Thoughts:
This was a slightly tricky recipe, since it was only a partial list of ingredients. It comes from the family cookbook, The Way to a Man’s Heart (link forthcoming), which contains a wealth of recipes snipped from newspapers, other cookbooks, and scrawled onto cards, envelopes, and anything else that was near to hand.
With this recipe, I tested a range of sizes, shapes, and amounts of flour before deciding that the rolled and cut-out cookies were the best of the bunch. They have that familiar molasses-ginger flavor that many of us associate with the holidays, but the touch of coffee tweaks it into a different thing altogether. It’s very nice plain, but also great with a bit of simple icing for extra sweetness.
Recipe for Molasses Cookies with Coffee
Ingredients:
- 1 cup butter
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 cup molasses
- 2 eggs
- 3 Tbs. coffee
- 1 tsp. cinnamon
- 1 tsp. ginger
- 2 tsp. soda
- 4 cups flour
Cream together the butter, sugar, and molasses. Add the eggs, followed by the coffee and spices. Mix the soda, and flour, then gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet.
Continue to gradually add flour until the dough is such a consistency that it can be rolled out to 1/4″ thickness. Cut into whatever shape you like, and arrange on baking sheets lined with parchment paper.
Bake for 10 minutes at 350F, then remove to a cooling rack.