Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies

When it comes to baking, I like to keep it simple. Baking elaborate desserts that take more time to decorate than to eat is just not my style. I also am not patient or exacting enough to really be successful at making great desserts. For elaborate-ness, I recommend that you visit Bakerella's site for inspiration.

Therefore, when it comes to Christmas cookies, I have to apologize in advance that you will not see any fun shapes, icing, sprinkles, or glazes. There are no ginger-people or Christmas trees. My cookies are circles, as cookies should be.

Molasses cookies are wonderful for Christmas because they have that spicy flavor that we expect to have during Christmas time. But, they also are pretty light (relatively speaking) and won't leave you feeling like you can't drag your butt off of the couch to finish your laundry so that you can pack to drive to Arkansas. Figuratively speaking.

And, they are easy! My dear friend Jennifer was the one who first introduced me to molasses cookies, and she is not one to fuss around in the kitchen. But she executes these puppies beautifully, every time. Hi Jenn!


This is not the greatest picture ever, but the most recent one I could find! From left to right, Kim, Jenn, me, Amanda.

Important baking tip of the day: This recipe calls for softened butter, which is different than room temperature butter. To soften butter, remove from the fridge 45 minutes to 1 hour before using until the butter is, um, soft. (This is the kind of genius commentary you can expect from this site.) It may take longer in the winter than in the summer, depending on how aggressive you are with your heater. To speed up the process, do NOT put the butter in the microwave (that, my friends, is melted butter). You can soften butter more quickly by cutting it into smaller pieces before letting it sit. This may seem nit picky, but butter temperature can cause really drastic differences in the texture of baked goods, especially cookies.

Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies
Adapted from Martha Stewart
Yields about 3 dozen cookies

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups sugar, divided
1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 large egg
1/4 cup molasses

Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt. In a shallow bowl, place 1/2 cup sugar (for rolling the cookies) and set aside.

With an electric mixer, cream the softened butter and remaining 1 cup of sugar until combined and fluffy. Beat in egg and then molasses until combined. Reduce speed to low and gradually mix in dry ingredients until the dough forms.

Pinch off and roll dough into balls, each equal to about 1 tablespoon. Roll balls in reserved sugar to coat.

Arrange balls on baking sheets, about 3 inches apart. (Note: The cookies will spread quite a lot when baking so it is important to have adequate space in between.) Bake, one sheet at a time, until edges of cookies are just firm, about 10 to 12 minutes. Cool 1 minute on baking sheets before transferring to racks to cool completely. Store in an airtight container up to 4 days.