Molasses Spice Cookies
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Prepare flat baking sheets with parchment paper or I prefer to use Silicon Baking Mats.
Ingredients:
1/3 cup (2 1/3 ounces) granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups (11 1/4 ounces) unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 1/2 teaspoons ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon salt
12 Tablspoons (1 1/2 sticks) softened butter
1/3 cup (2 1/3 ounces) packed dark brown sugar
1 large egg yolk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup dark molasses
*sparkling coarse sugar for coating, about 1/2 a cup. (This can be ordered online or craft stores will have small containers of it. Sometimes the grocery store too! If you can't find it, regular granulated sugar will be fine.)
1. Make sure the oven rack is to the middle position. I only bake one cookie sheet at a time, just so you can make sure they come out perfectly. Put the sparkling coarse sugar in a shallow bowl.
2. Sift the dry ingredients together, flour, baking soda, spices and salt into a medium bowl, set aside.
3. In a standing mixer with the paddle attachment, cream the butter and sugars on medium high until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Decrease speed to medium-low and beat in egg yolk and vanilla. Incorporate and slowly add the molasses. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and make sure all ingredients are incorporated.
4. Add the flour and dry mixture to the batter, half of it first, mix and then the other half. Give the dough a final stir to ensure that there are no flour pockets, but be careful not to over mix. Scoop cookies with a small cookie scoop. Roll each cookie in the coarse sparkling sugar. I bake 12 cookies at one time on a baking sheet. Bake for about 9-10 minutes. The cookies will look slightly under-baked between the cracks but will be PERFECT once they cool.