Grandma’s Recipe Book: Molasses Sugar Cookies

After looking through my Grandma Mangan’s recipe book at my mother’s house last fall, I decided to buy a scanner and archive the book’s contents on my computer. My father has now loaned me the recipe box of his mother, my Grandma Cahill, and I have started scanning her recipes as well.  Grandma Cahill’s collection has more recipes in poetic verse (total: 2), and Grandma Mangan’s collection has more clippings of famous dishes from local restaurants, but overall, their contents are similar. They include a recipes scribbled on scraps of paper, clippings from newspapers and processed food packaging, and index cards from friends and family. Lots of jello molds. Lots of “whipped topping.”

The first recipe I chose from my Grandma Cahill’s collection was for molasses cookies. Internet sleuthing while the cookies were baking yielded many similar—if not identical—recipes on the web, so it must have appeared on the side of a molasses container at one point and now graces the index cards of many collections. Recipe and photos after the jump.

Grandma Cahill’s Molasses Cookies
[yields ~3 dozen]
-3/4 c. shortening
-1 c. sugar
-1/4 c. molasses
-1 egg
-2 tsp. baking soda
-2 c. sifted flour
-1/2 tsp. [ground] ginger
-1/2 tsp. [ground] cloves
-1 tsp. cinnamon
-1/2 tsp. salt

Melt shortening in a 3 or 4 qt. saucepan over low heat. Remove from heat; let cool. Add sugar, molasses and egg; beat well. Sift together flour, soda, cloves, ginger, cinnamon and salt; add to first mixture. Mix well; chill.

Form in 1 inch balls, roll in granulated sugar and place on greased cookie sheets 2 inches apart. Bake in moderately hot oven, 375º F, 8-10 min.

Cookies rolled and ready to bake:

I read a tip that if you want your molasses cookies to be chewy, you should cool them on a flat surface and not a rack. Unfortunately, I read the tip after my cookies were fully cooled on a rack and tucked away in tupperware, so if you try it, let me know if it works for you. These were crunchy, but still good.