Molasses Spice Cookies

We have a few cookie connoisseurs around here. They – all of them, including Chef Pierre Bleu and Chef Pierre Jaune – like nothing better than a bellyful of freshly baked cookies.  With virtually no sweet tooth myself, I tend toward homey, easy cookies unless it’s holiday season when I might go all out if I have the time. These molasses spice versions fit the description nicely, produced lightly spiced cookies that are chewy and a little crackly from the sugar topping. A great one for the repertoire. They last for a few days in an airtight container unless they come in contact with big or little hands.

The recipe originated in Cook’s Illustrated Magazine and I remember that it was not written as well as it could have been, which of course did not affect the cookies.  The reason I recall that is that Cook’s prides itself in impeccable directions and testing, testing, testing. That’s why Chris Kimball refers to himself as America’s Test Kitchen. So when I found that it had been rewritten for The New Best Recipe by the editors of Cook’s Illustrated, I was delighted. Now that’s more like it. FYI, this one called for regular all-purpose flour whereas the original called for unbleached; I’ve done both and they’re fine either way. I tinkered with the spices a little, just because…

Molasses Spice Cookies adapted from Cook’s Illustrated, The New Best Recipe

2¼ c all-purpose (or 1 tbsp less unbleached white flour)

1 tsp baking soda

1½ tsp ground cinnamon

1½ tsp ground ginger

½ tsp ground allspice

½ tsp finely ground black pepper

¼ tsp ground cloves

¼ tsp salt

1/3 c white granulated sugar for the dough plus ½ c for rolling the formed cookies

1/3 c packed dark brown sugar

1½ sticks (12 tbsp) softened butter

1 large egg yolk, room temperature

1 tsp vanilla extract

½ c light or dark molasses.

Heat the oven to 375 degrees. Place an oven rack in the center of the oven. Cut parchment paper to fit into 2 large baking sheets (you’ll bake each one separately).

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, spices and salt and set aside.

Place the ½ c of the granulated sugar in a wide shallow bowl or plate.

Combine 1/3 c of granulated sugar, the brown sugar and the butter in a large mixing bowl and beat them with an electric mixer at medium-high speed together until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape down the bowl. Reduce the mixer speed to medium-low and add the egg yolk and vanilla until combined, about 30 seconds. Add the molasses and beat for another 30 seconds. Fold in the dry ingredients until just combined.

Scoop about a tablespoon and a half of dough and roll it into a ball about 1¼ inch in diameter. Making about 4 balls at a time, roll them in the sugar and place them on the baking sheets, leaving a good 2 inches between them.

Bake each sheet separately, leaving them in the oven for 11 minutes and turning the sheets front to back half way through. The cookies should look cracked and raw in places. They’ll finish cooking while they cool and you want them to remain chewy.

Cool the baking sheets on a rack for about 5 minutes before removing the cookies to a rack to cool completely. Store in an airtight container.

Makes 20-24 cookies.

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Dorie Greenspan’s Cocktail Cookies

Dorie Greenspan is a baking genius. Her tome Baking from my Home to Yours is the go-to reference for just about any kind of baked good you can imagine. In fact, thousands of bloggers baked their way through it Tuesday after Tuesday. However, I was intrigued by an article she wrote in Food & Wine Magazine about savory cookies, which she and her son Josh made for their CookieBar pop-up shop n New York. Perfect for cocktails, she claims.

I’ve been trying various savory cookies in anticipation of a big party I was cooking for this past weekend. The rosemary pine nut cookies and the Parmesan wafers with poppy seeds I made last month were both delicious but didn’t hang together as an ensemble. So I tried three of the five that Dorie featured in the article: chocolate-cayenne, rosemary-almond, and sesame seed. Cut in 1¼-inch rounds and stacked on a three-tier stand, these addictive little slightly sweet but mostly savory cookies were a big hit.  I promised people at the party that I would provide the recipes, so I’ve linked to Food & Wine.

A note about the recipes, which I had to adjust. Since I made the chocolate first and it turned out perfect — rich chocolate shortbread with a kick from cayenne pepper and flaky salt on top — I assumed that the other two recipes would be perfect. Not so, but I made an adjustment that worked just fine. The chocolate version was a typical recipe with butter eggs, sugar, flour chocolate, seasoning. The rosemary-almond was delicious and crumbly, which I attribute to the fact that my egg yolks – from local free-range chickens – were on the small side. However, the sesame cookies, which are shortbreads – meaning no eggs – were made with a combination of almond meal and all-purpose flour, which can vary in absorption rate. While I had forced the rosemary-almond cookies to coalesce by kneading it — most of the cookies held together – I simply couldn’t get the dough for the sesame cookies to hold together, so I added a beaten egg to the dough in addition to brushing the cookies with a beaten egg to “glue” on the seeds. The results were great.

A technique that made these work was to roll the dough between two pieces of parchment paper (Dorie called for waxed paper, which I didn’t have) and to freeze the dough for an hour to firm it up before cutting out and baking the cookies. This also allows the dough to be frozen for another time, in which case it would need to be thawed slightly before baking.

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Rosemary Pine Nut Cookies

A Table in the Tarn, written by Orlando Murrin, is the story of two guys who left London to take up residency in an old manor house in Southwest France, turning the stately building into a charming bed-and-breakfast that is apparently a gastronomic destination.  Part memoir and part how-to, the book contains numerous terrific recipes, including this one for rosemary pine nut cookies. I tweaked the recipe (and rewrote it) but the basics are all here. On another occasion, I will substitute lemon zest for the ground ginger. I will also use regular granulated sugar instead of superfine, which Murrin called for, since I thought the cookies didn’t need to be quite so sweet. What attracted me to the recipe was the possibility of developing a savory biscuit based on this, and I think it will eventually work. In the meanwhile, these are easy to make. I threw them together on a weeknight while I was preparing dinner on top of the stove to stop my husband from lamenting about the cookies that he accidentally left behind in the store.  

Rosemary Pine Nut Cookies adapted from A Table in the Tarn

2 tbsp pine buts plus extra for decorating the cookies

2 tsp chopped rosemary plus extra for decorating the cookies

1 1/3 c all-purpose flour

½ tsp baking soda

¼ tsp ground ginger or ½ tsp grated lemon rind

1/3 c soft butter

½ c sugar plus addition for sprinkling on the cookies

1 tbsp olive oil

1 egg yolk

1½ tbsp heavy cream

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment.

Slowly toast the pine nuts in a sauté pan over low heat until light brown. Remove to a food processor. Add the rosemary, and lightly chop the mixture to the texture of coarse meal. Pour into a medium bowl. Soft the flour, baking soda and ground ginger into the rosemary pine nut mixture and mix well. (If using lemon zest, add it now.)

Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy and add the olive oil. Slowly add the flour, stirring to combine. Combine the cream and egg yolk and stir into the batter, mixing well.

Shape the dough into ¾-inch balls and place 1½ inches apart on the baking sheet (they will spread). Sprinkle with sugar.

Bake for 13 minutes or until the edges are lightly browned. Remove and decorate with pine nuts and rosemary sprigs, Makes 3 dozen.

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