Molasses Crinkles

I got this recipe several Christmases ago from one of the best bakers/cooks I know (Hi Sally). They're sugar-crispy on the outside and soft in the middle. They're also beautiful. We made two other ginger cookies at the same time to see which we liked best. Truly, we loved all of the cookies we made, but these still won in the blind taste test I subjected my family to (my sister and brother-in-law were here as well). 

Unfortunately, I often find that at Christmas, I'm just a little sugar-crispied out and these have to wait till January. 

For the record, they make a wonderfully charming January cookie as well--soft and sweet with kick of warm spice. The perfect thing for your mug of hot chocolate on a snowy night. They also freeze extremely well (as do most cookies for the record) in case January is--for you--not a time to be hanging out with cookies and hot chocolate, but rather a time to be hanging out with all those other lunatics at the gym who are totally in your space. (Um, not that I'm complaining or anything. But seriously, don't you just hate gyms in January--they just seem so busy and wait-in-liney and so...so tragic with all that wishing and good intention when we all know what that gym will look like mid-February; it's like watching Romeo and Juliet for the 2nd time--intriguing still, but without any of the hopeful innocence.) 

Jaded tangents aside, they do freeze well, so you can have one and save the rest for guests or mid-February or a time when you give them away because, heck, you've decided to go Paleo after all. It's up to you. Though seriously, do your inner-epicurean a favor and eat them before you go Paleo, okay? Okay. There now, I feel better. 

Molasses Crinkles

Makes 4 dozen (You can always embrace your inner, er, stoic and halve this)

Prep time: 5 minutes

Bake time: 10 minutes

Cost: $2.60

(butter: .60, sugar: .65, eggs: .20, molasses: .70, flour: .45)

1 C (2 sticks) butter

2 C brown sugar

2 eggs

1/2 C Molasses

1/2 tsp salt

4 1/2 C flour

4 tsp baking soda

1 tsp cloves

2 tsp cinnamon

2 tsp ground ginger

extra sugar for rolling

Cream butter and sugar. Beat in eggs and molasses. Add dry ingredients. Shape into balls. Roll if sugar if you wish. 

Bake at 375 for 8-10 minutes. 

Let them sit on the pan for a few minutes before removing. 

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