Molasses is made from the refining process of sugar cane and sugar beets. Basically a liquid is made by squishing the plants, and is boiled, one part becomes sugar, the other is molasses. It is a sweetener and is used in everything from rum, to cattle feed, and of course cookies.
This recipe requires the dough to be chilled so you either need to make the dough two hours - a full day earlier so it can be chilled in the refrigerator.
Ingredients
In a LARGE bowl combine:
- ¼ Cup Shortening
- 1 cup Packed brown sugar
- 1 free range egg
- ¼ cup Molasses
In another bowl combine:
- 2 ¼ cups All purpose Flour
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 teaspoon powder ginger
- 1 teaspoon powder cinnamon
- ½ teaspoon powder cloves
- ¼ teaspoon salt
Add the dry ingredients to the shortening mixture, and chill for 2 - 24 hours.
- Heat the oven to 375 degrees F or 190 C
- Lightly grease a cookie sheet
- Roll teaspoon fulls of the chilled dough into balls.
Method
- Prepare a bowl of ¼ sugar, and dip one side of the balls into the sugar and place sugar side up on your cookie sheet, about 3 inches apart.
- They will spread slightly when cooking.
- Bake 10 - 12 minutes, longer if you prefer hard cookies.
- Cool.
- This recipe makes 3-4 dozen cookies depending on size.
You will note that I did specify a free range egg ... this is not only for cruelty reasons, but taste and health reasons too. If your egg is a fresh free range egg, the cookies will be that much better. Yes, some free range eggs are less cruel than others, that is not the point. ALL free range eggs are better than battery hen eggs. The best free range eggs are ones that come from your own pet chickens, but that is another website altogether.
If you use a Fresh Free Range Chicken egg, your cookies will truly be yummy!
