Christmas is in the air - I love the sights, smells and sounds that remind me of the holidays. Gifts are purchased (not wrapped yet), tree is up and decorated and the turkey is purchased and quietly sleeping in the freezer until it is time for him to make his debut.
I had a baking bug this morning so I decided to make my grandmothers molasses cookies with lemon butter cream frosting. If you’ve been reading my blog you know these cookies were my favorite as a kid and I guess I was looking for a little trip down memory lane today.
I recall asking my mom about the recipe when I was in my 20’s and what she could recall was that things were added in 1 cup increments - which wasn’t overly helpful. After asking at a family reunion - my Aunt Kay (my mom’s oldest sister) gave me the recipe. Incidentally my mom was right things do come in 1 cup increments - go figure.
Ingredients
1 cup crisco - melted (in the old days I suspect Grandma used lard)
1 cup molasses
1 cup sugar
1 cup hot water with 1 level tsp baking soda
4 cups flour
1 tsp vanilla
Cooking Instructions
Add sugar and molasses to the melted shorting. Alternately add water/soda mixture and flour to the shortening/sugar/molasses mixture. Add vanilla. Let dough stand in a cool place until easy to handle - the dough will be sticky. Drop dough by tablespoon on to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper or silpat (or a Pampered Chef silicone mat) and bake at 350 degrees approximately 10 - 12 minutes. Cool and frost with lemon buttercream frosting.
For the frosting I used a little butter, powdered sugar and lemon juice - frost and add sprinkles - they are delicious :-) and I am feeling the family love as I eat these!
I couldn’t just make MY favorite cookies without making something for my sweetie. Knowing anything with nuts is his favorite I decided to make him a batch of date and nut pinwheels. I didn’t realize how labor intensive they were until I got half way through the process but the end result was worth it.
Kudos to A Taste of Home for the recipe. Today no substitutions - with the exception of only making a 1/2 batch because Dan and I don’t need 100+ cookies sitting in the house calling our name while we are trying to work :-). To be honest we’ll be putting many of the cookies in the freezer to use over the holidays and beyond!
They are delicious, see for yourself!
If you are baking at home - let me know about favorite cookies/dishes! Thanks for stopping by!
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