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Soft Molasses Cookies
Boil 1 cup molasses, add 1 cup margarine. Mix dry ingredients as follows: 3 1/4 cups flour, 1 tablespoon ginger, 1 1/2 teaspoons salt, 1 1/2 teaspoons soda. Add to the molasses and margarine. Chill slightly. Roll out 1/8 inch or more thick, on very thinly floured board, and cut into gingerbread man shapes, using currants for eyes; may also be cut into animal shapes. Bake in moderate oven on greased cookie sheets, for 12 min. Oven temp. 350 degrees. When cookies are done, make hats of icing, and also buttons down front of colored frostings.
A rolled molasses cookie with no egg and no liquid beyond the molasses itself, which makes the dough behave differently from most cut-out cookies. The temperature is given, so the only real decisions are dough thickness and how long you chill it.
- Work fast once the soda goes inThe soda meets hot molasses and starts foaming immediately. Combine, bring the dough together, and stop stirring; prolonged mixing after that point costs you lift and toughens the cookie.
- Boiling the molassesBring it just to a full boil in a saucepan, then pull it off the heat before adding the margarine so it melts rather than fries. Boiled molasses thins out and dissolves into the flour far more readily than cold molasses from the jar.
- Margarine measureOne cup is 8 oz, two US sticks. Butter substitutes directly. The 1 1/2 teaspoons salt was written for margarine, which is normally salted, so any adjustment is a matter of taste rather than a correction.
- Chill properly"Chill slightly" understates it for a modern refrigerator. Half an hour to an hour, until the dough is firm but not hard, makes it rollable; fully cold dough will crack at the edges as you roll.
- Thickness decides the textureAt 1/8 inch these bake crisp and snap like a gingerbread biscuit. For the soft cookie the title promises, roll closer to 1/4 inch and check at 9 to 10 minutes rather than 12 — they should still look slightly underdone in the centre when you pull them.
- Oven350F, as stated, on greased or parchment-lined sheets. Molasses browns quickly and the colour of the dough hides it, so go by feel at the edges rather than by looking for a change in shade.
- CurrantsPress the eyes in before baking so they anchor as the dough sets; currants placed on hot cookies afterwards fall off once cool. Standard dried currants or small raisins both work.
- Icing and yieldCool completely before decorating or the frosting will slump. Expect roughly three to four dozen medium gingerbread men from this batch, depending on cutter size.