For the last few weeks, the house has been mixmasterless.  My old reliable Kitchen Aid started running slower one day a few weeks back, then really slow, and finally groaned and stopped. This is not a good situation, but I keep forgetting to take the machine down to Fort Worth Shaver and so we’ve had to learn to live by hand mixing. Okay, so say you’re me, you want to make molasses cookies and not in a way that involves machine mixing. This is not too hard. I mean, the pioneers did it, after all, and a lot of them lived to tell the tale. 

Molasses spice cookies go perfectly with coffee, any time of day.

When baking by hand, it helps if you give yourself some extra time. First, probably a good half hour to hour before you want to begin, take 12 tbsp.  (1 and a half sticks, or 3/4 cup) of butter out of the ‘fridge to soften in a medium sized bowl. If the house is not particularly warm, you may want to cut it into tablespoon-sized pieces to soften faster.  

After the butter is soft, set the oven to 350 degrees. Next, get the flour and spices together and sift them into a large bowl.

2/14 cups unbleached all purpose flour

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon

1 1/2 tsp.  ground ginger

1/2 tsp. ground cloves

1/4 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 teaspoon salt

Now, to the first bowl, add 1/3 cup sugar and 1/3 cup brown sugar to the butter, and cream together. This is the step you can’t do if the butter isn’t softened. Once the butter and sugar are creamed, add two eggs, 1 tsp. vanilla, and 1/2 cup molasses.  Mix all these ingredients until they form a batter, and when all are well incomporated, dump the batter into the flour mixture. Stir it up until incorporated.  Now you have your cookie dough.

Before anyone eats too much of the dough, grease a cookie sheet and drop the dough by spoonfuls onto it. Make sure all the cookies are basically the same size and nicely spaced or they won’t bake evenly. Cook for 10-12 minutes or until done. They are cooked when firm and the bottoms are slightly browned but not black. Remove from oven and cool on a rack or newspaper or on the cookie tray if that’s all you have. Serve with coffee. Hide from children. And that’s about it!