Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Tuesdays with Dorie - Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice Cookies


I was finally able to get a couple of photos of these cookies after baking off three previous batches on other days - that's how much my family liked them. I made the dough a couple of weeks ago, doubling it as a go-to in case any cookie emergencies might arise this month. Little did I know that the emergency would be keeping up with the demand.

The dough is super sticky and it spreads like crazy in the oven, but the resulting cookies are simultaneously crisp and chewy, with a very interesting note added by the black pepper in the recipe. We tried them rolled in raw sugar and also in regular cane sugar, and I think the cane sugar held up better. We also tried them after refrigerating the dough, which made it easier to handle, and after freezing, which was easier still since I made logs and just slice-and-baked.



Despite rave reviews on the taste, I'm not sure I'll make these again. I didn't like handling the dough and I didn't like how much they spread - you can't get that many cookies on a sheet. Instead, I might add a little pepper to another ginger/molasses cookie recipe and see how that goes.

Thank you Pam of Cookies with Boys (Make sure to go look at her cookies - they are perfect.) for suggesting this recipe. This is the second sweet TWD recipe in the last couple of months that called for black pepper - fantastic taste, and a great way to expand the palate!


5 comments:

Amanda said...

To combat the stickiness I separated the dough into 4 pieces instead of 2 and refrigerated them for a while. They were MUCH easier to roll up and weren't sticky when nice and cold :) They look great!!

Windansea said...

Yeah, I did that too, and then I started using two spoons to make balls so my hands wouldn't heat the dough up. Oh well, they still taste awesome and I've got those logs in the freezer for a rainy day!!!!

Unknown said...

Your cookies look great! Love the "sandwiches" you made. Everyone loved them here as well--they were a real hit!

Pamela said...

Wow! Three times?! Thanks for baking the cookies with me, even thought the dough gave you a tough time. When I bake them for the holidays, I'm doing 3 full cups of flour and I always use a cookie scoop. Then I just roll them in the sugar and I'm done. Anyway, thanks for baking along!

Windansea said...

Thanks Nina!! Thanks Pamela - yeah, I used a scoop on one of the batches. Maybe I needed more flour....I dunno. But they tasted amazing, so hey - it was worth it!