Recipe Review: Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
It's officially the Christmas Season! Thanksgiving has come and gone, and now it's time to cozy up at home with all my favorite holiday treats. I might gain a pound or ten, but who cares! It's Christmas!
Last year I had quite a few Christmas events including a bake-off at work, and a family party on Christmas Eve. I needed a recipe that was quick, easy, and inexpensive because I'm always on a budget. Oh, and it also had to be delicious.
I really had a hankerin' for cookies, so I narrowed my search to that "genre" of sweets. I tried a few holiday cookie recipes that I found on pinterest, including a recipe for sugar cookies that was a maaaajor fail. I love decorating cookies, but it's so hard to find the perfect cookie recipe to start off with! So scratch decorating, I don't have time for that anyway.
I had one recipe that had been buried deep in my pinterest board for years, and I finally decided to give it a go since i had all the ingredients on hand already! I'm REALLY glad I did, because these cookies are incredibly easy to make, and absolutely delicious. Like, I could eat the entire batch in one sitting. And I wouldn't regret it.
The original recipe is from one of my most frequented blogs Gimme Some Oven. You can view it here. The only problem I had with these cookies is they took a little longer to bake than the recipe indicated - I suppose it all depends on the oven you are using and how many sheets of cookies you are cooking at one time. She has some great tips for these cookies on her blog, so definitely check it out. I've also included a version of the recipe below:
Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons ground ginger
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 ½ cups butter, softened to room temperature (not melted!*)
2 cups granulated sugar
½ cup molasses
2 eggs
Directions:
Combine first 6 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
Using your stand mixer, beat together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 minutes.)
Continue mixing on medium low speed while you add in the eggs one at a time, and then the molasses.
Slowly add the dry mixture, a little bit at a time, until fully combined.
Refrigerate the dough for about an hour.
Preheat oven to 375
Roll the dough into small balls, then roll them in a bowl of sugar until they are completely coated.
Place them on a cookie sheet about 1 inch apart from each other.
Bake for about 10 minutes (or longer - you want the top of the cookies to be nicely cracked, but keep an eye on the bottoms of the cookies to make sure you don't burn them.)
Let them cool on a rack, or eat them while they are still ridiculously hot and burn your entire mouth like I always do. The choice is yours!
