Yeow! Sooo Good!

I wanted to try a new recipe and found one that sounded good... I had no idea that, at my age, it would call for so much standing, rolling, waiting, BUT!.....

Gingerbread cookies - you know the hard kind that you cut into men and women and decorate with icing and hang on the tree - well that is NOT what I had in mind. Been there, made them in the past years; too hard to bite that variety now so I wanted something very tasty and CHEWY. Chewy was the goal and these are - besides that, they are kinda soft, and delightfully spicy and sweet. A very distinctive fragrance fills this old cabin as they baked.

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Now go make yours! Here is the Recipe:

CHEWY GINGERBREAD COOKIES

Ingredients

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

1 cup packed brown sugar (I use dark)

1 egg

1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons molasses

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

2 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon kosher (coarse) salt

1 tablespoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 1/2 teaspoons ground nutmeg

1/2 teaspoon ground allspice

2/3 cup granulated or coarse sugar (I used Demerara coarse sugar as I didn’t have white coarse sugar)

Steps

1. In large bowl, beat butter and brown sugar with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Beat in egg and molasses. Stir in the remaining ingredients except the sugar. Cover; refrigerate for at least 2 hours!

2. Heat oven to 350°F. Line cookie sheet with parchment paper or silicone baking mat. (I have parchment paper, it only takes one sheet for entire batch.) Put the sugar in a small bowl. Shape the dough into 1 inch balls (about the size of a walnut) and roll in the sugar. Place the balls about 2 inches apart on the cookie sheet.

3. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or just until set and soft in the center. (10 minutes worked for me and I used a timer.)  Cool 2 minutes and then transfer from cookie sheet to cooling racks. Store tightly covered up to one week. (I stacked them on a covered cake container and they will not last one week, I know it!)

Makes 60 cookies!