Ginger Creams

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These are my family’s all time favorite Christmas cookie. It’s not really Christmas until we have made a batch of these. And then they eat them right away. Riley’s mother made them for him as a child. Annie thinks that this is the best cookie in the entire universe.

These cookies are very cake like, taste a lot like gingerbread.

1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup water
2 cups unbleached flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 cup icing sugar
2-4 Tbls of softened butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 + tablespoons cream


Cream butter, white sugar.
Add egg, molasses, and water, mixing well.
Combine flour, 1/2 teaspoon salt, baking soda, and spices and add in.
Chill dough until firm, about 2 hours.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (205 degrees C).
Drop dough by teaspoonfuls about 2 inches apart on baking sheet.
Bake about 8 minutes, or until almost no imprint remains when touched lightly.
While slightly warm, frost with icing.

To Make Frosting: Beat together vigorously with an electric mixer the icing sugar and butter, until the sugar looks all yellow. Add the vanilla, and cream to make icing easy to spread. Spread on cookies when they have cooled. If the cookies are hot the frosting will slip off.
For Christmas, sprinkle with sprinkles, lot of them.

Molasses Crinkles

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This recipe could be found on the Brer’ Rabbit molasses bottle. It can also be found in the I Hate to Cook Book as The Elevator Lady’s Cookies. Except I use butter. I LOVE these cookies.

¾ cup butter

1 cup sugar

1 egg

¼ cup molasses

2 cups flour

2 tsp baking soda

¼ tsp salt

1 tsp cinnamon

¾ tsp powdered cloves

¾ tsp powdered ginger

Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream together butter and sugar.
Add the egg and then the molasses. It will look a bit curdles, but it's okay.
Combine the dry ingredients and add to the creamed mixture.
Put about 1/3 cup sugar into a flat dish and using a small scoop, drop into the sugar dish, about six at a time. Toss the dough balls in sugar and roll.
Place on cookie sheet and bake for about 9 to 11 minutes. Place on wrack to cool.

This recipe is also found, with a bit of variance in the Betty Crocker Cookbook. They used 1/4 cup more flour and brown sugar and a slightly different configuration of spices.

note: Martha Stewart has a cookie a lot like this. The difference is that she uses 1/2 tsp less baking soda, adds 1/2 tsp nutmeg instead of the ginger and clove, and 1/4 tsp more salt. She also bakes them for 10 to 15 minutes at 350, instead of 9 to 11 minutes at 375. All together that's not much difference. Her name for the cookie is "chewy molasses-spice cookies".