GG Gladys’ Molasses Cookies
I distinctly remember the cookie jar filled to the brim every time we’d visit Grandma’s home. She loved to bake, and was damn good at it…pies, cakes, jello salads…okay, jello doesn’t involve baking.
Her molasses cookies are a definite favorite among her posterity. When my genius of a brother was about 5 years old, he became rather distraught and proclaimed we shouldn’t swear and that molasses was a swear word…mole-asses (my powers of deduction was definitely not nearly that advanced at age 5). So from then on, we were to call molasses cookies gopher bottom cookies…over 20 years later, Gopher Bottom Cookies is the proper name in our household.
The love of her cookies has been passed along to the next generation. My kiddos can never get enough…especially Bean. He’s my chocolate loathing, cookie hating kid. I know! Blasphemy! And yet, he loves these cookies. Most cookies with molasses have more of a ginger flavor. Not these, there is ginger, but the star of the show is the molasses.
Grandma’s recipe is pretty much perfect. Equal amounts of spice to sugar flavor and when they come out of the oven, they are perfectly crunchy on the outside and ooie-gooie on the inside. I’ve only made very minor modifications in the years since.
GG Gladys’ Molasses Cookies
Ingredients
- ¾ cup shortening
- 1 cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup dark molasses
- 1 large egg
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 tsp baking soda
- ½ tsp ground cloves
- ½ tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp cinnamon
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 cup raw sugar
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place either parchment paper or silicone pads on baking sheets.
- Combine shortening, white sugar, molasses, egg and vanilla in mixing bowl; mixing between adding each ingredient. In a separate bowl, combine flour, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, and salt.
- Once the wet ingredients are thoroughly blended together, add the dry ingredients in 1/3 at a time, mixing in between each adding.
- Once mixed, roll the dough into tablespoon-sized balls, then roll around in the raw sugar. Place on the baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes.
- For a more gooie cookie on the inside, bake for 8 minutes, for a crisper cookie bake for 10 minutes. Be sure not to crowd the baking pan, these cookies do spread out.
Nutrition
My Grandma Gladys was a pretty amazing lady. I shared a birthday with her and thankfully we were able to spend a few of them together. She was also a huge prankster. My Grandpa George was a farmer and would either come home each day for lunch (which was the big meal of the day) or during harvest, Grandma Gladys would pack him a lunch. Well during one harvest season, my Grandpa snuck in the house and drank the last Coca Cola. Once he did, he realized that my grandma wouldn’t be too happy that there wasn’t any left. So he filled it with the leftover coffee from the morning brew, and then stuck it back in the fridge. Later, Grandma went to enjoy the last Coke, and as soon as she took the first swig, she thought she was being poisoned. When she found out what Grandpa had done and that in fact, she wasn’t poisoned…the next day she made my Grandpa a very special lunch to take to the fields.
Grandpa thought that Grandma had made him a bologna sandwich…instead of bologna, she put the old pink drain stopper from the tub in the sandwich. I don’t know if she cleaned it first or let Grandpa take a huge bite into a germ-infested tub stopper…either way, she held her own against Grandpa.
Do you have any family recipes that are legendary? Writing recipes down on little index cards are becoming a thing of the past. Right now Grandma’s recipes are all divided up among her children, but one day I hope that I will be able to possess at least a few of hers.
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