Recipe: Great Grammie's Molasses Cookies

This recipe started out as an approximation of what my grandmother would toss into a mixing bowl — “a little of this, a pinch of that” interpreted and transcribed by me into “cups” and “teaspoons”. She said it was my great grandmother’s recipe, so I was committed to learning how to make them. After making many batches over several years, I finally tweaked it to a point where I was content to add it to my “Family Recipes” cookbook, and now I’m going to share it with you.

It makes a large batch of tender cookies with a gingery kiss. Given my grandmother passed away in her 90s, it’s safe to say that this recipe is well over 100 years old. The dough is pretty sticky, but the cookies are best when only a scant amount of flour is used when rolling it out for cutting — refrigerating the dough first helps quite a bit.

Ingredients

• 1 cup butter, softened

• 1 cup white sugar

• 1 cup fancy molasses

• 3/4 cup milk

• 1 egg, beaten

• 5 cups all-purpose flour

• 3 tsp ground ginger

• 2 tsp baking soda

• pinch of salt

Preheat your oven to 375F.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Add molasses, milk and egg, and mix well. Sift together the flour, ginger, baking soda and salt. Gradually add this to the wet ingredients, blending well until a soft, sticky dough forms.

On a well-floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4″ in thickness and cut with cookie cutters. Transfer cookies to a well-greased or parchment-lined pan, and bake for 10-12 minutes.

Makes 6 dozen cookies.

For a truly decadent treat, sandwich them together with some lemon buttercream icing -- I fondly refer to these as "Hillbilly Oreos". Yum!