Molasses Cookies

It seems like I always intend to bake something and then I buy all of the ingredients and somehow I get distracted and nothing gets made.  Maybe this is how I ended up with three jars of molasses in my fridge.  In any event, I took it as an excuse to make a personal favorite, molasses cookies.  These cookies are sweet and spicy and very moist.  Although they are mainly enjoyed around the holiday season, they are simply delicious year round.

Molasses Cookies (adapted from King Arthur)

In a medium sized bowl wisk together:

2 cups all purpose flour

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp cinnamon

.5 tsp baking soda

.25 tsp cloves

.25 tsp nutmeg

Even this little flour mixture smells heavenly.  

Preheat the over to 375.  In a large bowl cream together:

5 tbsp room temperature butter 

.5 cup sugar. 

Add 1/2 cup molasses and mix on low speed.  

Don't forget to spray your measuring cup with Pam before you pour in the molasses so that it will all come out of the measuring up and end up in your cookies and not down the sink.

At this point you can alternate adding by parts the flour mixture and 1/3 cup of rum.  

Note: I substituted the rum with vanilla extract that I make out of dark rum ( I promise I will post that to the blog soon).  The result is a lovely smelling pale brown batter.

 Pour about 1/3 cup of sugar into a small dish.  Scoop ping-pong sized balls of dough and roll them in the sugar so they are well coated.  This will make a nice crisp sugary top.  Bake the cookies for about 10 minutes.  Store in an air tight container and they should stay moist because of the addition of rum.

Hope you enjoy these as much as I do.  I know I will be needing to make another batch soon as I have already eaten more than my fair share.