I love this recipe. I have fond memories of sitting with my father and eating ginger snap cookies. You know– the ones in the brown homely bag that you walk by at the store and wonder if anyone ever really buys them. They do. I actually like them. In fact there isn’t a molasses/ginger cookie that I don’t like. But I LOVE this recipe.
These cookies are soft and packed with all the right spices. We make these cookies year round but when the weather turns crisp and leaves billow and dance around the backyard I always reach for the molasses. I love that these are called “friendship cookies”, and every time I pull a batch out of the oven and breath in the smell of them and look at how pretty they turn out I am reminded why. I automatically think “I should take a few of these to ____”. If I can get them on to a plate or in to a bag fast enough, I do just that. Otherwise I just pour the milk and watch them disappear.
Recently my daughter Lacey needed to make invitations for a church function where ladies would be invited to share traditions. We decided to make our traditional “friendship cookies” into the invitation. We made the cookies smallish and put them in little bags which were then delivered around her neighborhood. It was a fun day baking together. These are easy to make and fun to share. Let’s make cookies friends!
Cream together everything except the flour. Yup, it’s all in there at once. Rebel.
Beat in your mixer for 1 minute, on low, scraping down the bowl once. Add the flour and continue to mix until incorporated about 2 minutes, again scraping down the bowl so that nothing gets left out of the mix and mingling of ingredients.
Roll dough into walnut size balls and roll in sugar. Here they are just rolling around in all that happy sugar.
Place the cookie dough on a parchment lined or greased cookie sheet. Since we made smallish cookies, the size of an acorn, the baking sheet you see here is loaded up with 30 cookies.
Bake at 350° for approximately 10 minutes, checking after 8 minutes. Cool on a wire rack.
Decide if you want to glaze them with a little drizzle of lemon glaze. Not necessary, but pretty and delicious.
If you decide to drizzle glaze on them use 1 cup of powdered sugar with one tablespoon of lemon juice and one tablespoon of water mixed together until smooth. Line all the cookies up nice and snug together on a cookie sheet and drizzle the glazing to your hearts content. Oh– and here’s a photo of how Lacey’s invitations turned out!
- 1 teaspoon ground cloves
- 1 teaspoon ginger
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 2 teaspoons baking soda
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 egg
- ¾ cup shortening
- ¼ cup molasses
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 2 cups all flour
LEMON GLAZE FOR DRIZZLING - 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon water
- Preheat oven to 350°
- Cream together all ingredients EXCEPT flour, mixing on low speed for 1 minute, scraping down the sides once.
- Add flour and mix an additional 2 minutes, again scraping down the sides of the bowl.
- Roll the dough into walnut size balls ( or smaller) and dip them in sugar to coat.
- Bake on parchment or a lightly greased cookie sheet for approximately 10 minutes. You want them to be soft, so do not over bake.
- Remove from the oven and cool on a wire rack.
- When the cookies have cooled, line them all up close together and drizzle lightly with lemon glaze.
LEMON GLAZE - Combine powdered sugar, lemon juice and water and stir until smooth.
Awesome. I’ve never made such chewy cookies before.
I am so glad you made these and enjoyed them!