Celebrations and more celebrations in the month of December! End of the year, Christmas Holidays, Anniversaries, Birthdays, Cold weather, Bake Sales!- just few of the many more reasons to celebrate. So for the next couple of weeks I plan to go on cookie marathon and bake different varieties to share it with all of you. Chocolate Molasses Crunchy Sugar Cookies were baked celebrating our anniversary! I am more of Chocolate than Vanilla person. Molasses is another ingredient I like, because it is jaggery based, and hence more healthier in terms of iron intake.
The addition of molasses makes it more moist and increases the richness of the taste. The texture is soft in the center, crispy on the outside edges, it tastes sugary on the top and slight salty in the inside along with the deep cocoa flavour, one gets to taste. So one gets to satisfy many taste buds at one go!
The cracks on the top gives it a rich look, with molten part showing through and the white sugar coating on the top, reminds me of the snow coating on the houses and roads. Winter, is a season I truly enjoy, and baking becomes even more pleasurable when you get a chance to share your treats with one and all!
When I tasted this cookie dough, I realised even I had joined the club all those who are cookie dough fans. This Chocolate Molasses Crunchy Sugar Cookies dough is simply amazing, as it made me become a member of the cookie dough club. And to honour this feeling I actually enjoyed purchasing a cookie dough batter scraper, that is going to be so much fun to use when making cookies!
Enjoy this rich chocolate flavoured cookies that are simply good nourishment for the mind, body and soul!!
Recipe makes 18-20 cookies
Prep Time 20 min
Baking Time : 15 min
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour ( King Arthur’s brand)
- 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 cup cocoa powder – ( I prefer Nestle Cocoa)
- 2 tbsp molasses
- 1 tsp vanilla extract/essence
- I cup sugar
- 1/4 cup vegetable shortening
- 12 tbsp plus 1/4 cup unsalted butter at room temperature.( Roughly equals 1 cup or 16 oz of butter)
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup sugar for rolling the balls
Method
- Melt 4 tbsp butter
- Whisk melted butter, cocoa and molasses till evenly mixed.
- In another bowl, mix all purpose flour, salt and and baking soda.
- Beat the remaining butter for 6 minutes.
- Add sugar and beat for 2 minutes.
- Add shortening and vanilla extract and beat for 3 minutes. Add the cocoa butter mix and mix for a minute.
- Add the whisked flour to it.
- Gently mix everything to soft dough like consistency, using a paddle or on a very slow speed if you are using a stand mixer.
- Take about a tbsp of dough and roll into balls and flatten a bit.
- Roll the flat ball in the bowl containing half cup sugar.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Spread the chocolate molasses cookie dough balls about 1 1/2 inches apart.
- Heat the oven on convection at 375 degrees ( which will result into 350 degree non-convection baking)
- Bake in the upper middle rack for 7 minutes.
- Bake for further 7 min on the lower rack.
- Bake for another two min on the upper middle rack
- Remove from the oven, cool it over for a wire rack and store in an airtight container, after completely cool.
Tips
If you do not like crispiness, you can bake it on the 3rd rack ( if you have four racks in the oven). I baked them on the 2nd and 4th rack.
Please remember that sugar/salt measurements are US based – Readers in India need to reduce the measurements by half
Instinct Factor
The flattening should be done evenly for all cookies so that baking is even. Alternatively you can avoid flattening, the shape may be a bit rounder in that case. When you remove the cookies from oven, the center should still be setting and the edges done.
Every oven is different, so you need to tweak the baking time based on your oven.
Feel Factor
A chocolate cookie recipe that is sure to be on my top ten recipes for cookies list!. I love the various tastes, textures , crispiness, brown molten look that reminds me of molten lava and some sugar on top reminding of snow coating on the top!! These chocolate molasses crunchy sugar can really become addictive!! And if you are participating in a bake sale, this is definitely going to be a hit!
