Old Fashioned Molasses Cookie Recipe

This Molasses Cookie Recipe is probably a variation that has passed down from early American history when molasses was the primary sweetening ingredient. This recipe calls for light molasses.

"Molasses cookies are old fashioned but delicious!"

Molasses Cookie Recipe

2 cup sifted all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. Salt
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. double acting baking powder
1 tsp. ground cloves
1 tsp. ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp. Cinnamon
1/2 tsp. Nutmeg
1/2 cup soft shortening
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup light molasses
1 egg yolk

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Sift the flour with the salt, baking soda, baking powder, ginger, cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg.

Mix the shortening and molasses until creamy. Add the egg yolk and beat well.

Blend in the flour mixture.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the molasses cookies dough to 1/8-inch to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut out the cookies with a cookie cutter of your choice.

On ungreased cookie sheets place the molasses cookies 1/2-inch apart. Bake 8 to 10 minutes.

More About Molasses

Baking was the most popular way to prepare food in the Colonies, so molasses became associated with baked goods: doughnuts, mince pies, pumpkin pies, ginger bread, baked beans, corn bread, countless molasses cookies, and cakes.

It was the major sweetener used in America until after World War I because it was less expensive than sugar.

During the refining of sugar cane and sugar beets, the juice squeezed from these plants is boiled to a syrupy mixture from which sugar crystals are extracted.

The remaining brownish-black liquid is molasses. Light molasses comes from the first boiling of the sugar syrup and is lighter in both flavor and color. It's often used as a pancake and waffle syrup.

Dark molasses comes from a second boiling and is darker, thicker and less sweet than light molasses. It's generally used as a flavoring in American classics such as gingerbread, shoofly pie, Indian pudding and Boston baked beans.

Blackstrap molasses comes from the third boiling and is what amounts to the dregs of the barrel. It's very thick, dark and somewhat bitter. Though it's popular with health-food followers, it's more commonly used as a cattle food.

Molasses Substitutes

Molasses is a common ingredient in baking, often used in baked goods such as this molasses cookie. It is possible to replace each cup of molasses with one of the following:

1 cup honey
3/4 cup firmly packed brown sugar
1 cup dark corn syrup
1 cup pure maple syrup

Try the molasses cookie recipe with molasses if you can get it. The substitutions work but the taste is just not the same.

Click Here Now and Join The Cookie Recipe Club

More Sugar Cookie Recipes:

Contact Me