flatten when they bake).
6. Bake for 13 minutes. Remove cookies from oven and immediately transfer to wire racks to cool. Store in a sealed container to prevent drying out.
Makes about 40 cookies.
You can see the difference in the photo above using the raw sugar with the larger sugar granules (my favorite) vs. regular granulated sugar.
