Breakfast Cookies

Good cookie. Hearty and filling. I couldn’t help myself and made one alteration, I added a serving of plain protein powder (35 grams of Sprout Living original protein powder). I’m not sure, but this might have made them a little more crumbly and delicate, because they are that.

I guess I also used PB instead of almond butter, but not sure if that makes a big difference or not, I wouldn’t think so.

She said too bake for 15 min, but I went more about 12 min.

Would try with a real egg instead of flax egg next time, I think that may help them hold together a little more.

I also used 28 grams each of dark chocolate chunks and chopped walnuts for my “add-ins”.

Breakfast Cookies
From Nourished by Caroline

Ingredients

• 1 tablespoon (8 grams) flax seeds, ground

• 2 tablespoons (28 grams) water

• 3/4 cup (60 grams) rolled oats

• 1/2 cup (52 grams) almond flour, spoon and leveled

• 1/4 cup chocolate chips or chunks (optional)

• 1/4 cup almonds, chopped or sliced (optional)

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 1/2 cup almond butter

• 3 tablespoons maple syrup

• 2 tablespoons coconut oil, softened

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, add the ground flax seeds and water. Let it sit until it thickens to form your flax "egg".

In another medium bowl, stir together the oats, almond flour, baking soda, salt, chocolate and almonds. Set aside.

Add the almond butter, maple syrup, coconut oil and vanilla to your same bowl containing the flax egg. Mix until a thick and smooth mixture forms.

Transfer the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix until combined. The cookie batter should be thick.

Scoop the mixture to the prepared baking sheet, forming 8 cookies. With lightly wet hands, flatten them slightly.

Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F. Remove from the oven and let the cookies cool for at least 10 minutes before eating.

Funfetti Sugar Cookies

These were great sugar cookies! I’m always looking for a thick and chewy sugar cookie and am usually disappointed. These did not disappoint! I recommend making them large, this helps them stay big, thick and chewy. And don’t overbake!

Funfetti Cookies
From Kim’s Cravings
Ingredients

• 2¾ cups (385g) all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 1 cup (226g) salted butter

• 1½ cups (300g) granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 2 teaspoon vanilla extract

• 1/2 cup (80g) sprinkles, plus more for topping

• ¼ cup (50g) granulated sugar for rolling cookies

Directions
Preheat oven to 375ºF. Line baking sheet with parchment paper. In a bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. Place the butter and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Use a stand mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and cream on medium-high speed until light in color and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Add egg and vanilla and mix on low for about 30 seconds or until fully incorporated. Slowly add in dry ingredients and mix on low combined.

Scrape down the bowl, then add the sprinkles and mix on low until just combined. Scoop the dough into large balls. Roll the dough ball in sugar if desired.

Place cookie dough balls on your lined baking sheets. Bake the cookies for 12-13 minutes. Cookies are done when the edges are light golden brown and there is some crackling along the top. Do not over bake.

Cool for 5 minutes on the baking sheet. Transfer cookies to a cooling rack to cool completely.

Chocolate Sugar Cookies

Last week a friend of mine sent me a box of cookies from a bakery she knows and loves that is located in Boston. I’ve never been to this restaurant, or to Boston for that matter, but I have their cookbook and love it so my friend wanted to share some of it’s goodness with me. It was such a kind gift, and so delicious! It was full of fairly basic cookies, but several that came with a twist. There was a snickerdoodle with saffron, as well as a chocolate cookie with cardamom, and potentially some other spices, but I really honed in on the cardamom. There was also a lovely snowball cookie, nice and buttery, a thin glazed oat cookie, a delicous sable that may have had tahini in it, and a nutty pistachio sesame cookie. They were all so good, and such fun to try a little sampling of the restaurant’s baked goods.

This was the inspiration box!

I was inspired after this, to do some cookie baking of my own. I was really drawn to the chocolate cardamom combo so decided to try and come up with something similar. A recipe for a chocolate sugar cookie came across my Instagram feed about this time which looked like a perfect place to start.

I followed the recipe but changed up the flavorings. I added cinnamon and some speculaas spice to the cookie base (I was going to add a little cardamom at this step as well but forgot, silly me). I then mixed cardamom into the granulated sugar that the cookies were rolled in prior to baking. The end result was a lightly spiced chocolate cookie, tender in the center and crispy on the edges. Perfect! I would amp up the spices next time to really highlight these flavors, but I didn’t want to go too bold initially. I didn’t want it to be overpowering. I would also remember to add some cardamom to the dough itself next time and really make a cardamom cookie through and through!

I would highly recommend this sugar cookie whether you want to spice it up, or keep it classic. Super easy, and baked up great! It would be really nice with some peppermint extract at Christmas. I bet it would make a really nice sandwich cookie, or ice-cream sandwich cookie. I even wonder about added some chocolate chips or chunks to the dough and making it a double chocolate cookie. We’ll see! Stay tuned…

Some of my Notes:
- Definitely use 1 tsp salt (double the amount called for in the original recipe). The blogger that I took the recipe from said she likes salt and so doubled the original 1/2 tsp salt. I wholeheartedly agree. It was great.
- First batch: shaped dough into 50 gram balls, baked exactly 12 min which was perfect! Resulted in a 3.5 inch cookie that spread nicely without being too flat.
- Second batch: shaped dough into 25 gram balls, baked exactly 10 min, which was good for this size cookie. So you can go a little bigger and make a 50 gram cookie, or smaller and get a 25 gram cookie, either one turned out great.
- Added 1/2 tsp cinnamon and a little specula as spice (too lazy to get out the individual spices!). Forgot the cardamom in the cookie like I wanted so first added 1/2 tsp cardamom (I think it was 1/2, not 1/4) to 50 grams of sugar to roll.
- This recipe will yield 34 25-gram cookies or 17 50-gram cookies (if you don’t eat dough that is!)

Chocolate Sugar Cookies
From Alexandra Cooks
Ingredients

• 2 cups (240 g) all-purpose flour

• 1/2 cup (43 g) Dutch processed cocoa powder

• 1 teaspoon baking soda

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 16 tablespoons (226 g) softened butter

• 1 1/2 cups (300 g) dark brown sugar

• 1 egg (50 g)

• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

• Granulated sugar for rolling, 1/4 to 1/2 cup (50 to 100 g)

Directions
Heat the oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place the flour, cocoa powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl and whisk to combine the ingredients. Set aside.

Put the butter and brown sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer. Fit the mixer with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 2 to 3 minutes, stopping to scrape down the mixer once or twice, until the mixture is light and fluffy.

Turn off the mixer, add the egg and vanilla, and beat until the egg is thoroughly incorporated, 1 to 2 minutes.

Add the dry ingredients and mix on low speed until no flour is visible, stopping to scrape down the mixer once during the process.

Pour the granulated sugar into a small bowl. Portion out the dough using a 2-tablespoon scoop or measure or a scale — each portion should weigh 50 grams. You should have about 16 to 18 balls total. Roll each portion between your hands to form a ball; then roll in the sugar — coat each ball as generously as you are able to in the sugar. Transfer 6 balls to the prepared sheet. Bake for 12 minutes; remove from heat and allow cookies to cool completely on the sheet pan. Repeat this process, baking 6 cookies at a time.

Chocolate Chunk and Walnut Cookies

Lara and I were looking for a bakery style chocolate chip cookie recently. I’m always on the hunt for this type of cookie, but I haven’t actually made that many cookies recently. That all changed when I found this recipe!

While I love a “bakery style” cookie, they are always HUGE! This is great, other than the fact that I don’t need to eat a cookie this big. I realized though, that the times I do go to a bakery and share a cookie, I have a couple bites and share the rest with someone else, or take it home for later. Why can’t I just do this with my own cookies?

So I stopped trying to make a mini version of a bakery style cookie. This doesn’t work. With a smaller cookie you just don’t get the contrast between the crispy edges and the chewy, gooey center. Small cookies bake for less time so while the center may be a little gooey, the edges don’t have time to crisp up. If you instead aim for crispy edges, the center is cooked all the way through. In other words, you can’t win.

So, for this new recipe, I told myself to just GO BIG! No matter how wrong it felt! Portioning out the dough I kept thinking, this is too big, this can’t be right. But it wasn’t, and it is! I portioned these into 100 gram (3.5 ounces) balls of dough which was perfect! They baked up beautifully! Super thick, gooey and underbaked in the center, golden brown and crispy on the edges.

I baked some of them freshly made, and they baked for about 10 minutes I think. I also baked some straight from the freezer and these went closer to 12 minutes. They don’t spread a lot, especially the frozen dough, so I tried two different methods to finish them off. For the non-frozen dough, I took a round cookie cutter and spun it around the cookies immediately after they came out of the oven. This made them perfectly round, and helped them sink a little bit. For the frozen dough, I actually took a small glass mixing bowl and gently pressed down on the top of the cookie immediately after they came out of the oven. You can press them down as much or as little as you like to make them the perfect size/diameter for you. It sounds weird I know, but I think the final cookie turned out gorgeous either way. This is just my preference. You don’t have to do any of this, but just some options.

Definitley a Go-To cookie recipe for the future! (When writing this I’ve already made them another two times!)

I followed the original recipe exactly except for adding in 65 grams walnuts. I was also out of vanilla so skipped that.I did use the espresso powder.

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Chocolate Chunk and Walnut Cookies
From Butter and Brioche
Ingredients

• 150 grams (2/3 cup) Butter, cubed

• 200 grams (3/4 cup + 2 1/2 tablespoons) brown sugar

• 70 grams (1/3 cup) white sugar

• 1 large egg

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 280 g (2 1/4 cups) all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda

• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

• 1 teaspoon espresso powder, optional

• dark chocolate (70%), roughly chopped - 170 g (1 cup)

• flaked salt, for finishing

Directions
Position racks in the lower and upper thirds of an oven. Pre-heat it to 350 F. Line a large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Put the butter in a medium saucepan set over low heat. Heat, stirring often, until melted. Pour it into a large mixing bowl, then add the sugars, and whisk until combined. Whisk in the egg, followed by the vanilla extract, until smooth and glossy.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, soda, salt, and espresso, if using.

Tip the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Beat, with a wooden spoon, until a soft dough has begun to form. Beat in the chocolate until just distributed. Do not overwork the dough.

Using a medium cookie scoop or tablespoon as a measure, portion out even-sized amounts of the dough. If you’re using a spoon, shape them into balls with your hands. Divide between the sheets, leaving a few inches space apart for spreading. You should fit 8 to 10 per sheet. You can set left-over dough balls aside to be baked off later, or, store them in an airtight container and freeze for up to two months. Allow to stand at room temperature for fifteen minutes, before baking. Sprinkle with salt.

Bake for 10 to 12 minutes. Halfway through, open the oven door and lift the sheet by a few inches. With a little force, tap it against the oven rack, so that the cookies de-flate slightly. The chocolate should run, too. Close the oven door and continue to bake for another minute. Again, repeat this lifting and tapping process, for a total of 3 more times. The cookies will be golden brown and crisp around the edges, but the middles still soft, when they’re done.

Remove and let stand on the sheet for a few minutes, before transferring the cookies off and onto a wire rack to cool further, before serving.

Christmas Cookies 2020

Last week both Lara and I took some time off and decided it was the perfect opportunity to do our yearly Christmas cookie baking. We knew that we had to make our favorite molasses cookies which we’ve made for several years in a row now. It’s the only time I make these deep, rich and chewy cookies, and they are just so good that I can’t pass them by. Along with this we decided on a buttery sprinkle cookie for a visual and flavor contrast; light and buttery, scented with a little almond extract and with a slight tang from some cream cheese. Finally, we went with a chocolate peppermint biscotti. I really like biscotti, and in cookie bags I love the contrast in shape - long and narrow which gives more visual interest to the bags. I have made a lot of biscotti in the past, but never chocolate in the past. I was a big fan of the chocolate version!

Along with this trio, Lara also made one version of her famous decorated sugar cookies. She had seen a new technique for marbling the icing into beautiful swirls so decided to try it out. It turned out great, and was pretty easy which is always a win-win! She finished them off (the next day after the icing had dried) with some luster powder.

We had to balance all that sugar and butter with some kale from the farmer’s market… ;)

I decided to try a variety of sprinkles. As I expected, my favorites were the nonpareils, and the jimmies. I didn’t like the colored sugar as much as the sprinkles. But there is no “right” sprinkle to use!

Whenever I’m making a new cookie, I get a little nervous not knowing exactly how it’s going to spread during baking. These two photos show the before and after of the confetti cookies. They baked up nicely. A little spreading, but still a nice puffy center. I was happy with the final outcome.

Shot a few pictures in natural light the next day, alongside a few loaves of bread I made as well.

Overall, I heard great feedback about all the cookies. More for the molasses and sprinkle cookies which I expected. But all three were great options and worth doing again!

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Chocolate Peppermint Biscotti
Adapted from Allrecipes
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened

• 2/3 cup (133 grams) white sugar

• 1/4 cup (20 grams) unsweetened cocoa powder

• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon salt

• 2 eggs

• 1/4 teaspoon peppermint extract

• 1 3/4 cups (210 grams) all-purpose flour

• ~1 cup (4 ounces) chopped dark chocolate

Directions
In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar with an electric mixer until light and fluffy. Gradually beat in cocoa, baking powder and salt. Beat for 2 minutes. Beat in the eggs one at a time, followed by the peppermint extract. Stir in flour by hand. Mix in chopped chocolate. Cover dough, and chill for about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Divide dough into two parts, and roll each part into a 9 inch long log. Place logs on lightly greased cookie sheet, about 4 inches apart. Flatten slightly.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool on cookie sheet for 5 minutes, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool for one hour.

Cut each loaf into 1/2 inch wide diagonal slices. Place slices on a baking sheet, and bake at 325 degrees for 25-30 minutes, until completely dried through and crisp.

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Christmas Confetti Cookies
From Smitten Kitchen
Ingredients

• 3 cups (375 grams) all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda

• 3/4 teaspoon fine sea or table salt

• 1 cup (8 ounces, 225 grams or 2 sticks) unsalted butter

• 1/4 cup (2 ounces, 55 grams) cream cheese

• 1 1/4 cups (250 grams) granulated sugar

• 1 large egg

• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

• 1/4 teaspoon almond extract

• Sprinkles

Directions
Heat oven to 375 degrees. Line two baking large sheets with parchment paper.

Place flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in the work bowl and pulse a few times to blend. Add butter and cream cheese in large chunks, plus sugar and blend until mixture is powdery. Add egg, vanilla and almond extracts and run machine until the dough balls together.

Scoop dough into balls, approximately 1 1/2 tablespoons each. Roll them briefly in the palms of your hands before dropping them in a bowl of sprinkles and gently rolling to coat them evenly.

Transfer balls of sprinkle-coated dough to baking sheets at least two inches apart. Use the bottom of a drinking glass to press down on the cookies until they are about 1/2-inch tall. Bake for 9 to 10 minutes until they look underbaked but lightly golden underneath. Let set on the baking sheet on a rack for a few minutes before transferring to cooling racks to cool the rest of the way.

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Molasses Cookies
Ingredients

• 2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

• 1 large egg

• 1⁄2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

• 1⁄3 cup granulated sugar

• 1⁄3 cup robust-flavored (dark) molasses

• 1⁄4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

• Coarse sanding or raw sugar (for rolling)

Directions
Place racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 375°. Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk egg, butter, granulated sugar, molasses, and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in dry ingredients just to combine.

Place sanding sugar in a shallow bowl. Scoop out dough by the tablespoonful and roll into balls (if dough is sticky, chill 20 minutes). Roll in sugar and place on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2” apart.

Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets halfway through, until cookies are puffed, cracked, and just set around edges (overbaked cookies won’t be chewy), 8–10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool.

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Vanilla-Almond Sugar Cookies
Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking powder

• 1 cup sugar

• 2 sticks butter, cold

• 1 egg

• 3/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

• 1/2 teaspoon pure almond extract

Directions
Combine the flour and baking powder, set aside. Cream the sugar and butter. Add the egg and extracts and mix. Gradually add the flour mixture and beat just until combined, scraping down the bowl, especially the bottom.

The dough will be crumbly, so knead it together with your hands as you scoop it out of the bowl for rolling 

Roll onto a floured surface and cut into shapes. Place on parchment lined baking sheets and freeze for 5 minutes. Bake chilled cookies for 10-12 minutes at 350. Let sit a few minutes on the sheet, then transfer to a cooling rack to cool completely. 

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Royal Icing
Ingredients

• 6 oz (3/4 cup) warm water

• 5 tablespoons meringue powder

• 1 teaspoon cream of tartar

• 1 kilogram (2.25 pounds) powdered sugar

Directions
Pour the warm water and meringue powder into the bowl of an electric mixer. Mix it with a whisk by hand until it is frothy and thickened, about 30 seconds.Add the cream of tartar and mix for 30 seconds more.

Pour in all of the powdered sugar at once. Using the paddle attachment, mix slowly, on the LOWEST speed, for a full 10 minutes. Icing will get thick and creamy.

Cover the bowl with a dampened towel to prevent crusting and drying.

Tint with food colorings and thin the icing with small amounts of warm water to reach the desired consistency.

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Banket

It’s been a few years since I made banket. I want to make it every year but it doesn’t always happen. This year I was determined to do it and so I did! And a lot of it! This was the best batch that I’ve made yet. It took one test batch with an almond past filling explosion to get the ratio of filling to pastry correct but after that the remainder baked up beautifully! The problem seems to happen if you try to overfill the pastry. When I rolled out the first batch I didn’t make them quite as long and so there was a thicker piece of filling rolled up inside that couldn’t be held in when expanding while baking.

After figuring out how long to roll out the dough I was able to make some beautiful sticks of delicious pastry! They always leak a little bit of filling, but you get to cut that off and nibble on it. Not a problem at all.

The dough is so tender and extremely flakey. I used a food processor to make the dough and it comes together very quickly and easily.

What happens when you fill them a bit too full!

Try some chocolate!

This year I ended up making several batches due to high demand from friends and family. Each batch ended up being only 3/4 of the recipe posted, and I made 9 banket each time, so a little shorter than the posted recipe. You can make them however big or small you want.

I also tried a couple of different things this year in the filling. I added some chopped chocolate to one, and some leftover mascarpone frosting to another. Delicious. I think it would be a lot of fun to experiment with lots of different fillings.

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Banket
Ingredients
Dough

• 4 cups flour

• ¼ cup sugar

• 1 teaspoon salt

• ½ teaspoon baking powder

• 1 pound cold butter, cut into small pieces

• scant 1 cup cold water

Filling

• 1 pound of almond paste

• 2 eggs

• 2 cups sugar

• 1 teaspoon vanilla

To Finish

• 1-2 Egg yolks

Directions
Dough: mix together the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Add the pieces of cold butter and cut into the flour mixture with a pastry blender until the butter is about pea sized. Make a well in the middle and add cold water, mix until a shaggy dough is formed, don’t over mix. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate overnight.

For the filling, break up almond paste in a bowl. Add eggs, sugar, and vanilla. Mix well. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.

The next day cut divide both the dough and the filling into 8 equal portions, use a scale if you have it.

Take one piece of dough and roll out into a long, thin rectangle, approximately 13x4 inches. Place one piece of filling on the rolled out dough, spreading it along the length of dough, a little closer to one side, forming an even line. Roll up the long way, folding the ends under. Pinch together slightly so the filling doesn’t ooze out.

Dock the rolls with a fork, brush with egg yolks.

At this point you can stick the pans in your freezer until the Banket is frozen hard. Then you can wrap them up and bake off as needed.

Bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. Let cool before slicing into 1-2 inch pieces, enjoy!

Stollen Bars

I love stollen at Christmas time. The bakery down the street makes a fantastic one. It’s so buttery and rich, one of my favorite things. It’s something that I think would be fun to make one day, but it would be a project to make and not one I have felt the need to try. It’d be fun and rewarding, but when there is such a great option down the street I don’t really feel the need.

However, when these stollen bars popped up on my Instagram feed I knew that THIS was something I could get on board with! A quick bar that hits all the same notes as stollen, but without the commitment, perfect!

They turned out absolutely delicious. Nothing light and healthy about this recipe, perfect for Christmas giving. The combination of almond extract and orange zest was reminiscent of blue moon ice cream which was a fun surprise!

I followed the recipe to a T with the one exception of replacing the marzipan with almond paste since I already was buying almond paste for making banket and it turned out just fine. It did end up baking about 10-12 minutes longer than called for but not a big deal. A fun and festive recipe that I would certainly make again.

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Stollen Bars
My Name is Yeh
Ingredients

• 2 c (260g) all-purpose flour

• 2/3 c (75g) almond flour

• 1 tsp baking powder

• 1 tsp cinnamon

• 3/4 tsp kosher salt

• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom

• a pinch of ground cloves

• a pinch of allspice

• 3/4 c (168g) unsalted butter, divided, at room temperature

• 4 oz (112g) cream cheese, room temperature

• 1 c (200g) sugar

• zest of 1 orange

• 1 large egg

• 1/2 tsp almond extract

• 1/3 c (53g) dried cherries

• 1/3 c (53g) golden raisins

• 1 c (112g) roasted pistachios

• 8 oz (227g) marzipan, chopped into 3/4” pieces [or substitute almond paste which is what I did and it turned out great]

• 1/3 c (40g) powdered sugar

Directions
Preheat the oven to 350º. grease an 8” square pan and line with parchment paper so that 1” wings come up on two sides. set it aside.

in a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, almond flour, baking powder, cinnamon, salt, cardamom, cloves, and allspice. in a stand mixer fitted with a paddle, beat together 1/2 cup of the butter, the cream cheese, sugar, and orange zest on medium high until pale and fluffy, 3-4 minutes. add the egg and almond extract and beat until combined. reduce the speed to low and then beat in the dry ingredients followed by the cherries, raisins, and pistachios. fold in the marzipan pieces by hand. scrape into the pan and spread it out evenly with your hands or a rubber spatula. bake until golden around the edges and lightly browned on top; begin checking for doneness at 28 minutes. [Mine ended up taking close to 40 minutes give or take, so keep a close eye on it]

spread the remaining 1/4 cup of butter all over the top while it’s still hot out of the oven so that the butter melts and then sprinkle with powdered sugar. let cool in the pan and then cut into squares and enjoy! keep in an airtight container at room temperature or in the fridge for up to two weeks.

Chewy Molasses Cookies

It was Christmas cookie time this past weekend. I took a few days off of work and got some good work done. I painted a wall that had been languishing with just primer on it for weeks, I did a little Christmas decorating, I spent time outdoors, I put new hooks on the wall in the entryway which means my coats won’t be constantly falling onto the floor, all good things. But the best part of the weekend was having time to enjoy baking and delivering Christmas cookie packages.

This molasses cookie recipe has been an absolute MUST every single year since I first made it back in 2013. It’s the only recipe that has appeared at Christmas every single year. Quite a feat! [check out this post from Jan 2014).

It is just the best. It’s buttery, sweet and salty, chewy and full of the perfect balance of spices. It’s always the cookie that takes people by surprise and makes them ask for the recipe. Since first making this recipe I’ve made a few minor changes. The blog I originally got it from had adapted it from this Bon Appetit recipe. After making it a few times I realized that it didn’t make sense how the blogger had changed it. She called for you to melt the butter and then beat it until “light and fluffy” which just doesn’t make sense, or work, with melted butter. So I went to the original recipe which made things much simpler, just melt the butter, add the rest of the wet ingredients, and then mix in the dry. Easy!

The original recipe calls for either light or dark molasses. I’ve made these with both and I much prefer the dark molasses. It adds more of a bitterness which contrasts well with the sweet sugary coating. I would recommend using dark molasses, but either will work.

The only other thing to notice is that the original recipe calls for 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt, while the other blog called for 1/2 teaspoon of salt. So I’ve been using 1/2 teaspoon of regular/table salt for years which means the cookies are saltier than the original recipe likely intended. Is this a problem? Absolutely not. In fact, I think the extra bite of salt in these cookies is part of what makes them so good. I would not cut back on the salt, or substitute with kosher salt because I love them how they are!

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Molasses Cookies
Ingredients

• 2 cups (260 grams) all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons baking soda

• 1 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 1 teaspoon ground ginger

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom

• 1⁄2 teaspoon salt

• 1 large egg

• 1⁄2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted

• 1⁄3 cup granulated sugar

• 1⁄3 cup robust-flavored (dark) molasses

• 1⁄4 cup (packed) dark brown sugar

• Coarse sanding or raw sugar (for rolling)

Directions
Place racks in lower and upper thirds of oven; preheat to 375°. Whisk flour, baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cardamom, and salt in a small bowl. Whisk egg, butter, granulated sugar, molasses, and brown sugar in a medium bowl. Mix in dry ingredients just to combine.

Place sanding sugar in a shallow bowl. Scoop out dough by the tablespoonful and roll into balls (if dough is sticky, chill 20 minutes). Roll in sugar and place on 2 parchment-lined baking sheets, spacing 2” apart.

Bake cookies, rotating baking sheets halfway through, until cookies are puffed, cracked, and just set around edges (overbaked cookies won’t be chewy), 8–10 minutes. Transfer to wire racks and let cool.