Snow Day Project: Molasses Cookies
Recently, we’ve been hit with a long string of requests for a molasses cookie recipe. For some of you on-top-of-things types, we may have come too late in the holiday cookie-baking process. We can only hope you’ll consider making more as the city is buried under a blanket of snow, so: we know you’re home, we know you have time, and we know you want cookies.
These molasses cookies are delicate and crispy on the edges and soft and chewy in the middle. They are spiced with cinnamon and ginger (of course) and cardamom (interesting) and studded with pieces of crystallized ginger. We’ve made them every year for at least five years and they are beloved by many.
The thing is, this particular recipe has evolved out of a culinary school recipe, which at our French-centric school, meant that the measurements were given entirely in grams and milliliters. If the world was now as our second grade teachers had envisioned, we would all be cheerfully using the metric system and this recipe would present no difficulty at all. But it as it turns out, Mrs. Garrison was wrong about so many things.
So this morning, as a snow day present to you, we spent a little time bustling around our kitchen converting this recipe back to standard volume measurements. Going backwards, as it were (weight measurements are not only more accurate, but faster than volume) sort of breaks our heart, but far worse would be the possibility of your not making these cookies.
Enjoy!
(Incidentally, scales are wonderful. If you have one, we’ve also provided the weight measurements for this recipe. If you need something for the baker in your life, may we suggest.)
Cookies and photo of cookies by Rachael Coyle.
Chewy Molasses Cookies
makes approximately 5 dozen cookies
Oh and yes, that does say bread flour down below--certainly not standard, but in this case makes a deliciously crisp yet chewy cookie.
11 tablespoons (150 grams) unsalted butter
2 cups (400 grams) granulated sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
heaping 1/2 cup (100 grams) crystallized ginger, measured then minced or pulsed in a food processor
2 eggs
3/4 cup (160 milliliters) molasses
2 tablespoons (20 milliliters) neutral vinegar (white or apple cider)
3 1/2 cups (525 grams) bread flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
1 tablespoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon cloves
3/4 teaspoon cardamom
Combine the flour, spices and baking soda together in a medium bowl. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment or by hand, cream the butter, sugar, salt and crystallized ginger until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time and beat eggs, adding one egg at a time until absorbed. Slowly add the molasses and vinegar. Finally add the dry ingredients and mix until just combined. Chill dough for at least 1 hour or overnight. Shape the batter into 1-inch balls and roll in sugar, arrange on an ungreased sheet pan (or silpat or parchment), leaving plenty of space for the cookies to spread. Bake the cookies in a preheated 350 F oven for 9-12 minutes or until the outside is set but the middle is still slightly soft. (Basically, the cookies will spread out, then they will puff up and then they will collapse. You want to take them out right after they collapse, or if you like crisper cookie, 2-3 minutes later). Allow to cool on a rack. These cookies keep several days wrapped.
