Tuesdays with Dorie- Sugar-Topped Molasses Spice

This weeks recipe is supposed to be Cran-Apple Crisps and it was chosen by Em of The Repressed Pastry Chef. Head over to her blog to see a beautiful picture of how it is supposed to look when finished. However, since we have been given the leeway to bake November's recipes in any order we'd like, I chose to make the Sugar-topped Molasses Spice cookies instead. I will make the Cran-Apple crisps Thanksgiving week. Next week, stop by Pamela of Cookies with Boys blog to see her choice, which I made this week.

I decided to bake these cookies to kill three birds with one stone. Bird number one was, of course, one of the Tuesdays with Dorie recipes. Bird number two, I needed gingersnap cookies to make a crumble for the top of some muffins I baked with SMS, and knew these cookies would fit the bill (though as my son pointed out, there is a difference between gingersnap cookies and molasses cookies, but I digress!). The third bird I wished to kill was having something yummy to bake for my Operation Baking Gals team, Team Oven Loving for the Recovering - East Coast. So, this recipe worked out great for me. I love it when a plan comes together! :)

These were no real trouble to put together. The dough was very soft when I wrapped it in plastic and placed it in the freezer to cool for 30 minutes. It was still a bit soft when I began to use it; my palms were coated in cookies dough after rolling just a couple of balls. I just cut smaller portions to work with and kept the rest in the fridge.

I did not make big cookies, mine were maybe two inches across. I wanted enough to ship to my soldiers and enough to crush for the crumble. I ended up with about 5 dozen, give or take a couple. (Like the couple two or three I ate)

I rolled the first batch in raw sugar, liking the look of the big granules of sugar. Unfortunately, I ran out of the raw sugar and the remainder cookies were rolled in granulated white sugar instead. My house smelled wonderful as these cookies were baking.

The cookies tasted as wonderful as they smelled while baking. These were soooooo very good. I am glad I shipped all of them off. They were dangerous.  The couple I ate was actually more like 4 or 5...I lost count! They were crispy around the edges when you first bit into them and then the center was soft and chewy. The flavor was delicious. I added a good sized pinch of black pepper to mine, and didn't think it made them too hot at all. In fact, I think I would add a touch more in the future. My son's favorite cookie is Molasses, and when he heard I gave them all away he was crushed. That's okay. Just gives me a reason to bake another batch.

So, be sure to stop by Cookies with Boys  next week to get the recipe. You won't be sorry. And, if you would like to see who baked what this week, head over to TWD.