What would the holidays be without cookies?
Ron, Kellen and I are partial to iced molasses cookies and love having them as a little after dinner treat. While molasses cookies don't scream Santa to me like a traditional cut-out cookie, they certainly remind me of the flavors of a gingerbread man, but come without all the work of rolling and cutting out the dough! I use a recipe from Joy of Baking and it always turns out wonderful! The icing is very east to make and I like to add it as a drizzle at the end after the cookies cool, but feel free to use as much as you want. I also finish the cookies with a sprinkle of ice crystal type sprinkle topping. I normally find these in the baking section of my grocery store.
My family loved these cookies and we have gobbled them up before there was a chance to leave any for Santa! I guess we need to make another batch before Thursday night!
Tonight we are heading to a birthday dinner and then home to relax. I need to make a few homemade gifts and get my Oreo truffle (batch number 2!) filling done for easy assembly on Wednesday night.
Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! We had a slight dusting of snow overnight and it will probably melt, but it was nice to see a little white before Christmas!
Ingredients
2 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 Tbl vegetable oil
1/3 cup molasses (not backstrap)
1 large egg
1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup granulated sugar
Icing
1 cup powdered sugar
3-4 Tbl milk (you may need to add a touch more depending on consistency)
1/8 tsp vanilla extract
Whisk ingredients together. Icing should be made right before it is going to be used or it will harden.
Instructions
In a large bowl sift or whisk together the flour, baking soda, salt, and spices.
In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy (about 2 - 3 minutes). Add the oil, molasses, egg, and vanilla and beat until evenly mixed. Slowly beat in the flour mixture mixture until well incorporated. Cover and chill the batter until firm (2-8 hours).
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
Place white granulated sugar in a medium sized bowl. When the dough has chilled sufficiently, roll into 1 inch balls. Then roll the balls of dough into the sugar, coating them thoroughly. Place on the baking sheet, spacing about 2 inches apart and, with the bottom of a glass, flatten the cookies slightly. Bake for about 9 - 10 minutes, or until the tops of the cookies have crinkles yet are barely dry. Remove from oven and cool.
Once cookies are cool drizzle with icing and top with sprinkles if using.
Store in an airtight container for about 1 - 1 1/2 weeks.
Makes about 3 dozen cookies.