Iced Spiced Soft Molasses Cookies

 

“Hey babe, did you try these Iced Spiced Soft Molasses Cookies yet?”

Tries a cookie. 

“You’re the devil…..”  pause pause chew chew chew, spins a happy spin.

“……I don’t know where you come up with this stuff,” Mike blubbers. 

“Babe, I’m a good researcher.”

“How……why…….you….you’re the devil,” as he meanders off in a faux huff while stuffing another cookie in his pleased face. 

Indeed, these are perilously delicious.

Is it good or scary that this recipe makes such a big batch?  Seriously, they’re that rapturous.

‘Tis cookie season, yeah?  Yay!  And the season of get-togethers, of giving, and potlucks. 

If you’ve been following my adventures over at Flipping the Flip, you knew that I had joined the efforts to have a dog park built in our neighborhood’s namesake park, Humboldt Park.  It’s a giant urban oasis, one of the city’s larger parks, and it’s filled with lagoons, prairie landscapes, herons, coyotes, and formerly Chance the Snapper.  It’s a marvelous place. 

Well, except for all the off-leash dogs, that’s a problem.  Especially while walking a dog that is not people nor dog friendly, aka Finn.  So the goal was to increase park safety with a fenced-in dog park.  

Sadly I had to leave the group last fall.  This past October, the park district reached out to see what was up (unfortunately nothing), so I opted to revive the group with new members. 

Part of this process is working in conjunction with the park’s Advisory Council, attending their monthly meetings which is always a study in interesting.  It’s been an uphill both ways, hard-fought win of support but I got it and I am proud of myself. 

Cherry on top, I really super sealed the deal with these Spiced Soft Molasses Cookies with Icing from Foodess though!  Whooie, thank you!

This month’s meeting was the Advisory Council’s annual holiday potluck so I decided to bake.  I made a batch of those eyes-rolling-into-the-back-of-your-head-they’re-so-good Chocolate Cupcakes with Russian Buttercream and to try something new, expand my (and your) cookie repertoire plus make a big feed-a-crowd batch, these cookies. 

Luckily my schedule freed and quite enjoyably, I baked the whole day away. 

Really really easy recipe here, folks, and I’ll tell ya, wow, what a score this one is.  Mike is still talking about these cookies, well over two weeks after we destroyed them.

In a large bowl,* mix up the dry ingredients, giving them a nice floof with a fork and then in a two cup measuring cup,* whisk the molasses and buttermilk together.  The original recipe calls for “fancy” molasses but I had just regular whatever molasses and these cookies were totally of the blow your mind variety, so, up to you.

Measuring everything out ahead of time really does make every baking process easier.  **Edit:  I was way off on my butter here.  It’s supposed to be a stick and a half, not three sticks but boy, three sticks, it was tasty!  I’ll probably still make them that way but feel free to use the correct amount, 3/4 cup aka 1 1/2 sticks.

Whip up the butter and brown sugar until fluffy and airy in your mixer.*  Add the one egg to the fluffy butter and sugar, stir that up.

Adding the one lone egg into the creamed butter and brown sugar.

Add the buttermilk-molasses and give everything a good mixing.  Be sure to scrape the bowl very well, get all the way in there as the butter will try to stick to the sides from here on out.  It’s gonna look weird, unblended, and curdly but have no fear, it’s gonna work.

See, yeah, it gets a little weird here.

Next, add in the dry ingredients, stir that all around but not too much.  When there’s a bit of unmixed flour still about, turn off the mixer, scrape the bowl some more and do a few final stirs with a spatula by hand. 

Ok!  Drop time!  On a parchment or silicone mat* lined cookie sheet, drop about tablespoon sized nuggets of dough, tablespoon as in measuring spoon size.  You can go a bit larger, just adjust for a slightly longer bake time.

They don’t spread much but give them some space for air to move freely.

Jennifer of Foodess gave the best, most accurate description of when these cookies are ready by saying they will have lost their sheen and bounce back when poked with a finger.

All baked up!  Try to refrain from stuffing in cookie hole.

Once the cookies have cooled, stir up the icing ingredients.  Grab a cookie and either spoon icing atop or do a light, part-way-in top-down dip.  Let the extra run off and set the cookie back on the cooling rack.  Repeat, repeat, sprinkle with cinnamon if you want, then give the icing time to set. 

Or, yeahhh, good luck with the latter part there.

Melting and cooling the butter will be muuuuch easier than using softened butter, so ignore my butter status in this bowl.

So, right!  I packed up the baked goods and nervously shuffled over to the field house.  Because I always get nervous sharing baked goods, especially one that’s new to me and to new eaters.  Or, truth and told, nervous every time, like every.  Such a dork, heh.

Feel free to sprinkle with cinnamon atop; it sticks best when the icing is still wet.

Slowly folks trickled into the meeting room, picking up a cookie here and there.  I’d hear an “ooh!” or a groan or an “mmm!” and whewwww….

Good luck eating only one or two of these (you’ve been warned).

These cookies were such the triumph that one board member said she was doing me the favor of taking home half of the remaining, the park supervisor was bending over backward offering his assistance to me and the dog park group, people were repeatedly sneaking “just one more,” and kept telling me how everyone was raving about them. 

So, heh, if ever you’ve got a tough crowd ahead of you and you need a solid, guaranteed way to win ‘em over, bake up a big ol’ batch a’ these here cookies.   Slam dunk, in your back pocket, Queen of All You Survey!

Mmmm mmm deeeelicious cookies!

Happy cookie season to you and yours!

Note:  This content originally appeared on Flaky Bakers.

Iced Spiced Soft Molasses Cookies

Yield

36 cookies

Prep time

20 Min

Cook time

12 Min

Total time

32 Min

A ringer for molasses spiced gingerbread yet easier as a drop cookie with the bonus of being soft, cakey., and iced! An unbelievably stellar cookie!

Ingredients

Cookies

• 3 1/2 cups (420 g) all-purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon (4 g) baking powder
• 1 teaspoon (6 g) baking soda
• 1 teaspoon (6 g) fine sea salt
• 1 tablespoon (8 g) ground cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon (6 g) ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon (1.3 g) ground cloves
• 3/4 cup (170 g) unsalted butter, room temperature (1 1/2 sticks, 12 tablespoons)
• 3/4 cup (160 g) packed brown sugar
• 1 egg, room temperature
• 3/4 cup (177 ml) molasses
• 3/4 cup (177 ml) buttermilk, room temperature

Icing

• 2 tablespoons (28 g) unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 2 cups (227 g) powdered sugar
• 1/4 cup (59 ml) cream or milk
• 1/2 teaspoon (2 g) vanilla extract
• Ground cinnamon sprinkle atop, optional

Instructions

Cookies

1. Begin preheating the oven to 350° F (176° C) and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
2. In a large bowl, combine the dry ingredients: the flour, baking powder and soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger, and cloves. Whisk with a fork to mix and lighten.
3. In a 2 cup measuring cup, combine the molasses and buttermilk, stirring well with a fork to thoroughly mix.
4. Add the butter and brown sugar to the bowl of a mixer and cream them together until fluffy, between 2-3 minutes. Add the egg and blend then scrape the bowl well.
5. Pour the molasses/buttermilk mixture into the mixer bowl and stir on low, scraping the bowl often to ensure all the butter is off the sides and up from the bottom. Everything will look a bit curdled.
6. On low speed, gradually add the dry ingredients and stir just until no streaks of flour are seen. Turn off the mixer and stir a few times by hand with a spatula, scraping the sides and bottom.
7. Drop tablespoon size (measuring spoon tablespoon size) balls of batter onto the cookie sheet a couple inches apart. Place the sheet in the oven and bake for about 12 minutes or until the cookies are no longer shiny and when poked with a finger, the indent bounces back.
8. Let the cookies cool on the sheet for about 2 minutes then transfer to a cooling rack. When the cookies have cooled, make the icing.

Icing

1. In a large bowl, stir together all of the icing ingredients: the butter, powdered sugar, the cream or milk, and the vanilla until very well combined and the lumps are gone.
2. Either spoon the icing over the cookies or lightly dip the tops of the cookies into the icing bowl, allowing the excess icing to run off. Sprinkle with cinnamon if desired. Allow time for the icing to set up before serving.

Notes:

Adapted from Foodess.

Nutrition Facts

Calories

154.20

Fat (grams)

5.20

Sat. Fat (grams)

3.15

Carbs (grams)

25.39

Fiber (grams)

0.51

Net carbs

24.88

Sugar (grams)

15.27

Protein (grams)

1.96

Sodium (milligrams)

127.65

Cholesterol (grams)

18.80

Please see the "info" section for nutrition details and information about gram weights.

cookies, gingerbread, molasses

recipes

American

*The mixing bowls, 2 cup measuring cups, stand mixers, and silicone baking mats are Amazon affiliate links.  Happy baking, thanks!  Please see the "info" tab for more, well, info.