Adventures In Spicy Dunkers
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When I was a child, my mother regularly made two kinds of cookies from recipes handed down from the grandmothers. There was the classic Peanut Butter Cookie, of course, and then there were my maternal grandmother’s Molasses Crinkles. Both recipes were originally made with shortening and butter, but since shortening (and hydrogenated fats in general) are (mostly) against my religion, I’ve tinkered with the recipes a little and now make them with butter only. They aren’t quite as fluffy as the original, but they are still delicious. And a lot less bad for you.
When my mother made Molasses Crinkles for dessert, she would serve them with my parents’ coffee after the main meal. And because Molasses Crinkles were made to be dunked in coffee, my brothers and I crowded around my father and made a complete mess of his coffee with our dunking shenanigans. Occasionally, we’d leave a cookie in the coffee too long and the part of the cookie below the liquid line would disappear, only to be rediscovered later as sweet sludge at the bottom of the coffee cup. I personally thought this was disgusting, but my father, ever the Irish showman, made an epic production of slurping up this sludge, swishing it between his teeth, and gargling it a little, before proclaiming it was the most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. We kids squealed and laughed, thoroughly entertained. My mother rolled her eyes, and quietly ate her cookies and drank her sludge-free coffee.
One of the things I really like about this cookie recipe (and many others) is that you don’t have to bake them all at once. You can make the dough, scoop it into portions, roll the portions into balls, and then freeze the balls on a cookie sheet. Once they’re frozen, they can be dropped into a ziplock bag and kept in the freezer until such time as you need freshly-baked cookies. Then you take out as many balls of dough as you want, thaw them in the fridge, and bake them as normal. Easy-peasy.
The method is simple: cream together the butter and sugar, then beat in the egg and molasses. Sift together all your dry ingredients and add into the butter mixture. Use a 1 1/2 Tbsp cookie scoop to scoop the cookie dough onto a waxed paper- or parchment-covered baking sheet. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour. Once the dough is chilled, roll each piece of cookie dough into a ball and dip the top of the ball into sugar. Place on an ungreased baking sheet (I like to use my silicon baking mats) and sprinkle 2-3 drops of water on the top of each cookie; this is what makes the top crinkle. I like to use a dropper for this, because it’s easier. Bake for 9-12 minutes. The cookies will spread and firm up at the edges; that’s how you know they’re done. They will still be quite soft in the middle, so once they’re out of the oven, they’ll need to sit on the cookie sheet for a few minutes before they are firm enough to be moved to a cooling rack. Using my cookie scoop, I get exactly 44 cookies out of this recipe. So easy! These are delicious warm but also yummy cold. Just don’t forget to make yourself a cup of coffee to go with them. I don’t like or drink coffee but even I make a cup for dunking purposes. Enjoy!
Molasses Crinkles
INGREDIENTS
3/4 Cup butter, softened
1 Cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg at room temperature
1/4 Cup molasses
2 1/4 Cup flour
2 Tsp baking soda
1/4 Tsp salt
1/2 Tsp cloves
1 Tsp cinnamon
1 Tsp ginger
DIRECTIONS
Cream together butter and sugar. Add egg and molasses. Sift together dry ingredients and beat into the butter mixture.
Scoop out dough with a 1 1/2 Tbsp scoop and place on a waxed-paper or parchment covered baking sheet. Chill for an hour.
Preheat oven to 375°.
Roll dough into balls. Dip the top of each ball into a small dish of sugar. Place sugar-side up on ungreased baking sheet. Sprinkle each ball with 2-3 drops of water. Bake for 9-12 minutes. Cool on the baking sheet for about 3 minutes, then remove to cooling rack. Once cool, store in an air-tight container for up to 5 days.
