Ginger Molasses cookies

so i received this email the other day from Anonymous (who i’m sure you’ve come to know through his/her comments on the blog):

dear tessa,

why don’t you love us? it’s fall, so you should love us the most this
time of year.

sincerely,

cinnamon and nutmeg

—–

Dear cinnamon and nutmeg,

so lovely to hear from you! I am sorry i waited so long to bring you guys back out- but it hadn’t really felt like fall yet. but now, the weather has changed and i’m craving you. last week, i made you a home in a delicious apple crisp. And today, you really shined in these ginger molasses cookies. So thank you! Keep doing what you do

looking forward to seeing much more of you in the coming months,

~tessa

—–

See apple crisp recipe for new pic and peeling apple trick learned in Ireland!

—-

This cookie recipe comes from Flour Bakery- my new favorite spot in Cambridge. It is such a great cookie- because as she describes, these spicy fall flavors have this great soft presence. I don’t need that overwhelming bang from 7 kinds of ginger- and i dont see why i should have to choose between a molasses cookie or a gingersnap. I have to say- these are fucking good.  you know like that first day of fall– you feel it in the air- and smell it too- right Danny T? that’s what these cookies are like. you should be sad summer is over- and you kind of are. but you remember, fall is a great season too.

Erring on the lower side of the baking time keeps them delightfully chewy. More time- more crunch.

Ginger Molasses cookies by Joanne Chang, Flour Bakery

12 tablespoons (6oz, 168g) unsalted butter

1 cup (220g) tightly packed light brown sugar

1/4 cup (85g) molasses  ** ah! i don’t know how i did this- but just fixed had accidentally written 1/2

1 egg

2 cups (288g) all purpose flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground ginger

1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 tsp clove

1/2 tsp salt

small bowl of sugar for tossing cookies (regular granular sugar or turbinado works fine)

Preheat oven to 350 and put rack in the center of the over.

Melt butter in a small saucepan and let cool for at least 30 min or until warm, not hot, to the touch. [i left mine about an hour- and it reached this unexpected semi-solid state– (jess P you know what im talking about). Anyway- looks weird- worked great.] Using a stand mixer w. paddle attachment, combine butter, brown sugar, molasses, and egg and mix for about 20 seconds until well mixed. In a separate bowl, stir together flour, soda, ginger, cinnamon, clove and salt and fold this into butter/sugar mixture by hand until well mixed. I refrigerated my dough overnight because was not baking off until the following day.

Scoop out 1/4 cup balls (size of ice cream scoop) and place them one by one in a bowl of sugar and toss gently to coat on all sides. Place cookies on a sheet, 2 inches apart and bake for 16-18 mins (i did 16) until the cookies are crackly on top and barely firm to touch (if you like them chewy i’d kinda ignore the firm to touch- the ones that i let go that long turned out crunchier). Remove from oven and let cool on cookie sheet for 20-30 mins (yes, i actually did that). slide cookies of sheet and cool rest of way on rack. Cookies can be stored up to 2 days in airtight container, dough can be stored up to week in the fridge in an airtight container.

Makes 16 cookies.

1/4 cup balls are very big but gorgeous cookies. I made my second batch a little smaller– but i dunno, go big or go home.