May, I like MOLASSES cookies, not those wimpy ones with a couple of tablespoons of molasses and I use the darkest molasses I can find, usually Brer Rabbit. Dark brown sugar too, I love that spicy, dark, molasses-y flavor. I like them chewy, not fluffy, so here's my current favorite recipe, although I have to tell you that Sherry (sheshebop) makes the best molasses cookies, hands down.

Anyway....

Chewy Molasses Cookies

1 1/2 cups of shortening (I use half and half with butter, but all butter makes them too crispy for my taste)
1 cups granulated sugar
1 cup dark brown sugar
2 eggs
3/4 cup of dark molasses
4 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon salt
4 teaspoons baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
2 teaspoons ginger
1 teaspoon ground cloves
Chopped crystalized ginger, optional, to taste. I used about half a cup, finely chopped and wish I'd have used more but I love ginger
Coarse sugar or turbinado sugar for rolling

Ccream the shortening and sugars. Add the molasses and eggs and mix until well blended. Sift the flour (yeah right, I don't, LOL) and measure 4 1/2 cups into a separate bowl. Add the spices, salt, and baking soda and whisk to combine. Turn the mixer to low or stir, and add the flour slowly until well mixed. Stir in the chopped ginger and chill the dough for at least an hour.

After the dough has chilled for an hour, roll tablespoonfuls of the dough into balls and roll the balls in the coarse sugar to completely coat. Place the dough balls about an inch apart on a greased or parchment-lined cookie sheet and bake for 12 to 15 minutes in a 350 degree oven.

The cookies will puff up and crack. When the cookies are done the cracks should still look a little wet, but the outside should look dry. They'll "fall" a little as they cool, let them sit a couple of minutes on the sheet before you try to move them to cooling racks.

Great, now I want some.....

Annie

Ok, these sound wonderful - I love chewy cookies best. I have Brer Rabbit molasses and dark (is there any other kind!?) brown sugar in my pantry so I might make these TONIGHT! Thanks!!

Annie, that's just My kind of molasses cookie. Love it. Also makes me want molasses taffy. Haven't made that in years.. since the nieces and nephew used to come for winter break and we'd all make it together.

[I haven't done the bored thread yet. I have to go eat some Italian first after reading Sooz's retirement menu. Linguine here I come!]

Lemon drop martini...
1 1/2 oz vodka, 1 oz Limoncello.....shake with ice and serve with a thin slice of lemon in an "up" glass.
Linda C

May, Both of your questions bring back some of the many highlights of the recent visit with Sherry and Peppi.

Molasses Cookies: Sherry made the most fabulous molasses cookies in taste, appearance, and texture. I suspect they may have been made with the recipe Annie posted.

Lemon Drop: Trying to keep up with Peppi and Sherry, I was compelled to make something I could drink---wimp that I am. I froze an ice cube tray of cranberry juice. Once frozen I put 6 ice cubes in the blender the added Limoncello. It was a great slushee.

My new favorite summertime drink...Cape Cod

vodka
lime juice
cranberry juice

Mix to the proportions you like in a tall tumbler.

:-)

My molasses cookie recipe is not the one that Annie uses, although hers are very good.
Here is mine:

3/4 cup shortening
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1 egg
1/4 cup molasses
Mix above together thoroughly

Sift and add the following (I don't sift, actually)
2-1/4 cup flour
2 tsp soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger

Chill dough for at least an hour. Roll into balls, then roll in sugar and place on cookie sheet. When cookie sheet is full, flatten tops slightly with the bottom of a flat water glass.

I bake the first batch for 10 minutes, then subsequent batches for 9 minutes at 375.

Don't ask me why, but that first batch always takes a minute longer even though the oven is preheated.

This was my MIL's recipe. Surprising, since she is NOT a good cook.

Sherry

I made Annie's recipe. All I can say is YUUUUMMMMM! They are ooey-goooey-chewy, and delish. I used up the last of my molasses and brown sugar, and didn't add the chopped ginger as I didn't have any. This recipe is a keeper for sure!

Sherry, your recipe is very similar, almost the exact thing only cut in half and missing the granulated sugar. So I bet they come out very close.

Next I gotta go get me some Limoncello - the Lemon Drop Martini sounds like the perfect summer drink. I like the sound of the Cape Cod too, Karen -- similar to a Cosmo only without the Orange Liqueur.

Oh...I forgot I sprinkle just a few drops of water on them just before putting them into the oven.
May, cookies, lemon drop martini, cape cods...oh my, we have created a monster!!! LOL

Lowspark, glad you asked how to make a lemon drop and that so many people answered, because I don't know how. I just buy them when we are out. But now that several people have posted recipes, I'll be attempting to make them at home!

May, I'm glad you liked them. I just don't dare make something like molasses cookies, because they are not safe in my house. No one likes them except me. I've tried baking and freezing but I've found that I can dunk a frozen cookie in hot coffee and it thaws right out, LOL. the microwave works too. Frozen dough? Not good either, it's too easy to bake a couple.

Nope, I just can't make molasses cookies very often. Maybe I could just get Sherry to send me one. Or two. (grin)

Annie

Sherry, I was waiting to see if you were going to add the crackle secret. They lovely bakery we went to in Grand Rapids had molasses cookies that made me wonder if Sherry was their supplier.

Annie, That's a good idea to order cookies from Sherry for you mo cookie fix.

Just chiming in to say how good the Cape Cod drink is that Riverrat posted........I sampled enough the past few days to have become an expert!

All you Cape Cod fans... take a walk on the wild side and try gin & cranberry. I am NOT a gin fan and I love these things. The cranberry juice seems to neutralize the gin just a bit and they are sooooooo refreshing - like a walk in a piney forest on a cool day.

Alexa

The Lemon Drop Martini I make doesn't use Limoncello.

Lemon Drop Martini

2 parts Absolut Citron
1 part triple sec
1 part lime juice

Add all ingredients in cocktail shaker with ice. Shake and strain into 2 well chilled martini glasses. Garnish with lemon twist.

Option: use lemon slice to wet rim of glass and dip into white sugar to coat

Sherry's recipe sounds like my recipe for gingersnaps...one of my favorite cookies. I prefer a crisp cookie, but I do like chewy ones also, so I might try Annie's recipe (I KNOW my husband would like them). In any case, I hadn't thought to use crystalized ginger in a gingersnap....why it hadn't occurred to me I have no idea...but I've got some very good home made ginger, and think I'll try some of that in my next batch of 'snaps. I think a crispy cookie with little bits of chewy ginger in it sounds wonderful.

I like a Seabreeze. It's a sort of backwards Cape Codder, a Vodka and Grapefruit juice with a splash of Cranberry. But it really has to be freshly squeezed Grapefruit juice and since moving to the Valley, I can't get good,cheap Grapefruit anymore.

Sherry,
Is sprinkling the cookies with water the -crackle secret- mustangs referred to? Thats interesting...do you do that to all your cookies?

Di

And then there's the "Clam digger".
Some make it with Clamato and vodka...but I like tomato juice spiced up with tobasco and lots of lemon.
Linda C

dinohio,
Well that was the way my mother taught me. I do it on molasses (some call them gingersnaps although I think they are more molassesy than gingersnappy.) I also do it on sinickerdoodles.
However, I think they crack anyway. One day I will experiment and sprinkle drops of water on some and not on others and see if there is a noticeable difference.

Sherry, I have a friend who dunks the entire cookie into water and then rolls it in sugar. Very crispy and sugar-y, LOL.

She just rolls the dough into balls and then dunks them, rolls them and bakes them. Lots of sugar and a crispy coating but they don't really crack.

Hey, drink recipes? We went out for my birthday Saturday. I had iced tea but David was drinking Jack Daniels and Mountain Dew. He says he also drinks Southern Comfort and Mountain Dew, LOL. I wonder if that has a name?

Annie

I didn't sprinkle (or dip) with water and they cracked. Good experiment to try both ways and see what the difference is in results.

Annie,
how about "Jack Dew" or "Yellow Jack"
... "Mountain Comfort"?