One fine day, I was in the store and I saw a box of gingersnap cookies. For about the next week I was thinking about ginger snap cookies. The next week I saw a box of chewy spiced molasses cookies and I started thinking about those. While I was contemplating which one to make, I noticed that both recipes were remarkably similar, the key difference being the use of dark molasses instead of light molasses. So I set of to make these frankencookies and was pleasantly surprised with the result. If you don’t live alone, you’ll need to find a place to stash these or they will mysteriously disappear when you aren’t looking.

 

 

Equipment:

• Chef’s knife (if you have 2 chef’s knives, use the one you like least)
• Stand mixer with paddle attachment or Mixing bowl and Wooden spoon (Don’t even try mixing this with a whisk)
• 2 half sheet pans (cookie sheets)
• Parchment paper
• 2 teaspoons (not measuring spoons, just regular spoons)
• Spatula
• Cooling rack
• Stick to beat back the hungry mob

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1.5 teaspoons baking soda
• .5 teaspoon Maldon (flake sea salt)
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• .5 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 cup softened butter
• 1/2 cup dark molasses (not light, not blackstrap)
• 1 packed cup light brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• .75 cup crystalized ginger

Time: 45 minutes

Serves: Makes ±48 cookies. In theory that should serve 24 but in reality you will never know how many people it will serve because people you normally think of as honest, caring people will deviously sneak around your house eating these under cover of darkness leaving nothing but a little pile of crumbs next to the container in which you store the cookies. But I’m not too bitter about it.

Process:

1. Preheat the oven to 350º and position two racks in the middle of the oven.
2. Chop up the crystalized ginger into tiny pieces.
3. Cover each half sheet pan with a piece of parchment paper.
4. Combine the butter, molasses, egg, brown sugar, and crystalized ginger in the bowl and combine.
5. Add the ginger, cinnamon, cloves, salt, and baking soda and mix well.
6. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time mixing well before adding the next half cup.
7. Scoop out teaspoon sized blobs onto the parchment covered half sheet pans. Each blob should be about .75-1″ in diameter and you should leave a couple of inches of space between them since they will spread. You should be able to fit about half of the dough on the first two sheets which is to say that you will have to do two batches.
8. Cook for 12-15 minutes.
9. Remove from oven and let the pan sit on the stove for about 5 minutes.
10. Using a spatula, remove the cookies to the cooling rack.
11. Repeat steps 7-10 for the second batch of cookies. You can reuse the parchment.
12. Store in an airtight container. Ideally in a cool, dark place like a safe or hung from the ceiling of a basement with an angry honey badger. Unless you want to show people how much you love them in which case leave them out on the counter in sight of your friends and family. That’s what I did. Of course I only got to eat 3 of the 48 cookies before they evaporated so consider your options.