This dish dates back at least 175 years. It has always been passed down from one generation to the next in my family. produces quality gingerbread men.
| Servings: | 30 |
| Yield: | 5 dozen |
Ingredients
- 1 cup shortening
- 1 cup dark brown sugar
- 2 cups dark molasses
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon ground ginger
- ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
- ½ teaspoon ground cloves
- ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
- 1 tablespoon baking soda
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 9 cups all-purpose flour
Instructions
- Cream shortening and sugar. Add molasses slowly, stirring constantly. Mix spices with cream of tartar and add to mixture.
- Mix baking soda and buttermilk. Add alternately with the flour to the sugar and spices mixture. You may not need the whole 9 cups of flour but you should end up with a fairly stiff dough. Chill dough overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Roll dough out to at least 1/4-inch thick (the thicker the better), using as little flour as possible. Keep dough refrigerated when not rolling and cutting. Cut into cookies and brush with beaten egg. Bake for 10-12 minutes at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Alternately, you can form the dough into golf ball size round, roll in white sugar, place on a cookie sheet and then flatten slightly.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 292 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 53 g |
| Cholesterol | 0 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 4 g |
| Saturated Fat | 2 g |
| Sodium | 137 mg |
| Sugars | 20 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
These cookies are delicious. So much better than the gingerbread I made last year. Definitely a keeper. A crunch on the outside from the sugar and soft in the inside. I was eating the dough as I was making it. Thank you so much for sharing this old, family tradition and allowing us to make it ours. Merry Christmas.
I love molasses cookies of all kinds, and this recipe intrigued me. I love that it uses buttermilk and more molasses than the average molasses cookie recipe. I made a half batch of this–with the exception of the spices, I kept those amounts the same, while halving everything else. I also used butter instead of shortening. I only needed 3 1/2 cups flour to get the correct consistency in a half batch. After refrigerating the dough, I scooped it out with a medium cookie scoop, rolled it into balls in some sugar, and flattened to about 1/2 inch thickness. They needed 13-14 minutes bake time. These are such tasty cookies! The buttermilk adds a nice slight tang–which is wonderful–plus they’re spicy, with a lovely molasses flavor too. They are soft, but with a touch of crispy on the outside. Perfect flavor, perfect texture, and loved by all. I got 30 cookies out of a half batch too. Thank you so much for the recipe–I will be making these again!
Fantastic! Crisp on the outside, chewy on the inside, mom and dad loved ’em. Very easy to make, and that’s coming from a 13-year old!!
These are fantastic! You can adjust the time you bake them to make them full on chewy, crunchy on the outside/chewy on the inside or full out crunchy. The taste is wonderful! Highly recommend!
Great cookie recipe only difference I did is spices Everyone loved them
Only used 6 cups of flour and did not refrigerate the dough overnight, just made 1 inch balls and flattened them. Cooked as requested
These were great. Not to strong of a molasses flavor which worked more in my favor than my husbands. I did not have to use all the flour stated. Just added a cup at a time until my dough was right consistency. I will make these again
I’ve made this recipe for years with the same ingredients my grandmother and great grandmother used this also best molasses cookie around very old recipe thanks for posting it
Quite good and well liked by the family. Lots of flavor. To avoid too much of a ‘cakey’ texture, just added flour until the dough was workable (a little stiff, but still pretty moist) and didn’t overmix. Didn’t cut, but the “golfball” size as recommended in the recipe made impressively big cookies. I would probably go much smaller next time and flatten more. Very soft and chewy.
I made some changes to this recipe, and they came out GREAT! I used soy flour instead of regular flour (and 8 cups instead of 9), butter instead of shortening, added another 1/2 cup of buttermilk and an egg. NOTE: If you want sweet molasses sugar cookies, you will not like these. This recipe will make soft, flavorful molasses cookies that are not too sweet. Taste the batter before you bake them. If you think it needs more sugar, add more.
A family favorite for generations. My grandma made a cut out cookie, placed a big old flattened raisin (hard to find nowadays)in the middle, then sprinkled with sugar, delicious. The first time I made them (I was in my 20s) and new to making cookies, I doubled the recipe and had cookies on every flat surface of my house. But all the neighbors couldn’t get enough of them. Great recipe.
Note to those that already tried this recipe and were disappointed: If the cookies were too tough or cakey, try using less flour as instructed in the recipe.
I bake cookies all the time and can usually choose good recipes for them but not this time.
These are the best molasses cookies I have ever made or tasted. My family will be making these more often!!! Thank you
Flavourful! Disappeared quickly in my house. Thank for sharing this recipe!
The cookies were yummy. So good my sister wants the recipe. Barb from California
We ended up throwing all but two cookies away. The cookies were cakey and tasted terrible. I would not recommend this recipe to anyone.