Molasses Cookie Mound

     In some households, their main Christmas cookie is a sugar cookie, in others (like my husbands) they do a chocolate chip cookie year round. My family would do chocolate crinkle cookies and molasses cookies. While I was making my molasses cookies today my husband actually started complaining and asking me why I never make "normal" cookies! Of course that was before he tasted my molasses cookies.

    If you know my husband you know that he likes what he likes and not much can chan ge his mind. So, the fact that he will actually ask for these every once in a while really says something! My molasses cookies are super amazing, however I do like to put my own little spin on things. Most molasses cookies are flat and gooey with a crispy outside. However, we prefer a molasses cookie that has a little extra structure and less of a gooey middle. These tend to be on the cake side of things with a little extra flour. Because they are less gooey in the middle they do not spread very much and keep their ball shape. This is why I call them a cookie mound, rather than the standard molasses cookie.

    I know how nerve-racking it is to try a new recipe but I promise you will love this one! I started off my cookies by creaming together my butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar. I made sure these ingredients were very well combined and fluffy before I sifted together all of my dry ingredients and dumped them into my stand mixer with my creamed butter and sugar. 

    I then chilled my dough overnight. Chilling the dough makes it easier to handle but if you were in a rush you could skip the chilling part and just bake them for a minute or two less. I recommend that you chill your dough for at least an hour but not too much longer than overnight. After my dough was done chilling I used a cookie scoop to scoop even lumps of dough into my hand. Then, I squished the dough together into hard balls and rolled them in granulated sugar. 

    I baked my cookie mounds for 12 minutes at 350 degrees F. These are sometimes hard to tell when they are done. You want there to be "cracks" in your cookies but you have to be very careful not to overtake them. They are best if you take them out right when the cracks stop growing. 

    You can eat these hot or cooled and they are such an amazing rich addition to any your holiday season! How did this recipe work for you? Do you think these are as easy to make as I do? Leave a comment!