Last week I made goody bags for friends, and this week I made up gift baskets for family, and for the friends that feel like family. I baked most of the same things as the week before; snicker doodle cookies, peppermint meringues, and chocolate macaroons. I also made what is possibly my favorite cookie of all time - Spicy Molasses cookies. These are without a doubt seriously delicious and I had a hard time not keeping them all to myself! I got the recipe from the Pioneer Woman website, she has a lot of great recipes under her cooking section. I will copy and paste the molasses cookie recipe at the end of this post.
For the bags for our family I put in a little bag of each kind of cookie and a jar of the strawberry jam we made this summer. For Jeanne, Tanya's family and Jessica's family, I made up a gift basket that included all the cookies, plus strawberry jam, apple butter, applesauce and peaches, all of which I canned this summer. They turned out looking so pretty and festive:
Its a lot of work churning out this many cookies in a day, but its totally worth it to see the smiles on our family and friends faces, and to see how much enjoyment they get from them. This is probably one of my favorite things about the holidays, creating something I love, and sharing it with the people I love.
Here is the Spicy Molasses cookie recipe - make these immediately and then bring some over to share with me!
For the bags for our family I put in a little bag of each kind of cookie and a jar of the strawberry jam we made this summer. For Jeanne, Tanya's family and Jessica's family, I made up a gift basket that included all the cookies, plus strawberry jam, apple butter, applesauce and peaches, all of which I canned this summer. They turned out looking so pretty and festive:
Its a lot of work churning out this many cookies in a day, but its totally worth it to see the smiles on our family and friends faces, and to see how much enjoyment they get from them. This is probably one of my favorite things about the holidays, creating something I love, and sharing it with the people I love.
Here is the Spicy Molasses cookie recipe - make these immediately and then bring some over to share with me!
| Prep Time: 15 Minutes | Cook Time: 11 Minutes | Difficulty: Easy | Servings: 36 |
Ingredients
- 1 cup Sugar
- ¾ cups Crisco (vegetable Shortening)
- ¼ cups Molasses
- 1 whole Egg
- 2 cups Flour
- 1 teaspoon Cinnamon
- ½ teaspoons Ground Cloves
- 1 teaspoon Ground Ginger
- ¼ teaspoons Ground Cardamom
- ¼ teaspoons Salt
- 2-½ teaspoons Baking Soda
Preparation Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Mix sugar, shortening, molasses, and egg together until well combined. Dump in dry ingredients, stirring dry ingredients together lightly. Mix together until dough is combined.
In your hands roll dough into walnut-sized balls, then generously coat each ball with sugar. Place balls on a baking sheet and bake for 9 to 11 minutes, allowing to bake for about a minute after cookies begin to crack.
Remove cookies from baking sheet and allow to cool…though these are delicious while still warm.