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Molasses Cookies
History
Molasses Cookies were originally included in the section under Gingerbread. The cookie had as much ginger as the gingerbread. Both gingerbread and cookie had molasses, although gingerbread could also be made with sugar, alone. Most gingerbread’s were baked as cakes but one recipe called for a cookie form. That gingerbread was rolled thin and cut into small rectangles before being baked. It was a gingerbread cookie but was not called that. Molasses cookies were always rolled and cut out with a round cutter. In Miss Parloa’s New Cook Book (1880) there is a recipe for “Cookies”. The author said, “roll and bake like seed cakes.” Seed Cakes said to “roll thin, cut in round cakes, and bake quickly.” Cookies started out as small, flat, round cakes baked individually.
Recipes for small round cakes, the size of a cookie, went through a transition period. In Miss Parloa’s first cook book, Appledore Cook Book (1872) she listed, Ginger Snaps, Plain Cake, Molasses Cookies, Vinegar Cookies, Sugar Cookies and Jumbles all of which were prepared as small round cakes. Eight years later in her 1880 cook book, Miss Parloa listed Shrewsbury Cake, Jumbles, Seed Cakes, Cookies, and Hermits which were prepared as small round cakes. She distinguishes only one recipe as “cookies” but treats all five recipes as cookies in the text. At this point in history authors were undecided as to how to list the small cakes. Miss Parloa bounced back and forth. Molasses Cookies originally were a small cake form of Gingerbread.
Mrs. Lincoln, who established the Boston Cooking School, also wrote the school’s first cook book in 1884. She set the standard in creating a separate section for Cookies which included the Gingerbread recipes along with Soft Molasses Cookies. Fannie Farmer who followed her introduced subject related chapters. In her 1896 version of the cook book was “Chapter XXX – Gingerbreads, Cookies, and Wafers”. Farmer expanded the molasses cookies to include Molasses Drop Cakes, Molasses Cookies and Soft Molasses Cookies”. Notice the use of “cake” in one of the cookie recipes. In the 1933 edition Gingerbread and Cookies were separated into separate chapters. The Cookie chapter was expanded that year to include cookies, wafers, bars, meringues, and small cakes. Small cakes refer to recipes such as Lady Fingers which are true small cakes. As of the 1965 edition (the latest Fannie Farmer Cook Book the author owns) there was a chapter near the end of the book for cookies and small cakes. Oddly, gingerbread was paired with doughnuts in a chapter near the beginning of the book.
The molasses cookie being an off shoot of the gingerbread had similar ingredients with similar amounts. The most common amount of ginger was one tablespoon. However, not all authors adhered to it. Aunt Mary’s New England Cook Book (1881) reduced the ginger to one teaspoon. Her Molasses Cookies likewise had the same small amount.
In the May 1913 Boston Cooking School Magazine recipe molasses was the sole sweetener. Other recipes for molasses cookies varied, some called for a mix of molasses and brown sugar, or for molasses and white sugar.
Most of the older recipes were based on gingerbread and ginger was the only spice. But one of the Appledore Cook Book recipes Rich Molasses Gingerbread called for equal amounts of ginger and nutmeg. In time, Molasses Cookie recipes called for various combinations of ginger and cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves.
All of the New England based cook books used milk or water for the liquid. The milk could be (regular) milk also called sweet milk, sour milk or sour cream. So it was a surprise to see “coffee” listed in the 1965 edition of the Fannie Farmer Cook Book which said the recipe was “The old-fashion kind – so good with a glass of milk.” Where did the coffee come from? The Best Things From Best Cooks cook book published in 1915 in New Jersey had the answer. Several of the molasses cookies and ginger cookies called for coffee as the liquid or part of the liquid. Thus the statement is technically correct. What it does is give the reader the choice of milk, coffee, or water for the liquid. In doing so, it broadened its scope to include different regional variations.
Molasses cookies came in cake form – soft, cookie form – regular, and later in krinkle, crinkle or crackle form – sugar coated and cracked tops.
Recipes
Molasses Cookies
(1913 Boston Cooking School Magazine)
½ cup molasses 2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda 1 tablespoon ginger
¼ cup boiling water ½ teaspoon cinnamon
¼ cup butter ½ teaspoon salt
Stir the soda into the molasses; melt the butter in the boiling water; turn all into a bowl and stir in the flour sifted with the salt and spices; add more flour if needed, but keep the dough as soft as can be handled. Roll out only a portion of the dough at a time. Cut into rounds. The recipe makes about two dozen cookies.
Note: Lightly dust table or board and rolling pin with flour. Roll dough ¼ inch thick and cut into 2” rounds. Place on greased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for exactly 8 minutes, remove from oven and leave on cookie sheet for 2 minutes longer. Cookies finish cooking in those last 2 minutes out of the oven.
Molasses Crinkles, Ginger Krinkles, Krinkly Molasses Cookies, and Crackle-Top Molasses Cookies
The names may differ but the basic recipe is the same. It increased the amount of shortening and decreased the amount of molasses. It is a true cookie, rich in fat and sugar. This recipe comes from the Essex County Cooks cook book published by the Brookwood School in Manchester, Massachusetts and Shore Country Day School in Beverly, Massachusetts in 1966.
Krinkly Molasses Cookies
¾ cup margarine, softened [other versions: (a) 2/3 cup butter (b) 2/3 cup vegetable oil]
1 cup dark brown sugar, tightly packed (other versions: 1 cup white sugar)
¼ cup molasses
1 egg
2¼ cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder (did not show up in other versions)
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon cloves
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ginger
Sugar
Cream margarine [shortening], sugar, molasses and egg; mix thoroughly. Add remaining ingredients. Roll dough into small balls and dip in sugar. Place on ungreased cookie sheet. Bake 12 - 15 minutes at 350 degrees. Author prefers 8 to 9 minutes baking time, plus 2 minutes more on cookie sheet outside oven. The shorter baking time produces a semi-soft cookie with a crackle top.
