Spicy Molasses Cookies
Submitted by Annabelle's Lair on January 13, 2015 at 5:50 pm

My mother is from Maine and she use to make these when I was a kid at Christmas time so now I make them for my family at Christmas. Very easy recipe and so delicious.

1 cup granulated sugar
¾ cups shortening
¼ cups molasses
1 whole egg
2 cups flour
2 ½ tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
½ tsp ground cloves
¼ tsp ground cardamon
¼ tsp salt

In mixing bowl of stand mixer cream together granulated sugar, shortening, molasses, egg, and flour until well combined.

Then add baking soda, cinnamon, ginger, cloves, cardamom, and salt to creamed mixture and mix well.
Preheat oven to 350F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

Make walnut sized cookie dough rolls and coat the balls completely in granulated sugar before transferring to parchment-lined cookie sheet.

Bake on 350F for 9-11 minutes. I like my cookies soft and chewy so I cook them only 9 minutes. If you like a crunchier version then leave in oven 11 minutes.

As the cookies bake the balls change shape and will start spreading out and crackle.

Remove from oven and let cookies cool on cookie sheet for about 2 minutes before transferring to cooling rack.

comments
Submitted by normajo on Fri, 2015-01-16 16:19.
Can I substitute another indgredient to replace lard?

Submitted by Annabelle's Lair on Sat, 2015-01-17 17:52.
Shortening and lard are 2 different fats.
KAF has a good breakdown on this: http://www.kingarthurflour.com/recipe/fats.html.
The only time I use lard is when I'm making flour tortillas because the lard keeps the dough from sticking to teeth. I use shortening in a lot of my cookie recipes because shortening helps my cookies retain their shape.