Thick Molasses Spice Cookies

• portionen: makes 22 to 24 cookies
• gesamtzeit: 2 hours or overnight

Zutaten

2½ cups (305 grams) all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons ground ginger

¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon

¼ teaspoon ground cloves

¼ teaspoon ground allspice

½ teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon (3 grams) kosher salt

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

¾ cup (12 tablespoons, 6 ounces, or 170 grams) unsalted butter, melted, cooled slightly

½ cup (150 grams) molasses (You can use either unsulphured or blackstrap molasses here; I've tested it with both. If you can't get molasses where you are, use treacle)

⅔ Cup (145 grams) packed dark-brown sugar

1 large egg yolk

3 tablespoons (45 grams) finely chopped crystallized ginger

6 tablespoons (75 grams) granulated or turbinado sugar, for rolling note

Anweisungen

Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

Whisk the flour, spices, baking soda, salt, and pepper in a large bowl until fully mixed.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients.

Pour in the melted butter, molasses, brown sugar, yolk, and candied ginger.

Whisk these together in the center a couple times (until the egg yolk is dis- persed); then switch to a spoon or rubber spatula to continue mixing. (The dough will be very thick!)

Heat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

Scoop the dough into balls—I either use a medium cookie scoop (1 ½ tablespoons) or take just shy of 2 tablespoons of dough for each.

Roll each in your hands briefly to shape it into a ball, then into the granulated or turbinado sugar for coating.

Space the cookies evenly on the parchment-lined baking sheet (they barely spread), and bake for 10 to 12 minutes. You want what looks like a quite underbaked cookie. It will feel totally soft on top; you will be sure it's raw. But if you lift a cookie, you'll see that it's one shade darker underneath. They're done.

Remove the pan from the oven, and let the cookies cool for 5 minutes before transferring them to a cooling rack.

The cookies set as they cool. If you cut into one in the first 15 minutes, you'll yell, "Deb! These are raw in the middle! How could you?" But after that, you will have a more cookielike, perfect texture crisp outside and tender inside.

DO AHEAD

You can chill the dough in the fridge for an hour or even several days before baking it, but let it warm up a bit at room temperature before scooping (trust me, I broke two cookie scoops learning this the hard way). Store the cookies in an airtight container to retain their softness. They keep for up to 2 weeks at room temperature, but their texture is best in the first week.

Notizen

From: ‘Smitten Kitchen Keepers’ by Deb Perlman