Soft Molasses Spice Cookies

Rinder's Note:

The description in the Robin Hood Cookbook where this recipe came from was that in 1880 a young man would take his sweetheart to the restaurant and offer her the usual treat: spruce beer and molasses hands - so called because handfulls of cookie dough were put on sheets to bake.

• Total Time: 2 hrs
• Prep Time: 1 hrs 50 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Yield: 54 cookies

• 5 1/2 cups flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon ginger
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon clove
• 1 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1 cup brown sugar, packed
• 3/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1 1/2 cups molasses
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Directions:

1. Combine flour, soda, salt and spices in a bowl and mix well to blend.
2. Combine sugar, oil, molasses, milk and vanilla in a large bowl.
3. Mix thoroughly.
4. Add flour mixture gradually.
5. Mix well.
6. Chill 1 hour or until firm.
7. Roll out portions of dough on lightly floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness.
8. Cut with a floured 2 1/2" cookie cutter or your favourite shaped cookie cutters.
9. Place on greased cookie sheet.
10. Bake at 375° for 8-10 minutes.
11. When cool store in tightly covered metal container.
12. Prep time includes chilling time.

Reviews

[Felix4067]

Original review Dec07: I hate to give a low review, but I really don't care for these all that much. I usually love molasses cookies, but these were too much spice and not enough sweet for me. The texture was excellent (I rolled them in small balls and then in granulated sugar rather than rolling and cutting out), and they were very easy to make. I just think less molasses and probably more sugar would have been more to my taste. They are definitely not bad, just didn't work out so well for me. Sorry! New: I gave these another chance, and I'm glad I did! Last time I had organic molasses, and this time I had regular processed, and it made all the difference in the world!

[annlouise]

I like that this made a nice, chewy cookie without shortening. The spices are great, and I might even add more another time. I like the less-sweet taste; rolled in sugar you taste sweet first, then spicy second. This recipe worked well for me using 1/2 whole wheat pastry flour. I used a smidge of blackstrap molasses (I long ago learned not to substitute the entire amount of molasses with blackstrap!!). Funny, when you need kids to help, they don't seem to mind rolling cookies and coating them in sugar! Just don't feed them baked cookies from the first batch until all cookies have been rolled! **Update** 8 days later, these cookies are still soft (from the cookie jar) and so incredible! The spice combo is perfect, as is the sweetness. Yes, 8 days is a long time for us to keep cookies in our jar, but we have to be self-controlled sometime!

[Bekah49036]

I was craving something sweet the other night and realized I was out of eggs so I went searching. I'm so glad I found this recipe. These little cookies are the perfect combination of sweet, spicy and salty. I also made mine into balls and rolled in sugar and baked them for 12 minutes. I froze half the dough for a sweet snack mid-week. These are going in the favorites folder. Thank you Rinder!