Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies

Molasses are one of my absolute favorite cookies, and one thing out of this entire book that I already know how to bake very well. It’s a cookie my mom always made around the holidays when I was young, and I still use her recipe to this day. That made Claire’s recipe very easy for me, but it was also fascinating to see the variations from my mom’s. As I made these Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies, I couldn’t help but compare the recipes to each other.

For starters, I already had all the ingredients for Claire’s recipe, but hers definitely vary from my mom’s. Rather than unsalted butter, my mom’s recipe calls for shortening. Mom uses cloves, cinnamon and ginger, whereas Claire uses cloves, ginger, allspice and black pepper (Yes, pepper in a cookie! That was a first for me.). Claire calls for 2 eggs, my mom uses one. They both use ¼ cup of molasses. My mom’s recipe does not use apple cider vinegar or vanilla extract, and hers calls for white granulated sugar for rolling the dough ball in rather than Demerara sugar like Claire's.

I noticed Claire’s dough was stickier than my mom’s recipe; I think this is because it has more wet ingredients. I am, however, now curious to see if I could bake two sheets of cookies in the upper and lower racks for my mom’s recipe like I did for Claire; it is so convenient! Over the years, my mom always added a raisin to the middle of the cookies about halfway through the baking process, but I typically don’t do that myself. I did like the golden glow from the Demerara sugar on Claire’s recipe.

Claire’s cookies are chewy with a hint of crunch from the Demerara sugar, which I also think makes the sweetness more even keeled alongside the pepper. I noticed this instantly because my mom’s molasses cookies have a sweeter molasses flavor, which must come from the white sugar the dough is rolled in. I thought Claire’s cookies tasted even chewier the next day, which I loved. Overall, if you are looking for a molasses cookie recipe, you cannot go wrong with Claire’s Chewy Molasses Spice Cookies. It truly is an enjoyable, chewy bite, just how a cookie should be! While I enjoyed Claire’s recipe, there’s no place like home, and my mom’s molasses cookie recipe takes me back to a million wonderful childhood memories. Knowing Claire has collected many of the recipes in Dessert Person from her loved ones, I think she would graciously understand.

Claire’s YouTube video on these delicious cookies shows just how easy and convenient this recipe is to bake:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcfZ3PaqdeI