Spicy Molasses & Brown Sugar Cookies

Hey!  Look!  A present!  I found your weekend baking project.

This time of year, all I want to do is eat warm cookies.  Crisp-edged and chewy-centered cookies.  Specifically, these.

These taste like Christmas.  Those are Ben’s words, not mine, and he’s not even Jewish, so it’s probably definitely true.  These Christmas-time beauties are as soft and satisfying as a fresh sugar cookie, but they become blazingly rich and complex from the addition of molasses, brown sugar, and cozy warm winter spices.

A quick pre-oven roll in a pile of turbinado sugar (it’s raw and chunky and doesn’t melt during baking) gives these cookies a gloriously poppish crunch around the edges; it’s just about as satisfying as that crackly sound your computer makes when it empties your “trash.”  You know that sound.

Wrap them in pretty bows or dotty bags, or just eat the lot while standing around the kitchen table.  Either way, be sure to share a few.  ‘Tis the season, after all.  Maybe with your sister?  Probably with Santa?  That guy knows when you’ve been nice.  Ben told me so.

Spicy Molasses & Brown Sugar Cookies

Inspired by Food52

Ingredients:

• 2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 3/4 cup packed light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup unsulfured molasses (not blackstrap)
• turbinado sugar, for rolling

Directions:

Whisk dry ingredients, from flour through salt, in a medium bowl until combined.  Set aside.

With an electric or stand mixer, cream together butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.  Add the egg and mix to combine.  Add molasses, mixing thoroughly.  Add dry ingredients to the wet, all at once, and mix gently until dough comes together.  Do not overmix.  Refrigerate dough at least 1 hour, and up to 2 days.

Heat oven to 375 degrees F.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Use an ice cream scoop (or tablespoon) to measure 1.5-inch round balls of cookie dough.  Roll each dough ball in turbinado sugar and place on prepared baking sheet.  (Be sure to leave about 1.5 inches between each cookie on the sheet, as they’ll spread quite a bit during baking.)  Slightly flatten each cookie with the palm of your hand.

Bake cookies exactly 10 minutes, until deeply golden at the edges.  (They will look sort of puffy, but they will deflate and flatten as they cool.)  Cool on a wire rack before enjoying with cold milk.

Makes about 24 cookies.