Almost Molasses Chews

I thought a lot about gingery molasses-based cookies tonight, while making these. I suppose that tends to happen when you spend an hour thinking about nothing but baking while running on 50% brain power – you can get very deeply invested in a very particular topic. It’s just, there’s several very distinct types of ginger cookies, and they fit on a spectrum. On the one end, you have ginger snaps. Ginger snaps are small, thin, hard, and very spicy, and, in my mind at least, are for eating in the summer, with a cold glass of milk for dunking. Molasses chews are an entirely different beast. They should be large, soft, chewy, mildly spiced, and preferably a little underdone in the very center. They’re a wintery, rainy-day sort of cookie, best with a cup of coffee or a chai. Then you have your typical “gingerbread man,” which is a little cakey with a harder outside, and doesn’t crack on the top. And beyond that, there’s a whole range of in-between cookies.

To recap: These are very good cookies, you should try them.  But if you have a recipe for really soft, really chewy molasses chews, please share it with me.  I will love you for it.

Almost Molasses Chews

Makes 20 cookies.

• 1 stick butter, melted, then cooled to almost room temperature (or 1/2 c. shortening, melted)
• 1 egg
• 1/4 c. molasses
• 1 c. sugar
• 2 c. flour
• 2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1/2 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp salt
• turbinado sugar (sugar in the raw)

1. Preheat oven to 325°F
2. In a large bowl, cream together the melted-then-cooled butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and the molasses and beat until combined, then beat together vigorously for 1-2 minutes.  Mixture should be evenly colored and creamy.
3. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt, and whisk to combine.  Add 1/2 of the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir until combined, then add the remaining half of the flour mixture to the wet mixture and stir until fully incorporated.  Refrigerate dough for 15 minutes.
4. Roll dough into balls slightly smaller than a golf ball, and flatten between the palms of your hand.  Place on a cookie sheet, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar.  Bake for 11-12 minutes, until slightly cracked on top.