Spice Cookies

This recipe comes from a woman who worked with my mother in the 1950s and I've loved it since then. I use non-latex (some folks are allergic) examining gloves when I roll the dough into balls because it doesn’t stick to the gloves and it WILL stick to the palms of your hands. I usually use regular granulated sugar to roll them in because that’s what I have in the house, but “crystal” sugar (larger granules, sometimes sold colored or as “coffee sugar”) works very well, and gives a bit of a “sparkly, holiday” look to the cookies. Don’t bother with colored sugar, though, because the cookies are dark enough it won’t really show.

• Ready In: 42 mins
• Yields: 4-6 dozen cookies, depending on size

Ingredients

• 3⁄4 cup shortening
• 1  cup sugar
• 1  egg
• 1⁄4 cup dark molasses
• 2  teaspoons baking soda
• 2  cups flour
• 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
• 1  teaspoon cinnamon
• 3⁄4 teaspoon clove
• 3⁄4 teaspoon ginger
• 1  dash cayenne (optional, but a pinch, maybe 1/8 tsp, adds a bit of zing ) (optional)

Directions

1. Cream butter and sugar, add egg and mix. Mix soda and molasses (this will foam up a bit) and add to the butter mixture. Stir in dry ingredients and blend. Cover the dough and refrigerate for several hours, or overnight. (I always chill it overnight.)
2. Keeping the dough cold, pick off small pieces (about the size of a hazelnut in the shell for smaller cookies, and up to a walnut for larger) and roll in the palms of your hands, forming balls. (I put the dough back into the fridge after each pan or two.) Roll the balls in granulated sugar. Place on cookie sheet and bake in a 325° F oven. Cookies will look darkened, crackled, and flattened when done.
3. With my oven and a “medium size” cookie it takes about 10 or 12 minutes, but flattened, crackled and darkened is what to look for. Remove cookies from pan onto wax paper. I’ve just discovered those silicone baking mats and the cookies bake perfectly on them. If you’re a fool like me and get the large size by mistake that’s too big to fit your cookie sheets you can also cool them on those sheets (reusable) instead of wax paper.