Skirts, Boots and Ginger Cookies

Mom's Favorite Chewy Molasses Ginger Cookies

 

The fall Nordstrom catalog arrived the other day. There are very few things about which I get excited enough about to be willing to kiss warm, dry, social summer goodbye,

but boots and grey sweater dresses definitely are on my buh-bye summer list. Thank you Nordstrom, for easing the transition.

These uber-special ginger cookies are another item on the"so-long summer, catch ya the next time around" list. If I believed in secret recipes, mine would be this. But for you I share.

I think of this recipe at this time of year not only for it's chewy, spicy, gingery, molasses-ey goodness, but because it is one of my mom's favorites, and she has an early autumn birthday. For twenty-five years, my mom and I have lived she on the east coast, me on the west, and rarely get to share birthdays or changing seasons. I think of her every time I make them.

 And while I'm talking about my mom, fall and fashion, let me share this: It was my mom who showed me to care about fashion. We weren't wealthy, but we were creative and industrious. Under my mom's tutelage, the very first garment I sewed at the age of eight was a simple skirt. I wore it to school the first day of the fourth grade.

I still love skirts best of all. (And, by the way, Nordstrom's skirts rock this fall.)

Dolman sleeves??? I love dolman sleeves!

It was also my mom who made way in her kitchen for her eight-year-old daughter to play and experiment. After a couple of years of those experiments going well, it was my mom who traded me dishwashing duties for cooking, an arrangement that suited this pre-teen well. All I had to do was make a list of ingredients I would need, and they'd magically appear for my next turn in the kitchen, thanks to mom.

 Cookies Men Like

These cookies also remind me of my mom because back somewhere around 1968, something like it was all the rage with her and her coffee clatch of neighbor women. Theirs was a little more dense in texture, not so chewy, but pretty darn good. They all loved it because it was a favorite with their husbands. Their overheard conversation made me think about food in a new and powerful way. While I've never met a woman who doesn't like this cookie I'll always think of them as the Cookie Men Like.

Go ahead a treat yourself to these cookies. The batch makes a mere 15 (HUGE) cookies, enough for you to have one with tea the afternoon you bake them, and the rest for your office mates, neighbors or if you're lucky, your mom. They also make a pretty fantastic I cream sandwich with brown sugar- molasses ice cream (even more huge.)

Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies

makes 15 very large cookies

2 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking soda
3 teaspoons pumpkin or apple pie spice
1/2 teaspoon salt
zest of one lemon, finely grated
a generous 1/3 cup finely snipped candied ginger
1 cup sugar
3/4 cup canola oil
1 large egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
 Additional white sanding sugar (for rolling dough balls)

Preheat oven to 350˚. Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper.

Whisk flour through ginger (six ingredients) in a large bowl.  In another large bowl, beat sugar and canola oil with stand or hand mixer until pale in color, about 2 minutes. Beat in egg. Beat in molasses. Cup at a time, gently stir in flour mixture by hand.

With a 3-tablespoon scoop, gather up a ball of dough and drop it into a small bowl of sanding sugar. Gently roll it to evenly coat the dough. Place at least 2 inches apart on parchment lined baking sheets. (Five cookies of this size will fill a standard baking sheet.) 

Bake until cookies are golden brown and crackly on top, about 12 minutes. Let cook 3 minutes on baking sheet, then transfer to wire rack to complete cooling.  

Notes: These make 30 or so smaller cookies as well, just watch to time accordingly to not overbake. But there's something so generous about one large cookie rather than 3 small ones!

The lemon zest is the secret ingredient. You don't notice it's there unless it's not there, so don't be tempted to omit it.

Granulated sugar will work in a pinch, but the big white sanding sugar crystals make a really neat textural crunch around the chewiness of the cookies. I get mine at a local grocery store bakery... You might have to ask. Or order at King Arthur.

Happy Birthday, Mom!