Recently, my morning routine has evolved into stopping off at the local coffee shop to pick up my coffee before going to see my dad. I normally don’t have cravings for sweet things – no it’s true, for me if you are going to have a treat, make it spicy. But this morning I couldn’t help but notice the person in front of me ordering this cookie and biting into it before even leaving the counter. The look of contentment on their face challenged me to try and duplicate these cookies. The gauntlet was dropped, I needed to see that same look when my wife bit into one I made from scratch.
So this is a recipe that approximated those delicious cookies – make no mistake, there was no approximation for the contented look they produced on my wife’s face when she bit into one. Pure heaven! You should get about 18 large cookies using a 1/4 measuring cup – if using (the best measure ever) your hands, make the dough balls slightly larger than a golf ball.
Ingredients
3/4 cup butter
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
2 1/2 cups flour
2 tsps. baking soda
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. nutmeg
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 c. white sugar – for rolling the dough balls before flattening
1. Cream the butter and brown sugar together until fluffy. Add the egg and molasses and beat for an additional minute – spray the inside of the measuring cup with vegetable oil or rub with a bit of butter before pouring in the molasses, it will ensure you get a full measure as the molasses won’t stick to the surface, makes clean-up easier as well.
2. In a small bowl, combine the dry ingredients. Sift, whisk or stir with a fork until evenly mixed.
3. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix just until combined. Cover dough and refrigerate for 1 – 2 hours, until firm. You will need to refrigerate this dough so don’t skip this step.
4. Pre-heat the oven to 350F. Line two to three cookie trays with parchment paper or Silpat.
5. Using the cup, scoop or hand method, roll the dough into a ball, then roll in the white sugar. I paid a lot of money in baking classes to learn that if I use a measuring cup or ice cream scoop to make my dough balls, they would all be the same size – genius isn’t it (the idea I mean). Place the sugared dough balls on the prepped cookie sheets. Using a cup measure or your hand, flatten the cookies to a height of a little more than a 1/4″ thickness – they will spread so don’t put more than 6 cookies per tray i.e. 3 at the top of the tray, 3 at the bottom of the tray – depending on the size of the tray, you may be able to squeeze in 2 more in between the lines.
Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes. I did 350F in a convection oven for 10 minutes – the cookies stayed chewy until they were gone (my wife is very disciplined about this – my daughter, not so much – so they actually lasted about 3 days – but so worth the expression on their faces every time they bit into one). Let the cookies cool on the tray for about 10 minutes before moving them to a rack to cool completely. Store the cookies in an airtight container (could be a dinner plate covered with plastic wrap) to keep them fresh and chewy, they really won’t last long. As always – enjoy!
